All My Friends by Scott Boyer

The stage band will include former Steppenwolf guitarist Larry Byrom, Charlie Daniels Band bassist Charlie Haywood, former Bama Band member Billy Earhart, Nashville drummer Bryan Owings, original Fame Gang drummer Jerry Carrigan, guitarist Rick Kurtz, the Bama Brass and others.

We have a couple surprises in the works for both shows, Cooper said.

The Shoals Theater is on the corner of Seminary and Mobile Streets in Florence.

The second concert will be Wednesday, April 18, 2007, at 7 p.m. at the Alabama Theatre, 1811 Third Avenue North in downtown Birmingham.

Gregg Allman, Bonnie Bramblett, The Amazing Rhythm Aces, Donnie Fritts, Paul Thorn, The Capricorn Rhythm Section, The Decoys, Zac Hacker and Topper Price will perform there. The stage band will include Byrom, Owings, Carrigan, former Muscle Shoals guitarist Wayne Perkins, the Bama Brass and others.

Boyer, who has lived in the Shoals Area for several years and formerly in Fairhope, was a member of Cowboy, an act signed with Capricorn Records in Macon, Georgia, in the 1970s. More recently, the former Florida State University student has been the lead guitarist and vocalist for The Decoys and the Capricorn Rhythm Section.

Tickets for the Shoals show will be $25 each. They may be purchased at Pegasus Records in Florence and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in Tuscumbia.

Advance tickets for the Birmingham show, price still undetermined, will be sold only online through Ticketmaster. Details will be announced soon.

Persons wanting to make contributions to Boyer may do so by sending checks, payable to the Muscle Shoals Music Association for The Scott Boyer Benefit, to MSMA, P. O. Box 2383, Muscle Shoals, Alabama 35662.

4/9/2007 - The Florence show turned out spectacular. You need to make the Birmingham show. Randall Bramlett has been added, another great entertainer, with past ties to Scott. Here is a link to an article in the Mobile Press-register about the Birmingham show:

http://www.al.com/press-register/stories/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1175851188207790.xml&coll=3

BIO

Charles Scott Boyer II (17 October, 1947), professionally known as Scott Boyer, a consummate guitarist-singer-songwriter, gained acclaim internationally as a founding member of the seminal folk-rock group Cowboy, and as the songwriter of hits for Gregg Allman, Eric Clapton, and Bonnie Bramlett. Boyer spent his youth in Upstate NY and Kentucky, before settling in Jacksonville, Florida, where his musical skills were honed. He played piano and viola, before gravitating to the guitar. In 1965, Boyer and, following Dylan and the Lovin’ Spoonful’s foray into electrified folk, put together a band two high school friends, David Brown and Butch Trucks (Allman Bros.), blending folk and rock elements.

Boyer had an early hit with “Sandcastles”; encouraged by Duane and Gregg Allman, Boyer and trio found a club gig in Daytona Beach, and then cut a cover “Let’s Get Together,” later a huge hit for The Youngbloods, another folk-rock trio. Changing the name from The Bitter IND, to the 31st of February their early singles paved the way for a 1967 session at Criteria Studio in Miami resulting in an eponymous album on Vanguard Records, reaching No. 98 on the Billboard charts.

During this period, Boyer participated in open-air groundbreaking concerts at Riverfront Park in Jacksonville, witnessing the emergence of what would be labeled Southern Rock; on scene were bands such as The One Percent (later known as Lynyrd Skynyrd), The Second Coming (with future Allman Brothers members Berry Oakley and Dickie Betts), and Duane Allman, himself (Gregg would remain in Los Angeles a while). The 31st of February expanded to a quintet briefly to include Duane and Gregg Allman; that quintet cut demos under the name The 31st of February, which were sent to Vanguard but declined; the session reappeared in 1971 as Duane and Gregg Allman, The Early Years on Bold Records.

In 1968, Boyer was living in Gainesville, FL, and playing with keyboard player Bill Pillmore; the two co-wrote “Living in the Country,” which appeared on the first Cowboy album Reach for the Sky on Capricorn (1970), which also featured Boyer’s song “It's Time,” the title song of Bonnie Bramlett’s first solo album (1974) on Capricorn Records. The band, Cowboy, formed in Orlando in late 1968, cut four albums for Capricorn Records between 1970 and 1977: these were Reach for the Sky (1970); the second album, 5'll Getcha 10, was cut at Muscle Shoals Sound’s 3614 Jackson Highway Studio in 1971, which featured Boyer’s “Please Be With Me” featuring Duane Allman; the song was picked up by Eric Clapton, who covered it on his Grammy-winning 461 Ocean Boulevard, in 1974. A double album on Capricorn titled Why Quit When You’re Losing was released in1975 featuring material culled from the first two Cowboy albums.

Boyer and Talton emerged as the driving force behind Cowboy, touring with the Allman Brothers Band for six weeks in 1973. Boyer and Talton were also recruited as members of the house rhythm section with Bill Stewart and David Brown, at Capricorn Studio in Macon, often working with producer Johnny Sandlin (Hour Glass). With Cowboy, Boyer was involved in two further album projects for Capricorn before the label’s 1977 demise: Boyer & Talton (1975) and Happy to Be Alive (1976). Boyer and Talton’s involvement in the Capricorn house band, yielded fine sessions for Bonnie Bramlett, Martin Mull, Alex Taylor, Kitty Wells, and Gregg Allman.

Gregg Allman’s Laid Back, a gold record for Capricorn in 1974, resulted in a follow-up tour late in 1974 featuring the Capricorn rhythm section; the double album, The Gregg Allman Tour (produced by Johnny Sandlin) featured a cameo set billed as Cowboy/Boyer and Talton. Boyer’s work on Laid Back included a cover of his song “All My Friends,” which had appeared on Cowboy’s 5’ll Get You Ten (1971).

Boyer worked on two highly acclaimed albums by Alex Taylor; Taylor’s Friends and Neighbors was recorded in Macon at Capricorn Studio at a time when Boyer was living at a lake cabin formerly occupied by the Allman Brothers and known as Idlewild South, the title of the Allman Bothers’ second album. Boyer left Macon in 1976, moved to Fair Hope, Alabama, and spent time in Los Angeles in the late 1970s.

Boyer worked with Locust Fork around the Birmingham circuit, joined The Convertibles with Topper Price, staying with that group until 1988, when he moved to Decatur. The Convertibles recorded a five-song EP tape in 1985 in Muscle Shoals, signaling a return to a gutsier blues-oriented style. In 1988, Boyer joined Johnny Sandlin, forming The Decoys. Boyer also gigged in Huntsville with a band called Red, Hot, and Blue. In 1991, Boyer recorded All My Friends in Decatur at Sandlin’s Duck Tape recording studio. The album credits Scott Boyer and the Decoys, and the title is appropriate since it gathers together musicians from Boyer’s Capricorn days as well his associates from the Decoys. Boyer began an on and off collaboration in 1990 with Kelvin Holley and N.C. Thurman, who would become regulars in the Decoys. The group began a six-year run at a club called Union Station in Muscle Shoals in 1991, where the band featured luminary players such as Butch McDade, Jimmy Clay, David Hood, and Roger Hawkins.

In 1993, Polygram Records released on Compact Disc a retrospective set from Cowboy’s oeuvre culled from the Capricorn vaults, title A Different Time. Boyer has continued writing and recording material. Boyer and Thurman contributed “Silence Ain’t Golden” to Gregg Allman’s 1998 set Searching for Simplicity, cut at Duck Tape. He and Sandlin recorded an album of classic country material as well as tongue-in-cheek originals parodying the country music world, which resulted in the Scalded Dogs project (2000). Boyer then cut a set with songwriting partner N.C. Thurman under the title Old Dogs, New Tracks.

The Decoys recorded their Shot From The Saddle (MSR002) at Fame in Muscle Shoals in 2001, which features Holly, Thurman, and Hood. Boyer also produced an album of assorted songs with singer/songwriter Mitch McGee titled The Spring Cove Demos (2001). Boyer co-wrote with Shoals-area legend Donnie Fritts “Don’t Beat Around the Bush,” cut at Dan Penn’s studio in Nashville, and “Muscle Shoals”, cut at Boyer’s Spring Cove Studio in 2003. Also in 2003, Boyer joined Gregg Allman and Levon Helm on comedian Tim Wilson’s paean to Southern soul, The All Nighters, recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound. Boyer and Thurman contributed “Don’t Hit Me No More” to Jimmy Hall’s set on the reformed Capricorn label titled Rendezvous With The Blues; the songwriting duo contributed “Rock Bottom Blues” to Johnny Jenkins’ Blessed Blues on the same label. Boyer’s “The Blues Are Flowing Freely” appears on the Johnny Sandlin production of The Skeeters.

Boyer and Fritts, as committed supporters of the Muscle Shoals music community, spearheaded a fundraising campaign to enshrine Arthur Alexander’s Florence gravesite with a well-deserved and overdue memorial stone. Boyer performs regularly with Donnie Fritts - he appeared at Nashville’s Bluebird in August of 2005, and he is a mainstay of the Songfest and W.C. Handy Festival concerts (with Percy Sledge, Bonnie Bramlett, Rita Coolidge, Delbert McClinton, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Swan, and Gary Nicholson).

Boyer continues performing and recording at a regular pace, and has recently (2005) begun a collaboration with his former Macon cohorts Tommy Talton, Paul Hornsby, Bill Stewart, Johnny Sandlin – along with Texas-born Nashville guitarist Lee Roy Parnell – to perform as the Capricorn Rhythm Section. Recent concerts in Macon at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame demonstrate that the musical legacy, of which Boyer is a charter member, is alive and well.

The Decoys are on this album:

Scott Boyer – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Rhythm & Lead Guitars, Percussion

Kelvin Holly – Lead & Rhythm Guitars, Slide Guitar, Dobro, and Vocals

Chalmers Davis – Piano, Hammond B3, and Backup Vocals

N.C. Thurman – Piano, Wurlitzer, and Backup Vocals

Brian Owings – Drums, Attitude, Percussion, and Lampshade

David Brown – Bass, Saxaphone, and Hope in Life

Special Guests are:

Chuck Leavell – Piano, tracks (1), (2), (8), Hammond B3 (3), Wurlitzer (6)

Randall Bramlett – Alto & Saprano Saxaphones (1),(3),(10)

Butch Trucks – Drums & Percussion (1),(2), Puffs Plus Box (5)

Johnny Sandlin – Bass Guitar (10),(11)

Joe Walk – Piano (9),(10),(11), Hammond B3 (11)

Bryan Wheeler - Drums (10)(11)

Jim Bickerstaff - Mandolin (5)

Topper Price - Harmonica (5)(6)(8), Backup Vocals (2)(3)(5)

The Backwater Horn Section - Earl Ford - Trombone (1)(3)(10)

Wayne Chaney - Trumpet (1)(3)(10), Backup Vocals (2)(3)

Guy Higginbothem - Tenor Saxophone (1)(2)(3)(10)

The Fowlmouth Choir - Ken Talley - Backup Vocals (2)(3)

Patty Kilpatrick - Backup Vocals (3)(8)

Bonnie Bickerstaff - Backup Vocals (2)

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