"late afternoon / the salt, the sand and you / nobody's calling my name..."
There is something I am feeling this morning in the unbridled joy and life affirming "Late Afternoon" by Santa Barbara's surf rock band Scojo & the Keel that feels nostalgic or fresh in a nostalgic way. It might be that the cross generational rhythms / shapes that hearken back to 60's surf pop remind me of 1972's iconic film Five Summer Stories that I saw as a surf rat in Huntington Beach at a theater that was bulldozed down decades ago, or maybe it is the disquieting dichotomy of listening to this track in the snowy California mountains white it is 24 degrees outside and feels nearly that cold inside sans a roaring fire in the fireplace. There are other oppositional things happening. The song is sticking to me while not having the kind of abstractions / subversions that usually perk my ears up. The song sonically might be considered unremarkable but it gives off a glow that is remarkable and I dig the vocal countenance here, so earnest.
At the core of Scojo & the Keel is Scott "Scojo" Claassen, primary songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist, and away from the band is an Episcopal priest. My die hard atheism is not suggesting or even considering that the aforementioned glow I mentioned emanated from Claassen's faith (although it may) but I certainly feel it stems from community (all kinds) and the special relationship that people who live along the coast have with mother nature. I never have lived on the coast but always wanted to and surfing for only the decade that I did (in an absolutely hardcore way) still deeply resonates as a life's high point.
Yeah, I am digging "Late Afternoon" and just might have to seek out Five Summer Stories once again.
LINER NOTES:
Scojo & the Keel formed around the church community where Scott is a priest. Here, surfing and spirituality brought together a formidable collective of musicians, including violinist David Paul, a professor of musicology, and saxophonist Dennis Berger who has played with everyone from Little Richard to West Coast jazz pioneers. Scojo & the Keel is rounded out by Charles Kernkamp, drums; Ana Valladares Schmid, vocals; Norm Nelson, bass; George Daisa, vocals; and Preston Towers, percussion. Rock legend Auggie Meyers makes a guest appearance on “Don’t Come Home Tonight.” Auggie has played with everyone from Bob Dylan to Tom Waits, but he is best known for his Vox organ playing with Texas legend Doug Sahm and The Sir Douglas Quintet.]
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
The Gaviota Coast is a beachside Shangri-La just west of Santa Barbara, California. Here, eucalyptus groves pepper the views of the jade and navy water; offshore winds carry the smell of sage from the hills; and rare SoCal wildlife like bobcats, quail, boar, and roadrunners roam freely. Since he was a kid, Scott “Scojo” Claassen — vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist, and primary songwriter of Santa Barbara-based surf-rock band Scojo & the Keel — felt this area represented a paradise where everything just felt right.
Scott has made many memories with dear friends inside this idyllic expanse. Sadly, one of them recently passed away in her sleep, leaving behind a loving family. To process the loss, Scott returned to Gaviota. The debut record from Scojo & the Keel, fittingly-titled, Gaviota, is a collection of sketches and feelings from this sacred space during a reflective time. “The songs on Gaviota are an attempt to process personal loss, and transform it into uplifting music through exploring surf culture and its potential for healing,” Scott says.
Scojo & the Keel’s breezy, roots-based music, and Scott’s boldly vulnerable lyrics have garnered the group comparisons to a “surf-rock” Jason Isbell. Scott wrote, sang, produced, and recorded Gaviota. The band's first single, “Summer Days, ” amassed over 91,000 plays on Spotify by word of mouth. The album’s second single will be the winsome Americana-flavored song, Lost Coast.
Scott is a lifelong musician and an Episcopal priest based in Santa Barbara, CA. Previously, Scott did session work in Nashville, played in the Broken West on Merge Records, and had his songs featured in film and TV shows, including Grey’s Anatomy.
Scojo & the Keel formed around the church community where Scott is a priest. Here, surfing and spirituality brought together a formidable collective of musicians, including violinist David Paul, a professor of musicology, and saxophonist Dennis Berger who has played with everyone from Little Richard to West Coast jazz pioneers. Scojo & the Keel is rounded out by Charles Kernkamp, drums; Ana Valladares Schmid, vocals; Norm Nelson, bass; George Daisa, vocals; and Preston Towers, percussion. Rock legend Auggie Meyers makes a guest appearance on “Don’t Come Home Tonight.” Auggie has played with everyone from Bob Dylan to Tom Waits, but he is best known for his Vox organ playing with Texas legend Doug Sahm and The Sir Douglas Quintet.
The moody and immaculately orchestrated single, Lost Coast, features an elegant interlace of teardrop slide guitar, keys. and violin. The lead vocals here are full of longing, and they are girded by sunny harmonies at opportune times. The song subtly veers into those Spanish-style chord changes the Ventures employed, but the choruses soar upward with feel-good, Tom Petty-style uplift. The song is a sonic snapshot of The Lost Coast, an undeveloped stretch of Humboldt and Mendocino counties in Northern California. To Scott, Gaviota is the little sister of the Lost Coast.
Lost Coast’s musical yin and yang artfully captures its core theme. “Within the surfing community escapism is inherent. Even the act of surfing locally removes the participant from normal life,” Scott says. “This song is about the tension between escapism and relationships of all sorts. Escapism can easily lead to avoidance—be it avoidance of personal issues as evident in the first verse of the song or avoidance of pressing social issues, as implied in the second verse.” Here, Scott’s message is gentle but firm as he sings: If I had to, I could find a way/To tell you all that it will be ok/But the truth is just a little gray/And I don’t feel like I could mince words today, not today.
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