J. Scott Hinkle was born the day he died. Sounds out there, but it is true. Since he was not thriving right after birth and the priest happened to be on his floor in the hospital, the Father saved himself time by giving Scott the last rights. Thank God the spell did not stick. That was in Nashville the same year that Sir Edmund Hillary stood on the top of Mt. Everest and Hank Williams’ hit “Your Cheatin’ Heart” swooned us over the radio.
Being from a military family, Scott was packed off for a few years of oriental living. Although living in Bangkok, his mother sang the hymns of Sunday morning that clearly impressed Scott’s songwriting. Returning to the States, he was baptized by bluegrass in North Carolina and watched the Porter Wagner show being taped for television on Friday nights in Tennessee. Through his travels the sounds of Nashville, bluegrass, folk, blues, and rock never escaped him. Even when he lived west of the tension line in Colorado, music continued to be a life-force.
One Christmas his mother bought him a plywood Prestige acoustic guitar. The first song he learned to play was Flat and Scrugg’s “California Uptight Band.” But as John Hiatt alludes, a man can only take so much mandolin, and Scott needed to balance out his forthcoming musical vision with the beat of the Beatles, Stones, and Zeppelin.
In college he was a short-timer music major playing double bass and was fortunate to be schooled in jazz theory by the one and only Jerry Coker. Graduate school and a Ph.D. took their toll on his musical education, but he always gravitated back to his Nashville roots and eventually wrote and recorded “Blueridge Martini” – eleven songs ranging from the bluegrass inspired “Take My Bones to Alabama” to the funky Cajun roots of “Voodoo Choo Choo” to the gospel-flavored “Over Yonder.” Scott’s unique vocals and harmonies are supported by his guitar, mandolin, bass and drum playing. Don’t be surprised by the range of music on “Blueridge Martini”– it sings of love from the heart, as well as some tunes that you can groove to. As John Lee Hooker once said, “its just that boogie woogie, the boy’s got it in him, and it’s got to come out.”
