THE UNDERRATED KEITH

Keith Scott, late 1980s(photo credit:AP)

A lot of great rock singers were known through their one of a kind style of singing and songwriting but what makes a solo rock artist stand above the rest are the sidemen particularly the lead guitarist who makes those trademark guitar solos along with the cool riffs he is making with the artist. These so-called sidemen usually turns out to be guitar heroes to both rock n'roll fans and budding guitar players alike though some would be marked as underrated-overshadowed perhaps by the extreme popularity of the artist they usually play with.Some examples include Randy Rhoads who played a short stint with Ozzy Osbourne before prematurely leaving our world at the tender age of only twenty five and David Bowie's awesome lead guitarist Mick Ronson who played mostly on both the Ziggy Stardust album and concert tour.

One of the most underrated guitar players of our time would be Keith Scott,who has been playing with Bryan Adams since the late 1970s. Scott played lead guitar on all of Adams' twelve albums and has been touring with him since.Having seen them last May 23 I,too,am a witness on how [and still] awesome a guitarist Keith is.

Scott was born in Vancouver over a family of musicians with his dad being a jazz pianist and his mom being an occasional singer so his musical genes came out naturally.He revealed in a later interview that his first guitar was a 1967 Fender Stratocaster.He used it mostly on his concert tours particularly in the late 1980s during Adams' career peak.

Keith's gear: a 1967 Fender Stratocaster

Citing his influences in the likes of Eric Clapton,Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix,Scott moved far ahead and also mentioned the fact that he often wing his solos everytime he goes out on tour with the full blessing of Adams who often referred to him as his "best friend".

Scott's other gears would be a telecaster and the vintage Gretsch electric guitar which he famously used on the classic rock ballad "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You"

Keith's other gear: a Gretsch G5420T

A lot of these supporting musicians weren't really interested in the limelight and most of them just prefer to crouch on their respective instruments perhaps just for the love of music. Most of them just want to show their craft then go aloof from the attention of the press.I guess they just leave it all to the hands of the band's leader.Marking more than thirty years of his career as a touring musician supporting Bryan Adams,we'll definitely see more of Keith Scott!!

Trading solos:Keith(right) with Bryan Adams[photo credit:Hiwatt UK]

(c) Keith Vernon Adagio


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BRYAN ADAMS SAVES ROCK MUSIC WITH RECKLESS 30TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

Promo poster,(photo credit:Bryan Adams fb page)

SHORELINE AMPHITHEATRE
Mountain View, CA 
May 23, 2015

The crowd started cheering up as Bryan Adams opened his set with "Reckless",an unreleased track from the album of the same title.At age 55,Bryan still looked fresh and his voice sounded a lot younger wearing a tight,long sleeved black shirt and tight black pants.His self penned songs with its awesome guitar riffs made it seem like 30 years hasn't passed since the said album was released,topped the charts and made Adams an international star.

Most of the tracks on Bryan's setlist were [definitely] from the said album thus celebrating the third decade of its release though Adams still managed to pick a few songs from his other albums such as Waking Up The Neighbours,18 Till I Die,Cuts Like A Knife and his newest album comprising mostly of standard covers Tracks Of My Years.

The show's highlights were his live renditions of his trademark songs such as "Heaven" and "(Everything I Do)I Do It For You" where Bryan had his timeless and awesome talent of mesmerizing the crowd and allowing all of us to do a sing along with him.

The audience,comprising of people of all ages gave only proof on how enduring Bryan Adams is and his charisma has never waned in the past three decades.Adams,even made his party more exciting by choosing a girl from the audience to dance along with him while singing the blues inspired "If Ya Wanna Be Bad Ya Gotta Be Good".Asking the woman's name Adams even blurted a joke or two by intentionally mistaking the dame's boyfriend as her dad.This middle aged rocker made it clear that he ain't gonna put down his laurels by telling the other girl "to get the fuck out there" as to give way to the woman he chose to dance alone for him.

photo credit: Keith Vernon Adagio

Going to the gig with my two cousins where we witnessed Bryan's tight schedule as his show started on time with no opening acts.And the night just started heating up with all these faster rocking tunes until Bryan and the rest of the band said "Thank you" and bowed to the audience.They then returned to the stage expecting perhaps an encore from the crowd,he played another acoustic set which he started with the Mexican-flavored "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman" which was the theme song from the film Don Juan De Marco starring Johnny Depp.The mentioned song was I think the show's lowest point coz I personally disliked that song among others and it could've been better if he had sung "Hearts On Fire" or "Please Forgive Me" instead of that doodled spanish guitar track.

Bryan closed the show with the acoustic rendition of "Straight From The Heart" and  said "Good night,you've been a great audience",then off he go and disappeared behind the curtains backstage.Everyone of us were expecting a "second encore" perhaps but then the lights in the venue went up telling everybody that the show is finally over.

We didn't get to the backstage as we don't have any passes to do so and I suddenly felt a little sad knowing that we were all back in the "real world" after a two hour spectacle.Perhaps Bryan felt it too from the tone of his voice when he said good night to all of us.

 BRYAN ADAMS'S SET LIST
SHORELINE AMPHITHEATRE MOUNTAIN VIEW,CA

1.RECKLESS
2.ONE NIGHT LOVE AFFAIR
3.SHE'S ONLY HAPPY WHEN SHE'S DANCIN'
4.RUN TO YOU
5.BOYS NIGHT OUT
6.HEAVEN
7.KIDS WANNA ROCK
8.ITS ONLY LOVE
9.LONG GONE
10.SOMEBODY
11.AIN'T GONNA CRY
12. SUMMER OF '69
13.LET ME DOWN EASY
14.(EVERYTHING I DO) I DO IT FOR YOU
15.IF YA WANNA BE BAD YA GOTTA BE GOOD
16.THIS TIME
17.CANT STOP THIS THING WE STARTED
18.HAVE YOU EVER REALLY LOVED A WOMAN
19.18 TILL I DIE
20.CUTS LIKE A KNIFE
21.THE ONLY THING THAT LOOKS GOOD ON ME IS YOU
22.C'MON EVERYBODY
23.SHE KNOWS ME
24.STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART


(c)  Keith Vernon Adagio

Author's note:

This blog article is dedicated to my cousins Jenny and Joan who were with me in the gig.Love you guys,thank you for sharing such wonderful music with me