Scott Ainslie

INDIVIDUAL - SCAD ID - #173



Contact

susan@loydartists.com
518-647-5916
https://cattailmusic.com/
Windham County, VT


Discipline

  • Music


Geographical Availability

  • Upstate
  • Midlands
  • PeeDee/ Grand Strand
  • Low Country
  • Western Piedmont
  • Olde English

About

Artist 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.
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 students and cross-disciplinary approach to the music garners praise from presenters, audiences, students, and teachers, alike. He is a masterful and thoughtful historian, storyteller, and musician.
Ainslie transcribed the original recordings, and published a book on Delta blues legend Robert Johnson (Robert Johnson/At The Crossroads (Hal Leonard, 1992)), and has an instructional DVD on Johnson’s guitar work (Robert Johnson’s Guitar Techniques (Hal Leonard, 1997)). Ainslie has six solo CDs to his name and maintains an active recording, performing, and teaching schedule that carries him around the country, to Canada, and to Europe. His most recent recording is an award-winning collection of songs played on a 1934 Gibson archtop, “The Last Shot Got Him.” The CD was chosen as the Album of the Year (a Tammie Award from the Times-Argus, Montpelier, VT).
Ainslie has received numerous awards and grants for his work documenting and presenting traditional music. He has been a Public Fellow at UNC-Chapel Hill, and received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Folklife Section of the North Carolina Arts Council.
A leader in both the North Carolina and the Virginia Visiting Artist Programs, Ainslie served the citizens of these states in rural community college-based residencies from 1986 through 2000. He was also presented with an Indie (the Independent Weekly Triangle Arts Award, Durham, NC), with the National Slide Guitar Festivals’ Living Heritage Award, and the 20th Annual Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award for “outstanding contributions to the fine arts” (from St. Andrew’s Presbyterian College, Laurinburg, NC).
As a traditional musician with expertise in Piedmont and Delta Blues as well as Southern Appalachian fiddle and banjo traditions, Ainslie has specialized in performing and presenting programs on the European and African roots of American music and culture in community and educational settings. His performances present a wonderful palette of sounds and stories that will delight the ear, awaken the mind, and satisfy the heart.

Artist Statement

On stage, in educational teaching concerts, workshops, and school residencies, I explore the African and European roots of American music and culture, and the impact influential African-American musicians have on our shared culture. My cross-disciplinary approach uses history and personal stories of my work with senior musicians to augment my musical performances. This invites students back in time and into the lives of others.
Framing a song with its social/historical context in personal terms, I try to put students in someone else’s shoes for a few minutes. This allows the emotional impact of the music to imprint the historical facts more deeply in the emotional brain while increasing students’ self-awareness and their social awareness of others. I strive to create understanding and empathy to provide a strong foundation for the appreciation of the impact of history and for building cross-cultural relationships.
My goal is for students to come away from a performance with a deepened appreciation of how it would feel to struggle in adverse historical circumstances; to be treated unjustly and unfairly; and still to be able to get up and sing, to make music, and to continue to find joy in living and surviving.
I believe that every new fact can be a source for a question, and that learning to fashion a good question is critically important to education. I encourage students to actively pursue questions that arise with new information. My performances and workshops provide students with the background and historical knowledge to ask questions. The mix of music and history allow students to learn more readily and to retain, not just the names and dates of history, but its underlying motivations and reasons.
Additionally in my assembly performances, I invite students to join in specific African and African-American retentions – call and response singing and back beat clapping – creating a collaborative group dynamic in the creative process as they work together to make meaningful music of the Blues, Spiritual, and Gospel traditions.
In my Blues writing workshops, students brainstorm and collaborate to write a Blues song together that addresses a topic of their choice. Their creativity is honored and strengthened, as they benefit by listening and learning from their peers.