Recorded at the famed Echo Mountain Recording Studios in Asheville North Carolina, both albums were engineered by Kenny Harrington, mixed and mastered by the team at Well Made Music in Bristol, TN., and pressed locally at Citizen Vinyl in Asheville. Vol. 1 is a band-oriented effort, while Vol. 2 features a more stripped down sound with the addition of strings.

Vol. 1 also features a guest appearance by Richard Thompson on the track titled “John on the Run.”

The songs are both tender and enticing, from the decidedly down home delivery of “Caroline” and the earnest and engaging “Ride On,” to the reflective sounds of “John on the Run,” “Mom (Always Liked You)” and “How Blue.” They epitomize the approach of an artist solely in control of his craft while inspired by honesty, integrity, creativity and craft.

SCOTTY MELTON is a troubadour. A poet. A philosopher. In his own words, “Just a bum folksinger.” More than anything, he’s a truth-teller, a writer who wouldn’t even know what to do with a lie. He’s a man who looks in the mirror of his soul and sees not just the littered rear-view, but the ravaged inner-view, then – unflinchingly and without apology – puts it into song, his Haunting Demons singing back-up, his Better Angels taking alternate, if fleeting, solos.

Based out of Johnson City, in the mountains of East Tennessee, Melton’s career – like the Smokeys – has also had peaks and valleys. He co-wrote three of the songs on the above-mentioned Justin Townes Earle’s ground-breaking debut The Good Life, helping to nudge Earle out of the shadow of his legendary father, Steve Earle. He also co-wrote (again, with the younger Earle), “Roger’s Park,” featured on JTE’s award-winning Harlem River Blues. He’s toured with the likes of Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Malcolm Holcomb, and Steve Young, all artists and poets who occupy that higher plain of the vocation, beyond craft and language – the songwriters other songwriters dream of being.