Singled Out: Scot Sax's Mr. Chocolate

Grammy winning songwriter, singer, and filmmaker Scot Sax recently released his new album "Mr. Chocolate" and to celebrate we asked him to tell us about the song "Wes Montgomery." Here is the story:

One of the houses in our neighborhood morphed itself into a record store called "The Groove". It's kind of like a convenience store to me. I'll stop there on my way home often, picking up records from their dollar bin the way one would pick up milk and eggs. I often buy records for the cover. Seems like it's the opposite in vinyl land where that method does actually work out.

One of my quick in and out visits I grabbed a Wes Montgomery record. How can a record not be great with a name like that. Of course I'd heard of him but not exactly sure what his thing was. The next morning, after being up way too early with my little girls, I laid the needle down on it.

Suddenly the universe was getting along. And by universe, I mean my mind.
I wrote "Wes Montgomery" then and there to describe as straight forwardly as possibly how I was feeling at that moment. It was the first of 6 songs I would write for my next album. Upon recording the song with Ken Coomer (drums) from early Wilco and Phil D'Agostino (bass) I thought, wait, how cool would it be to have a Wes Montgomery-style riff on there. I don't know the first thing about the Jazz side of guitar playing. So I called the best guitarist neighbor I knew. John Jackson. John is not only a super friendly dog walking dude, but also Bob Dylan's live guitarist for all of the 90's tours. I knew he'd know how to do anything, having played for the most unpredictable artist ever.

John's Wes-style riff was so off the grid that I, at first, wasn't sure it worked. As it happens so often in creative endeavors, that's exactly what makes it special and to me the defining part of the song."

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!

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