Scott Reilly

Scott Reilly

at OOTB

(October 2003)
The songwriting colossus that is Scott Reilly appeared next and his first offering was "Go". Great chords and a tremendously emotional delivery underpinned the potent lyric about an abrupt end to a relationship. "Who Are You?" was musically upbeat although about feeling alien to the world (lyric: 'feel like I'm born/ Born on the wrong planet'). The absolutely magical "The Way That I Wanna Dance" with much whooping and hollering finished a classic Scott Reilly performance.

(December 2003)
After a few pun-filled "Telegrams" from Bill Phillip, Scott Reilly then closed off the first half, by dint of his having played more times at OOTB than any other artist. His first was new to me ("Going Down"?), made me think of some strangely cheerful dust-bowl Okies bowling along in their car singing, with all their furniture on their roof. "Bubblegum Crisis" is quirky, picked and slow, Scott using metaphors involving bubblegum to talk about his feeling for someone, which I think is original and great. "Like It Was Told" has been gathering plaudits amongst the musicians at OOTB since Scott first played it, and the beautiful vocal rising and falling like the swell of the sea, is a suitably tender entreaty to a loved one. Brilliant stuff.