Track Listing

1. Head South
2. Banjo Clark
3. You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive
4. It's a Great Day to Be Alive
5. I Wish
6. Ballad of Martha White
7. It's the Whiskey That Eases the Pain
8. Spelling Bee Romance
9. Life Is Cheap
10. Heartbreak Town
11. Title of the Song

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131992 in Music
• Released on: 1997-04-22
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

An American Treasure
My wife and I saw Darrell with former New Grassers Sam Bush and John Cowan in Somerset (not too terribly far from Harlan County), Kentucky, in 1998. Neither of us had ever heard of the New Grass Revival (get their stuff, too) and we knew nothing of Darrell. Darrell did two of his songs (accompanied by these two newgrass gods) for that show. We were immediately taken with "Harlan," especially since we both have deep Eastern Kentucky roots. The performance was one of the best I've ever witnessed, and I've seen Miles, Dizzy, the Stones, Michael Hedges, and a ton of great acts. These guys blew all of that away! We HAD to find out who they were (John's voice is incredible and Sam is a fantastic showman) and buy the rest of their stuff - and we have since then. We took a chance and bought Darrell's disc at the show and were gratified to learn that it was probably one of the best impulse buys we've ever made. Darrell's music is authentic, uniquely American, personal, and exceptionally well-crafted and well-played. One reviewer noted that this was a low-buck project, but you cannot tell. The polish (never more than necessary) and attention to detail is worthy of some of the best (over)paid artists in music-dom today. Buy all of his albums before Nashville decides to syndicate him! I cannot recommend his work enough. We've given this and his second album as gifts to friends of varying tastes and ages, and it has always been well-received and played until the grooves are worn off the disc. In case you haven't already noticed, Travis, the Chicks, Garth, and many, many others have covered songs from this and his other two albums. If anyone deserves to get rich and fat from their work, it is definitely Darrell Scott. He'd better hurry and release a new album because the Nashville hep-cats will soon be running out of fresh, new songs to buy for their pretty-but-not-terribly-talented video country music artists. "They got Junior, but they don't got Hank . . ."

Probably the best songwriter alive.
I'm not kidding. Beautiful, poignant lyrics matched with a smooth, gentle voice make this my hands-down favorite album of all time. I love every inch of this CD. Even my WIFE loves it, and we have wildly different musical tastes. I still tear up as I sing along with Darrell on "Harlan" and "It's a Great Day" has become my personal anthem. Buy this album with no regrets.

Pure music that touches the soul
I consider myself fortunate to have recently stumbled accross this CD by Darrell Scott. Not only is he an extremely talented singer and instrumentalist - he also has the ability as a song-writer to reach out and touch the listener. Particularly of interest to me was "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" as it helped me to visulaize my own grandparents living in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and the struggles they went through. With upbeat songs like "Head South" and "It's a Great Day to Be Alive", I find myself humming the tune and singing throughout the day. Again, not enough can be said about Darrell's skills on the various instruments he plays. I would recommend this CD based on the instrumentation alone!