Scott Whiddon is a writer, teacher and musician residing in Lexington. His second album ‘The Best of Intentions’ is due to be released on Friday, November 3rd and this is the second single taken from it. One thing that might grab attention about it is that it features Jay Gonzalez of Drive-By-Truckers on keyboards and another might be that it was produced by J. Tom Hnatow (Horse Feathers, Mynabirds, These United States). Great. But this is a song that would still make the cut as it drifts gently through stages of acceptance with respect to that thing that we all love around here. Music, and in particular those bands, great bands with great songs, that burn bright but never really make it – their flame more akin to a match than a barn on fire. Or, as Scott Whiddon puts it so wonderfully: “and what’s left to you are a couple of back issues of fanzines full of bands you’ll never see…they ran out of luck and given up.” Later on he paints a romantic picture of limping on in the face of probable failure “sunglasses on the dashboard of a van that’s from a thousand miles away / and it’s all word of mouth and any kind of doubt that I could muster if I had something to say.”
Scott Whiddon, though, has not given up….not yet. As well as his solo albums he also performs with the indie rock band Letters of Acceptance and has developed film scores for Richard Knox Robinson, Brian Frye and Katrina Dixon. From 2012-2016, he served as music director for the annual Harry Dean Stanton Fest. He’s also shared stages with artists ranging from Jerry Joseph to Elf Power to Lucy Dacus and has played guitar for Palisades, The Wags, The Binders, and the Lexington Conservatory Theater’s Summerfest.
