Scott Ainslie Sunday March 1, 2020

CHC welcomes Scott Ainslie to the “House”. Steeped in traditional music, Ainslie is a renowned acoustic blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He learned southern old-time ballads, banjo and fiddle from senior musicians in North Carolina and West Virginia and blues from his black elders in North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi: his roots are deep.

“Ainslie is a beautiful stylist who respects the country blues and acoustic blues music, feels it deep down to his soul, and understands its essence.”

Sunday, March 1, 2020 @ 4:00 PM

Scott Ainslie

An excerpt from Scott’s Bio:

Scott Ainslie’s mother found him at the family piano picking out melodies from the records she listened to during the day when he was three years old. He’s been a musician all his life.

A Phi Beta Kappa and honors graduate of Washington & Lee University, Ainslie came of age during the Civil Rights era, and cultivated a powerful affinity for cross-cultural exchange. He has studied with elder musicians on both sides of the color line – in the Old-Time Southern Appalachian fiddle and banjo traditions, as well as Black Gospel and Blues. He plays this music with affection, authority, and power.

Armed with a variety of instruments – vintage guitars, a fretless gourd banjo, a one-string, homemade diddley bow (aka cigar box guitar) and carefully chosen historical personal anecdotes of his encounters with senior musicians across the South – Ainslie brings the history, roots music, and sounds of America alive.

Ainslie has spent more than 30 years looking for the right story, the right set of facts, the right piece of history, to introduce a song. He offers a personality, a moment in history, a vignette to entice you into a song and to give that song a chance to wake and breathe among us like a living thing.

On stage, in educational teaching concerts, workshops, and school residencies, Ainslie explores the African and European roots of American music and culture. His easy, conversational way with audiences and cross-disciplinary approach to the music consistently garners rave reviews from presenters, audiences, students, and teachers, alike. He is a masterful and thoughtful historian, storyteller, and musician.

Website: cattailmusic.com