Keith Scott

My love affair with the blues began long ago when I was a student at the University of Florida in Gainesville. I’d been slogging through my academics, but working even harder to improve my guitar skills. One day, after enduring yet another boring political science class, I met a girl who mentioned her boyfriend was hosting a “blues jam” session that night at a local club called “Friday Night Live,” just off campus.

As soon as I walked through the club door that night  - and heard the soulful, rhythmic sounds of the blues - I knew I had found my calling. Within a few months I was totally immersed in the local blues scene, spending my remaining college days practicing - and soaking up the legendary sounds of blues masters like Muddy Waters, Robert Plant (both of whom I would later meet), Lightning Hopkins, Bo Diddley, Howling Wolf, Jimmy Dawkins and Koko Taylor (the latter two I would one day play with) - and my nights playing at whatever club would have me.

When I learned that many of the great blues men who inspired me played on a popular “Silvertone” guitar manufactured by Sears Roebuck & Co in the 1950s, I knew I had to have one for myself.

As luck would have it, I eventually found one hanging on the wall of a local pawn shop. She was a real beauty: peach finish with a classic, single “silver lipstick” pickup. Without any haggling, I plopped down my $45 and took her home, first to Gainesville and eventually Chicago where she helps me record and perform the blues to this very day.