Summary
File under:
Discography:
In the music library:
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Iconic.
Essential.
Outstanding.
Interesting.
Intriguing.
Significant.
Obscure.
An introduction
There are plenty of relative obscurities reviewed hereabouts, though someone who’s been picking around the edges of rock, blues and world music over the past forty years will probably have sighted references to most of them, but Scrapomatic, I suspect, is one of the more obscure examples from the list of entities that form the backbone of Hughesy’s day to day listening.
Formed in Minneapolis after Harvard graduate with a degree in American literature Mike Mattison met University of Minnesota music composition student Paul Olsen at a P-Funk concert in 1994, Scrapomatic started relocated to New York, where, you’d imagine, there’d be a bit more work for a quality voice and guitar duo.
Along the way additional musos came and went, but it’s worth dwelling on the sequence of events that brought Messrs Mattison and Olsen across Hughesy’s listening radar. That comes down to front men who don’t sing, in this case a certain Mr D. Trucks, who has had his star ascend rapidly since he was enlisted to the slide guitar slot for the Allman Brothers Band and given a similar commission with Eric Clapton’s road band.
Prior to those two gigs the Derek Trucks Band were making a name for themselves but it’s in the nature of the beast that players come and go. Initially, keyboard and vocal duties with the DTB went to Bill McKay, and when he left Kofi Burbridge slotted in on keys and flute, but while Kofi, drummer Yonrico Scott and bass player Todd Smallie could cover backing vocals there was a need for a vocal front man (someone who would take a little of the spotlight off the non-singing leader). For a while that slot went to Javier Colon, but with the DTB still under the radar the offer of a recording contract with Capitol lured Mr Colon towards a solo career, and the DTB’s Joyful Noise and Soul Serenade appeared with ensemble vocals (Noise) and a number of guest vocalists, including Gregg Allman and Solomon Burke (Serenade).