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 modern-day 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 co-authoring) every one of the 13 songs that make up his first-rate debut. The sound is straight out of the '70s, with driving electric guitars and rock-influenced country beats punctuated every so often with a soul-searching acoustic ballad, yet it doesn't sound like he's faithfully re-creating classic outlaw country -- he's staying true to the tradition, yet he's slyly updated it with a big, hard, glossy sound and a modern-day 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