By: Rudy Lu
Guitarist Scott Sharrard brought his songs and stories about life on the road with Little Feat, Greg Allman and his band to The Local. It is interesting that the inspiration for this solo project is Scott’s substack “Open Road”. The writing inspired the musical project, a rather unusual origin. If you were to describe Scott Sharrard’s career in three words they are “Blues are Home”.
Although he is “ second generation” to both Little Feat and Greg Allman, Scott played a vital role in expanding and preserving both legacies. His first live exposure to both bands was in 1990, at 16 he heard these bands with his dad. He was born after the Rolling Stones and the Beatles had hit their peak. So these bands were his musical epiphany like the Stones and the Beatles were to the previous generation. Scott has always maintained a solo career in parallel with touring with many national acts including the Levon Helm Band, Doobie Brothers and Midnight Ramble. Saxophonist Jay Collins introduced him to Greg Allman & Little Feat.
Scott worked closely with Greg Allman and eventually became the musical director of the Greg Allman Band. The band played two of Sharrard’s songs, “Endless Road” & “Love Like Kerosene”. He cowrote one of Greg’s last compositions “My Only True Friend”.
He joined Little Feat after jamming with them shortly after the death of ailing Paul Barrere in 2019, He has since been an integral member of the band, playing slide and lead on many of the old favorites he grew up with. “Dixie Chicken”, “Willing” and “Mercenary Territory”. Little Feat will be embarking a six month long “First Farewell” national tour in April.
A surprise guest entertained us at the end of the evening, young bass player Jackson Speller. A recent graduate of Berklee School of Music and a Kingston native, he is being mentored by Sharrard like Sharrard was mentored by his heroes.
The two of them entertained us with their versions of “Take Me To The River”(Talking Heads version), Dixie Chicken (complete with audience participation). The encore was the Allman Brothers classic (One Way Out).
If you are in the 518, you can catch Scott at the Cock and Bull in Galway on April 2nd . You can follow Little Feat ‘s tour schedule here.
