Videos

Scott Ainslie on YouTube.com

Whether performing original songs or the music of first and second generation acoustic bluesmen and women; Scott Ainslie presents exciting and entertaining music.

Below you will find a list of selected performances filmed by audience members, or at the request of the artist.

Individual clips and hot links to the YouTube.com videos are provided. Your comments and questions are welcome. Please contact Loyd Artists for more information at http://www.LoydArtists.com.

Download a version of this list as a clickable pdf file. (More videos have been added to the web that aren’t on the pdf.)

Jump to a section of this list:

1. 2018 Redwing Blackbird Tour
2. 2018 Ojai Storytelling Festival w/Glenis Redmond
3. Long Time Comin’ w/Reggie Harris
4. Double Bill with David Lindley – 2015
5. Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson
6. Gourd Banjo & Cigar Box Guitar/Diddley Bow tracks
7. Ragtime, Delta, Memphis Blues & Gospel
8. Original Songs
9. Educational Workshops & Classroom Teaching
10. The Land Where The Blues Began
11. The High School Physics Project with Dr. Tom Altman
12. Guitar Lessons – Master Classes, Workshops, Demonstrations
13. Froggy Bottom Guitar Videos
14. Soundtracks

1. Come On In My Kitchen

   Robert Johnson’s achingly beautiful love song set to the Mississippi Sheiks’ 1927 hit melody for “Sittin’ On Top of the World.” Johnson even stole the fiddler’s lick between each stanza and moved it onto the guitar (no simple trick, it turns out!).
   https://youtu.be/Edwxaj484do

2. You Better Lie Down

   Learned from a recording of Florida’s Emmett Murray, this is a signature tune of the Turpentine Camps in south Georgia, where blacks were robbed of their labor (when their ‘room and board’ was calculated by the white overseers to have equaled their pay!).
   https://youtu.be/WvNUsd3_AtE

3. Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burnin’

   A metaphor from the Old Testament, an ancient African-scale melody, and a fretless gourd banjo played clawhammer-style.
   https://youtu.be/IA5guV1Ubgg

4. The Land That I Love

   I wrote this song in memoriam for Grecia Cruz. It tells the story of her loss on the Tohono O’odham Reservation that straddles the US/Mexico border in the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona, where she disappeared on June 23, 2007. Her body was never found.
   https://youtu.be/iT8m6tevnN8

The 2018 Ojai Storytelling Festival:
Scott Ainslie & Glenis Redmond

• Southern Voices: Black, White & Blues

1. If I Ain’t African/Parchman Farm Blues

   [3:42] One of Glenis Redmond’s signature pieces backed by a one-string cigarbox guitar, followed with Bukka White’s Parchman Farm
   https://youtu.be/H6LvgwXQ57Y

2. Harriett Tubman/If Anybody Asks You About Me

   Glenis Redmond’s poem channeling the historical and the spiritual Harriett Tubman, underscored with an African style vamp on the fretless gourd banjo and followed by Scott Ainslie’s original song, “If Anybody Asks You About Me.”
   https://youtu.be/B-2kW2mn0VY

3. Gimme The Beat

   Glenis Redmond’s poem for her father, based on the music he played and bequeathed to her.
   https://youtu.be/Eqt9OsgGENA

4. Scott Ainslie: I Will Trust In The Lord

   A solo story and song from Willie Malloy, of Fayetteville NC. Born in 1900, this is what Willie taught me and told me.
   https://youtu.be/ngS8nBNVD0A

5. Our Spirit Stands/You Can’t Stand Up Alone

   A poem born of the burning of black churches across the nation, paired with a song of Clyde McPhatter’s, “You Can’t Stand Up Alone.”
   https://youtu.be/pWIBKAa-vyc

Long Time Comin’ with Reggie Harris

1. 1. Keep Your Lamp Trimmed & Burning

      (with Reggie Harris) An old spiritual played on a fretless gourd banjo in an African banjo tuning (e-E-A-B-D)
      [2:30]
      https://youtu.be/61qxDxR0W-4

   2. Guide My Feet

      (with Reggie Harris) A wonderful spiritual with Reggie leading.
      [5:00]
      https://youtu.be/7YQod8x12sA

   3. Long Time Comin’ Excerpt

      (with Reggie Harris) A sampler of Long Time Comin’.
      [27:40]
      https://youtu.be/Sy2wb7wZkJw

   4. W. E. B. Dubois Excerpt

      (with Reggie Harris) A sampler of a special show to celebrate the life of W.E.B. Dubois. Recorded on December 19, 2017 in Great Barrington MA where DuBois was born in 1868. The show highlighted the contrasts between DuBois’s approach to civil rights and that of Booker T. Washington, men of different times and especially places.

Song list:
00:00 I Woke Up This Morning (with my mind stayed on freedom)
01:59 Intro/Slow Down Chariot/Let Me Ride
04:19 Intro/Wade In The Water
08:00 Intro to Diddley Bow/Parchman Farm
10:40 Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. DuBois information
11:04 Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round
14:15 Intro to Gourd Banjo/Keep Your Lamp Trimmed & Burnin’
17:06 Hickory Hill (Reggie Harris)
21:30 I Will Trust In The Lord
23:06 O Lord, How Come Me Here?
24:55 Change Is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke)
[28:26]
https://youtu.be/r9Q-p2wEZ-g

• 2015 Double Bill with David Lindley in California

  On October 10th, I shared a double-bill with slide guitar master/musician extraordinaire David Lindley at Whittier College. Lindley has toured with Warren Zevon, Jackson Browne, Ry Cooder and many others as well as having a strong solo touring presence in recent years. He was unmarked by this fame. Here’s the video evidence:

  1. The Cuckoo/Jack o’ Diamonds

     (Encore with David Lindley)
     Recorded at Whittier College, Whittier CA, October 10, 2015, at a concert I shared with David Lindley.[3:32]
     https://youtu.be/FtlRnaA6Igs

  2. Say It Isn’t So

     (Irving Berlin) [3:33] Recorded in October, 2015 at the Ruth B. Shannon Performing Arts Center.
     https://youtu.be/rCZI6H_IrWE

  3. I Should Get Over This

     (Scott Ainslie) [3:55] A sad and danceable tune set to an acoustic guitar style from central and West Africa. This performance recorded during my solo set of the Whittier College gig I played with slide guitar wizard David Lindley, October, 2015.
     https://youtu.be/qPcHL1PSlsk

  4. Hard Times, Come Again No More

     (Stephen Foster) [5:51] Recorded in October, 2015 at the Ruth B. Shannon Performing Arts Center. In memory of George F. Ainslie – brother, husband, father, beloved friend, and blacksmith.
     https://youtu.be/QqB0O5fcU50

  5. Somewhere Over The Rainbow

     (Yip Harburg/Harold Arlen) [3:47] Recorded at a CD release concert for The Last Shot Got Him at the New England Youth Theater, Brattleboro Vt.
     https://youtu.be/2pRtiwr2r0U

  Songs from Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson

  1. Kindhearted Woman

     (Robert Johnson) [3:42] Johnson’s piano-influenced audition piece and first recorded song.
     https://youtu.be/rs985e7SrvA

  2. Walkin’ Blues

     (Robert Johnson) [5:47] Worksong rhythms inherited from Son House’s “My Black Mama.”
     http://youtu.be/lVxh2xb0Blc

  3. Come On In My Kitchen

     (Robert Johnson) [4:20]Recorded in 2008 at the New England Youth Theater, Brattleboro, VT.
     http://youtu.be/iFymnrJSe8k

  4. Come On In My Kitchen . (Festival Performance)

     (Robert Johnson) [4:22] Recorded by an audience member, the encore of my opening set at the 19th Annual Western Maryland Blues Festival, May 30, 2014. The film begins halfway through my acapella singing of a verse from the Mississippi Sheiks’ “Sittin’ On Top of the World,” the 1927 source recording for Robert’s melody and arrangement.
     http://youtu.be/UwTgwIUrHas

  5. Rollin’ & Tumblin’/If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day

     (Robert Johnson) [3:46] On a home-made one-stringed Cigar Box Guitar (aka Diddley Bow).
     http://youtu.be/yl0AMbOVQUY

  6. Crossroad Blues

     (Robert Johnson) [3:23] Performance recorded in Memphis, TN at the Folk Alliance Showcases.
     http://youtu.be/dV3ZgqL6JlE

  7. When You’ve Gotta Good Friend

     (Robert Johnson) [3:15] Recorded in Lincoln VT, at a town hall concert series.
     https://youtu.be/RudK5cX-IT0

  8. Sweet Home Chicago

     (Robert Johnson) [4:13] Following on Honeyboy Edwards’ arrangement of Johnson’s song, this was recorded at Whittier College in Whittier California during the first set of a co-bill with the remarkable David Lindley.
     https://youtu.be/zdSOKkI3izM

  9. Amazing Grace, played over Robert Johnson’s Grave

     (Traditional, Arr.©1986, Scott Ainslie) This song is the ‘Hymn of the Church’ where Robert Johnson is buried, just outside of Greenwood, MS. Played on May 8, 2011, the centennial of his birth, and captured by my good friend David Moser Brown.
     http://youtu.be/cib78ADDNWY

  10. Scott Ainslie at Skainos, Belfast, Northern Ireland

      This non-sectarian community center on Newtownards Road is a wonder. I was invited to offer a set of open-air blues and closed with this tune, noting the differences between my time in Ireland and the North in 1976-77 and in 2013. My version of Robert Johnson’s Crossroads Blues with my comments.[4:37]
      https://youtu.be/OWKng-9EZnQ

  Gourd Banjo & Cigar Box Guitar/Diddley Bow tracks

  1. The Cigar Box Guitar Explained

     at the Ships of the Sea Museum, Savannah, GA. [13:43]
     http://youtu.be/Tys6dmEMyRk

  2. Gourd Banjo and the Akonting from West Africa: Sugar Babe

     [4:40] A brief introduction to claw-hammer banjo, it’s history, and a bluesy banjo tune from West Virginia. Recorded by an audience member at the Fiddle & Bow Society, Winston-Salem, NC.
     http://youtu.be/SVYt7xS3IW0

  3. Parchman Farm Blues

     (Bukka White) [5:25] Recorded in the WSCA-FM studios by DJ Shawn Henderson on his Stay Tuned radio show.
     http://youtu.be/qm8jmaa9_N4

  4. Rollin’ & Tumblin’ Blues/If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day

     (Robert Johnson) [3:46] Recorded at the Fiddle & Bow Society by an audience member.
     http://youtu.be/yl0AMbOVQUY

  Ragtime, Delta, Memphis Blues & Gospel

  1. Big Fat Woman

     (David Honeyboy Edwards) [3:32] Recorded by my friend from Rome, Italy, Piero Frisani on his cell phone at a house concert.
     http://youtu.be/wUtA03n9LYM

  2. And a stage performance from my Whittier CA gig with David Lindley
     https://youtu.be/g7qLZ4I-6NQ

  3. My Home’s In The Delta

     (Muddy Waters/Willie Dixon) [4:21] Solo Slide in standard tuning arrangement from Muddy Waters’ “Folksinger” album ca. 1968!
     https://youtu.be/wpzVZMXhSmo

  4. Another Man Done Gone

     (Vera Hall) [3:01] A slave song that Vera Hall (1902-1964) learned from her mother’s singing. This version was recorded in Lincoln VT. The guitar is in C-minor Tuning.
     https://youtu.be/B1WFzUAYmFs

  5. Wayfaring Stranger

     (Traditional) [4:54] A distinctive version of this traditional piece, a Black ringshout first described by a Virginia planter in 1759.
     http://youtu.be/KbWKWFpwexQ?t=2m19s

  6. Chumpman Blues

     (Blind Arthur Blake) [3:09] Recorded by an audience member at the Fiddle & Bow Society, Winston-Salem, NC.
     http://youtu.be/sFix5M942_I?t=4s

  7. Rocks & Gravel

     (Piedmont Blues learned from John Jackson) [2:17] A live performance recorded in Lincoln, VT.
     https://youtu.be/kO_srXEB8J4

  8. Hard Times, Come Again No More

     (Stephen Foster) [5:51] Recorded in October, 2015 at the Ruth B. Shannon Performing Arts Center. In memory of George F. Ainslie – brother, husband, father, beloved friend, and blacksmith.
     https://youtu.be/QqB0O5fcU50

  9. Losing Faith In You

     (B.B. King) [2:57] A classic slow Memphis Blues from one of the masters.
     http://youtu.be/Gt6B37Plzjs

  10. I’ll Be All Right Someday

      (Traditional, Rev. Gary Davis) [3:47] Based on the Baptist hymn, I’ll Overcome Someday, a street corner antecedent to We Shall Overcome.
      http://youtu.be/7h1FXMoyu_k?t=4m5s

  11. Police Dog Blues

      (Blind Arthur Blake) [2:40] Learned from Virginia Bluesmaster John Jackson, a funny, ragtime tour-de-force.
      http://youtu.be/I8JceHfIxYI?t=2m40s

  12. We Can’t Go On This Way

      (J.B. Lenoir) Recorded at the Hotlicks Blues Festival in Granville, OH. Good advice from this Mississippi Blues man.
      http://youtu.be/5_S7y0JHCZ8?t=17s

  13. Vigilante Man

      (Woody Guthrie) [5:08] Recorded at Kellish Hill Farm November, 2012.
      http://youtu.be/8J0zDTLMAeM

   

  Original Songs:

  1. It’s Gonna Rain

     (Scott Ainslie) [3:56] A beautiful paean to New Orleans written just weeks before Katrina hit in 2005.
     http://youtu.be/ZurkeS0kWSM?t=2m32s

  2. I Should Get Over This

     (Scott Ainslie) [3:55] A sad and danceable tune set to an acoustic guitar style from central and West Africa. This performance recorded during my solo set of the Whittier College gig I played with slide guitar wizard David Lindley, October, 2015.
     https://youtu.be/qPcHL1PSlsk

  3. The Land That I Love

     (Scott Ainslie) [5:29] A true story song about migrants lost in Arizona’s desert in June of 2007. Produced to benefit No Mas Muertes, a humanitarian group working both sides of the border in Arizona.
     http://youtu.be/zw4rUPA8ndM
     More about the story behind this song / video.

  Educational Workshops & Classroom Teaching

  1. Before Rock ‘n’ Roll

     A Teaching Concert Sampler [9:07] A sampler from a live performance in Lancaster, SC before 500 fifth graders.
     http://youtu.be/WkYfn1SZRkI

  2. Workshops for Educators

     Birmingham, Alabama

     [12:10] On the 50th Anniversary of Bull Connor’s police dog and fire hose attacks on nonviolent Civil Rights demonstrators in downtown Birmingham, I was invited to teach a workshop for local public school teachers. This is an excerpt from that workshop that focuses on the Science of Sound.
     http://youtu.be/yzuiAluwc_s

  The Land Where The Blues Began

  1. Video from start of my multi-media show featuring the music and archival & original photos of the Delta. [3:55]http://youtu.be/BZ6oE-fThj4

  2. Land Where The Blues Began: A Sampler

  3. [14:36] A three song YouTube.com ‘unlisted’ sampler from this show is available here.
     http://youtu.be/WZN9K5BU6y0

  4. Introduction to the Delta/Parchman Farm Blues

     (Bukka White) [3:55] Cigar Box Guitar & Vocal, with introduction.
     http://youtu.be/BZ6oE-fThj4

  5. Keep Your Lamp Trimmed & Burning

     (Traditional) [2:58] Fretless Gourd Banjo and this beautiful old spiritual.
     http://youtu.be/OgBrSpuMqoA

  6. Convict Leasing/The Monday Morning Blues

     (Mississippi John Hurt) [6:09] National Guitar & Voice with introduction.
     http://youtu.be/D_p0qcs1RrA

  7. The 1927 Flood/The Broken Levee Blues

     (Lonnie Johnson) [4:26] National Guitar & Voice with introduction.
     http://youtu.be/ujJg3TU2s58

  8. The Devil at the Crossroads/Cross Road Blues

     (Robert Johnson) [3:15] National Slide Guitar & Voice, with introduction.
     http://youtu.be/_gGwyeu9vmc

  The High School Physics Project with Dr. Tom Altman

  1. Resonance

     [7:25] Dr. Altman corralled me after a school performance and asked me to come make a couple of teaching videos with him for students. He is a playful and inspiring science teacher at the top of his game.
     http://youtu.be/7SXZ-LGu594

  2. Wave Length

     [7:20] Teaching videos with this remarkable high school physics teacher.
     http://youtu.be/3JEM_v7QiNw

  3. String Tension

     [6:33] Our exploration of effects of string tension on the pitch of an instrument and amplitude of a wave.
     http://youtu.be/WZV32ovppm4

  Guitar Lessons – Master Classes, Workshops, Demonstrations

  1. EuroBlues 2013

     [2:47] Slow slide guitar review of Robert Johnson’s ‘Come On In My Kitchen.’
     http://youtu.be/i4iS24MDuc8?t=27s

  2. Acoustic Guitar Magazine Featured Lesson on Robert Johnson, Part 1

     [3:29] A good introduction to Johnson’s slide technique, accompanying my article.
     http://youtu.be/sVUJ4F8-_0A

  3. Acoustic Guitar Magazine-Featured Lesson on Robert Johnson, Part 2

     [1:48] Johnson’s E-walk down and the guitar theory behind it.
     http://youtu.be/7kLPnOnvKlc

  4. Acoustic Guitar Magazine-Featured Lesson on Robert Johnson, Part 3

     [1:12] Classic shuffles that Johnson moved from piano to the guitar in the early 1930s.
     http://youtu.be/Bg_BiGTnQ2U

  5. Slide Guitar – Three Mini-Lessons –  2019

     1. Introduction to Core Techniques
        https://youtu.be/fFUl_6vKq7Q
     2. Using Fingers behind the slide/Minor Pentatonic Scale in E and hammers behind slide
        https://youtu.be/3KnubY2-hZ0
     3. Choosing a slide/Guitar set-up
        https://youtu.be/AlOzYm72Nek

  6. Archie Edwards Barbershop Slide Guitar Clinic

     [4:02] A demonstration of right-hand pick-blocking and left-hand muting technique in open G tuning.
     http://youtu.be/pVU119u_qIE?t=12s

  Froggy Bottom Guitar Videos

  1. Featured Froggy Bottom H-12: In The Bleak Midwinter

     This lively and balanced instrument was a joy to play. It has once again brought together the talents of the artists who collaborated on the exclusive Froggy Bottom 40th Anniversary instruments: pearl engraver Glenn Carson, fine artist Petria Mitchell, FBG founder Michael Millard, and the guitar builders at Froggy Bottom.
     http://youtu.be/V9sSxAtfEuQ

  2. Featured Froggy Bottom H-14

     Malian Instrumental [4:12] An instrumental inspired by Malian singer/guitarist Boubacar Traoré’s Je Chanterai Pour Toi
     http://youtu.be/WuFmtx0CQIc

  3. Froggy Bottom Model-K

     My One & Only Love [2:40] This is my arrangement of My One & Only Love, a song with music written by Guy Wood and lyrics by Robert Mellin. It is performed on a featured Model K Froggy Bottom Guitar with 5A Brazilian Rosewood back and sides, engraved pearl by master engraver/pearl artist Glenn Carson, with astonishing clarity and balance.For more information about Froggy Bottom Guitars, please visit http://FroggyBottomGuitars.com..
     https://youtu.be/4pwb6dAQPxU

  4. Froggy Bottom Raffle Model-K: NHMC Musicians Healthcare Fund

     Over The Rainbow (Instr.) [2:23] This is my arrangement of this Harold Arlen/Yip Harburg classic from the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz. It is performed on a featured Model K Froggy Bottom Guitar with 5A Brazilian Rosewood back and sides, engraved pearl by master engraver/pearl artist Glenn Carson. Recently featured on Peghead Nation’s site. For more information about Froggy Bottom Guitars, please visit http://FroggyBottomGuitars.com..
     https://youtu.be/KNI_oRmdv70

  5. Mandela’s Farewell: Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika

     Recorded on the announcement of his death, Dec. 5, 2013 [3:01] This lovely 19th Century hymn, God Bless Africa, has been adapted and added on to serve as the national anthem, not just for the African National Congress, but for South Africa and other African nations. This is an impromptu iphone video. Arranged in Dropped-D tuning and played on my custom built Froggy Bottom Model G with old German Spruce and Koa. For more information about Froggy Bottom Guitars, please visit http://FroggyBottomGuitars.com..
     https://youtu.be/_vXOUqIu_fc

  6. Featured Froggy Bottom D-12

     Requiem [2:54] An instrumental by one of my oldest friends, Al Pettaway, from my song “I Will Not Fall / Requiem” (The Feral Crow).
     http://youtu.be/sdngN0hQpZs

  7. Featured Froggy Bottom D-12

     Winder Slide [2:59] A new Old-Time instrumental in open C-tuning called Winder Slide that appears to have been written by Joe LaRose around 1980, and covered by Bruce Molsky. Later, LaRose created a second version, which was recorded by Rayna Gellert.
     https://youtu.be/LpMScg0fZf0

  8. Froggy Bottom H-12: Pearl Engravings by Glenn Carson

     [3:50] My arrangement of Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times, Come Again No More.”
     http://youtu.be/sfyMneeNnjU

  Soundtracks

  1. Journey to Installation: A Story of Two Signature Artifacts

     (Music provided by Scott Ainslie) [7:04]
     This short fundraising video for the new National Museum of African American History & Culture features Museum Director and historian Lonnie Bunch outlining the acquisition and installation of a restored Jim Crow railroad car and a cement guard tower from the infamous Angola Prison in Louisiana.
     http://youtu.be/ZDDUotEYCEA