Dan's Papers - December 12, 2008 - Back Beat - Patchogue's Jay Scott to Perform at the Talkhouse Dec. 27

With a thriving music scene a bit further west on Long Island, in Patchogue, the East End will get to check out one of that area's well known Americana and folk rock players, Jay Scott, on Dec. 27 at The Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett.

Scott, with soulful vocals, fuses together folk, jazz, blues, rock and country to create a sound of his own. And though no stranger to performing solo, on Dec. 27 he'll be backed by the group Grand Case Scenario, giving his music a fuller, more rock-oriented sound. They'll be performing songs off his first album, Homegrown, which was recorded live in The Patchogue Theater last year and released on the Long Island label Paradiddle Records, as well as new songs he plans on recording in 2009 for his second record.

Starting out as a saxophone player, Scott eventually put down his instrument to take on the duty of lead vocals for the group Square One, which has played at the Talkhouse in the past, first joining them in 2000. Eventually, after making a name for themselves on Long Island, the group packed up a van and headed west, settling in California. "We lasted about a year," he said."We all had jobs waiting back home. It was a no brainer. We were playing out a lot, but not making money at it. So we came back from California with our tails between our legs."

Soon after getting back, though the group recorded an album, it eventually broke up because everyone wanted to take the band in different directions. "We did well enough to keep getting booked for shows, but there were no labels knocking down our doors," Scott said. "But it was never about that for me. I'd rather just play our music and not worry about it."

When Square One finally disbanded, Scott began performing some of the solo songs he had written over the years. He'd take on gigs whenever he could, the first one being at Brickhouse Brewery in Patchogue. He said, "I had no band, just called up a bunch of friends who are musicians, and said this is the material and this is where the gig is, can you play? I always looked for gigs, regardless of whether I had a band."

Born in Queens and raised in Patchogue, Scott still calls the village home, and works at night as a custodian in the Patchogue-Medford School District. "[My job] greatly affects my music," he said. "I pretty much have to keep bookings to Saturday night or when I know I have time off. It definitely affects the fact that I can't be out in the scene as much as I'd like to be." Still, ask anyone in the acoustic and folk music scene further west on Long Island, and you'll find that Scott's name is well known.

Scott's first album, Homegrown, recorded last January, is comprised mostly of the core of the original songs that he wrote, the ones he's had the most time to perform and perfect. Needless to say, he's sitting on a wealth of newer material that he's hoping to get into the studio to record sometime this spring or summer. "I wanted to do another live album, but thought I should do a studio album next," Scott said. "But we'll take the same approach, keeping it simple without messing around with things. We'll just go in and play and keep things as close to real as possible."

Scott goes on at 8 p.m. on Dec. 27 at The Stephen Talkhouse.
Tickets at the door are $10. For more information, go to www.stephentalkhouse.com, www.jayscottlive.com or www.myspace.com/jayscottlive.