Ray Scott - My Kind of Music (CD)

All Music Guide

Given the understated boast in the title of his debut album My Kind of Music, it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that Ray Scott fashions himself as a bit of a modernday outlaw, a contemporary spin on such classic country mavericks as Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. He has a deep, powerful baritone, part Waylon and part Dick Curless, and his music is lean, spare and muscular confident, but never flashy, since Scott has the easy assurance of somebody who knows what he's all about as a singer, musician and writer. And he is a writer, too, penning (or coauthoring) every one of the 13 songs that make up his firstrate debut. The sound is straight out of the '70s, with driving electric guitars and rockinfluenced country beats punctuated every so often with a soulsearching acoustic ballad, yet it doesn't sound like he's faithfully recreating classic outlaw country he's staying true to the tradition, yet he's slyly updated it with a big, hard, glossy sound and a modernday swagger. Best of ...all, Scott knows not to take himself too seriously; there's a genuine undercurrent of wry humor threaded throughout the album, coming to a head on the very funny, very appealing title song, where he dumps a Whitney Houston fan because she doesn't dig his kind of music. Because Scott is equally convincing when he's strutting or when he's cracking jokes or crooning a lovelorn ballad, My Kind of Music winds up as one of the most emotionally satisfying country albums of 2005. Musically, it may stay within the confines of modern outlaw country, but Scott proves that it's a rich territory with this excellent debut. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide Read more Less