Page 27 - BiTS_12_DECEMBER_2023

THE BITS INTERVIEW: D. Scott Riggs

Scott Riggs is a Gulf Coast based songwriter/musician who plays

Panhandle Blues, a rich gumbo of Pre-War Delta, Piedmont, and Country

Blues, with doses of Jazz, Gospel, Hokum, Cajun, and Jug music thrown
in for flavour. He goes by Scott, but uses the “D” to avoid confusion with

Nascar driver Scott Rigs.

As frontman/songwriter for the road-tested band Spearman Brewers

and as a solo troubadour, Scott Riggs has toured the Great South for many

years, bringing his original Panhandle music to the

meek and thirsty. He just released a solo album
“These Hard Times Will Come To Pass”.

Ian McKenzie spoke to him at his home in Florida.

DSR: Hello.

BiTS: Hello, Scott. How nice to speak to you.

DSR: Yeah. Good to see you now. See you,

[laughing] the caffeine hasn’t kicked in yet.

BiTS: Can you hear me alright?

DSR: Yeah, I can hear you good
now.

BiTS: That's wonderful.
Excellent. I need to tell you

that this is being recorded,
of course.

DSR: Okay, that's fine. That's fine.

BiTS: Let's make a start then, may we? Tell me
something about how you got into music in the first

place? I gather you are a born and bred Floridian.

DSR: Yes, I am.

BiTS: So how did you get into music, particularly the blues?

DSR: It's hard to say. I really didn't start playing music until I was in college, but I've
always had it around me. My granddad, “Pa-Pa”, as we’d call him. When we were