Scott Being Ornery

Scott Being Ornery

Bruce Von Stiers

Scott Ramminger is a blues guy. Kind of. His style also includes a bit of funk and classic jazz. Scott is a songwriter, a saxophonist and a vocalist. He has had several albums out. Scott released an album last fall that featured live performances from three club dates in June of 2017. The title of this new album is Alive And Ornery.

The album is a two disc set. It was released by Arbor Lane Music. The album features songs written by Scott and renditions of already established songs.

Even though this album is about Scott, he didn't do alone. It was produced by him and Mike Harvey. People who helped with the recording, mixing and getting it out the door included Jevon Morris, Grace Singletary, Odai Aladuad, Sam Rees and Nancy Terzian.

As for the musicians involved in this thing, there was Pete Ragusa, Chris Brown, Vince McCool, Ariel Francis, Wes Launich, Clarence “Bluesman” Turner, David Hitchen and Keith Grimes. Drummer Pete has recorded with bands such as The Nighthawks and people like John Hammond. Chris is on bass. Vince plays trumpet. He was a founding member of the J Street Jumpers. Ariel is on keys. He's played with people such as the great Wilton Felder. Wes does keys on three of the songs. He was a member of Memphis Gold. Clarence is a much sought after Washington, D.C. area musician. He plays guitar on most of the songs on the album. David plays guitar on two songs and Keith on three of them. Keith played guitar in the band backing the late, great Eva Cassidy. And, as I alluded to earlier, Scott plays the sax and does the vocals.

The first disc in this set starts out with grooving little blues tune called I Really Love Your Smile.

That is followed by a toe-tapper called It's Hard To Be Me. Cool trumpet and piano back Scott's vocals.

Caution and being better than others is the theme of Advice From A Father To A Son.

Too cool funky blues can be found in Funkier Than Him.

That Rumba Beat has cool trumpet and a sound just like the title suggests.

Scott gives advice but he lets you make up your own mind in Do What Your Heart Says To.

Great sax can be heard In the classic tune Linda Lu.

The last song on the first disc is Nasty Habits. It is a funk groove piece with some tough guitar. It kind of reminded me of the styling of Stevie Ray Vaughn.

The second disc of the album set features more of the same as the first disc. First up is Hokey Pokey Blues. Which is just a fun, tongue-in-cheek blues tune.

Rebecca, Rebecca is a slow burning blues ballad. This classic blues song has also been done by people such as Delbert McClinton.

Not having things the way he wants is the theme behind This Town's Seen The Last of Me. There are killer sax and piano during the bridge in the song.

Annandale Girl is about the best girls in the world coming from a specific town. The song has some tough keys work.

Scott does a pretty decent job with the Fats Domino song, Josephine.

‘Lizabeth has some great keys. Scott sings about a woman he's done wrong by.

The final song for this two disc set is Ain't Gonna Do It. It is toe-tapping blues piece.

Scott Ramminger definitely has an interesting take on blues and jazz. His original music and interesting arrangements on established songs make for a nice listening experience.

Alive And Ornery is available at most music outlets.

To learn more about Alive And Ornery, visit Scott's official web site at www.scottramminger.com .

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