In March of 2009, Scott was invited as a special guest
to play at an event in a small Canadian prairie town. The closest place to land would have been several hours away in Billings,
Montana. Scott decided to take a longer route with an even longer history.
This would be no ordinary artist retreat.
Two days by train from Springfield, MA to Havre, MT aboard the Amtrak "Empire
Builder" and carrying nothing but a small suitcase, a banjo and a laptop computer. Scott left an oncoming blizzard in
New England and emerged two days later to the balmy 50 degrees of the Chinook wind blessed town of Havre (Pronounced "Have-Her")
Montana.
A visit to Bearpaw Battlefield,
and a border-crossing 100 mile drive (across mostly unpaved roads) to live for one week alone in the Eastend, Sakatchewan
boyhood home of Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Wallace Stegner.
Scott spent several days retracing the author's early 1900's steps, conversing with the locals, and performing
at the 22nd Annual Memorial Dinner and Benefit on March 8th, 2009 in front of 300+ curious Canadians, in a town of only 600
residents.
Just as Scott was getting comfortable
in the Chinook wind blessed conditions, the temperatures quickly plummeted to -28F... and it was time to do the entire trip
in reverse. The train ride that went 3/4s of the way across America and back. Whiteout
conditions in North Dakota. Recording songs between Minneapolis and MIlwaukee. Out-of-body
experiences in downtown Chicago.
Scott has documented the entire experience in song, picture, music video and story...
and the adventures have since continued into the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, where Scott has traced the latter-life roots
of Wallace Stegner in his summer hometown of Greensboro (specifically Caspian Lake, and some of the ties with poet Robert
Frost at Lake Willoughby), where the volume of songs, stories and pictures have only grown larger.
Read all about it
