Growing up in Austin, Texas Scott Standley's childhood exposed him to almost every flavor of Southern music — especially in his frequent trips to see family in Southeast Texas. The town of Victoria is where Scott heard his grandparents playing their dulcimers, and eventually played along.
Folk standards. Appalachian stories. Hymnal songs sung with Baptists. These old tunes seemed to be passed down over rivers, played in small living rooms, old churches or shaded porches. With a walk in the field afterwards. Musically reflecting on these experiences Scott's debut album Victoria is out May 30th.
Also a part of Scott’s story is his years spent singing and playing guitar in Austin and Chicago with the groups Jungleset and more recently ChooChoo. Now with a solo venture in mind and in the light of a new world, he’s reaching back to his oldest influences. The landscape is bleak but there’s energy in the ground. Austin native Scott Standley has created a debut solo album unlike anything heard before, Texas-indie meets neo soul.
After playing in rock groups Jungleset and ChooChoo for years, as well as performing at ACL Fest 2019 with percussion group Resonate, Scott’s solo material returns to his roots of playing lap dulcimer with grandparents in Victoria, Texas, infusing it with modern influences. Victoria will be available on Spotify and all major music platforms.
The original idea of Victoria was to create cosmic hymns that blended Scott’s old southern influences with a modern world. Written during the mayhem of the last year, Scott aims for Victoria to cut through the anxiety and find some peace. One prominent lyric sums this up: “Hold on, delicate strong, we lost a home but we can find one.”
Scott Standley sings, plays guitar, bass, percussion and strums on his Grandpa’s handmade dulcimers from Victoria, Texas. Keyboard accompaniment was provided by Ryan Imboden, saxophone and flute contributions from Davis Jones of Loki Moon. All songs were mixed by Scott Standley, Davis Jones and Ziyad Asrar of the band Whitney. All songs were self-recorded and self-produced.
Scott Standley is an Austin-born singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Experimental and choral-focused, Scott’s songs reflect the Southern music that he grew up hearing in the house (Bonnie Raitt, Lyle Lovett, choral hymns and folk standards) but also his favorite current artists (Bon Iver, Frank Ocean, Perfume Genius, Sufjan Stevens). Scott has been living between Austin, Chicago and Seattle since 2010.
Website: www.scottstandley.com
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