Page 32 - BiTS_12_DECEMBER_2023

BiTS: Tell me something about – let’s return for a second – about the guitars. Are they

all National steels, or are you a Dobro player as well?

DSR: No, I've been playing guitars from the company called Recording King and the
main one on all the tracks except one is on a Recording King Rattlesnake and it's a

wood body resonator. I do have an old wood body National from 1934, but that's
getting fixed up right now. I should be getting that back hopefully in a month, and I
plan on recording with that. I'm probably going to take some of the old Spearman

Brewer songs and adapt them for solo, like I'll play live now, and record those and put
them out on this old 1934 National.

BiTS: Is most of the work that you do these days solo work, or are you still playing

with the band?

DSR: I'm probably about 95%, solo. I do
occasionally, a couple times a year, like if it’s a

bigger festival, I've got a harmonica player that
has played for me, probably about six or seven
years now, on and off, and I've got another

upright player sometimes I'll hire, and we'll play
out if it's a bigger festival or if it's a local brewery

sometimes. But being on the road, especially
with the prices of gas going up and everything
going up, financially, it's just a lot easier just
going solo.

BiTS: Do you have a family somewhere, Scott?

DSR: I do. Well, I had a wife until about two months ago, when she unexpectedly

passed away.

BiTS: Oh, dear.

DSR: And so I've been dealing with that, too.

BiTS: Oh, I’m so sorry.

DSR: Thank you. That's kind of the reason why I've dialled back, going out, playing
some because I've been dealing with her affairs and getting everything closed up and

dealing with the lawyers and paperwork.

BiTS: I guess playing music helps you get through that kind of thing, though.

DSR: Music is the ultimate healer. It's amazing. Also, you know, family, friends support

is great as well, but I've actually, like I said, I had this one album that's already written
halfway recorded and I end up doing “Hard Times” instead. And now I found myself
writing music dealing with the loss that I'm doing, and that one's probably going to

come out before the one I've been working on.