Louisiana Crossroads goes back to its roots for its 50th performance.
By Scott Jordan | 3/23/2005
Without Vermont-based blues and folk guitarist Scott Ainslie, the Louisiana Crossroads concert series would never have taken root. In March 2000, Ainslie visited Lafayette to perform workshops for local students in the Lafayette Parish public school system; a number of staffers from the Acadiana Arts Council saw one of Ainslie’s school performances and felt compelled to book him for a nighttime performance. In searching for the right venue for Ainslie, AAC realized there was no entity that regularly offered smoke-free, all-ages shows that started early on weeknights. Using those guidelines, they presented Ainslie at the original Art House location at the corner of Lee and Main streets, and the event was a resounding success. The concept for Louisiana Crossroads was born. more
Scott Ainslie: The Feral Crow
by George Graham
(Cattail Music 2004 As broadcast on WVIA-FM 12/8/2004)
In the music business, it pays to be versatile, to be able to play different kinds of music, since the opportunities for performing in any single genre tend to be limited. But at the same time, this can be confusing to audiences, who tend to like their performers to play one kind of music and maintain the sound that was won those fans in the first place.
This week, we have a CD by a performer who shows his versatility by jumping from one style to quite another. Scott Ainslie's new release is called The Feral Crow.
Scott Ainslie, who was formerly based in North Carolina but relocated to Vermont recently, has developed a reputation as a blues historian, being the author of a book on Robert Johnson and having produced an instructional video on Johnson's guitar technique. His previous releases also tended toward traditional blues. But his new CD is very much in the singer-songwriter vein, imbued with some lyrics in the folk protest song tradition. It's also a particularly fine example of an intelligent, literate singer-songwriter with very tasteful instrumental backing.more
'Feral Crow' blends the topical and the tender
By JON POTTER
Thursday, December 02, 2004 - The Brattleboro Reformer
BRATTLEBORO -- Fans of Scott Ainslie's blues work might be put off at first by the songs on his new CD, "The Feral Crow," just released on Ainslie's own Cattail Music label.
The mud of the Mississippi delta and the hot dry grit at the crossroads seem far removed from this collection, which has rock, folk and country sensibilities at its musical core.
The best advice I have is to get over it quickly and listen with hungry, appreciative ears to a CD which can best be summed by the chorus of the title track -- "It's a clean cut, when the knife is sharp/It's the dull knife (that) leaves a scar."
Ainslie is razor sharp, indeed, on a CD which manages to be topical and tender, dark yet uplifting, rich in polished poetry and raw emotion, a love call and a call to action.
"The Feral Crow" is, most of all, a creative achievement that aspires to the highest ideals. It's the work of a mature artist whose life experience and musical experience are brought to bear with impressive integrity.more