Full-time is not enough

Musician keeps busy – really busy

The destruction that Hurricane Irma brought to the Florida Keys, oddly enough, is what brought veteran musician Tim Scott to Key West this past year. He first visited the Keys with his musician buddy Joshua Scott Jones, the male half of Steel Magnolia.

“I came down with Joshua last year to cut a few singles. We recorded in a makeshift studio on Conch Key. We busked at truck stops along the way down from Nashville to pay for gas. That was my first Florida Keys experience. I stayed another few months and picked up some construction work. The hurricane hit, and after living in the Keys there was a strong pull to come back and help out where I could.”

A veteran studio engineer, producer and musician, Scott turned to construction work when the studio business in Nashville started drying up. “I had been playing gigs for 20 years in Nashville but recording work got so slow I had to take construction work.”

Scott likes to keep busy. “When I came to Key West and was working construction, I ran into a friend who turned me on to working a pedicab job. But that wasn’t enough work, so I walked up and down Duval Street and auditioned, and turned out I knew Chris Weaver, the owner of Duval Central. I auditioned for him, got that gig and now am playing full-time, eight (shows) a week during the day and working five nights a week on the pedicab.”

While in the Navy stationed at Jacksonville, Scott sang with other sailors outside the barracks every night for a year, and then played gigs all over the world. That got him ready for his first stage appearance in Nashville at Tootsie’s Lounge in 1996. He graduated from SAE in Nashville in 2006, and did studio work for Cowboy Jack Clement, and sessions with Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones.

Scott is an experienced stage performer and knows how to connect with his audience. “My style of music is rocking country, edgy, ‘a country music Bruce Springsteen.’ I play everything from Merle Haggard to Nirvana. It’s more of a story-teller set. I’d like to thank God for the party that led me to Amy at the Salty Angler, Chris and Eric at Duval Central, Deray at The Grateful Guitar, and all of you for all your help.”

You can see Scott perform at Duval Central, Tuesday through Saturday, 3 to 6 p.m., and the Salty Angler Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, from noon to 3 p.m. Follow him @TimScottMusic on Twitter and Instagram.

— By Daryl Brooke