SHORT BIO
Tennessee native Scott B. Bomar is a professional songwriter who has enjoyed contracts with Nashville’s Larga Vista and Sony/ATV/Tree Music publishing houses, while nurturing an independent singer/songwriter career from his current home base in Los Angeles. Inspired by Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen, Merle Haggard, Lucinda Williams, and Buck Owens, Scott’s brand of Americana roots rock led music critic Robert Oermann to dub him “the hillbilly Tom Petty” and to describe his most recent CD, “Radio Drive,” as “a rallying cry for honesty, roots and meaning in music.”
Judges Gillian Welch, Jim Lauderdale, Kate Campbell and Si Kahn awarded Scott and his wife Melanie second place in the Chris Austin Songwriting Competition at the Merle Fest roots music festival. In addition, he has been honored by the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and Jewel’s Soul City Café song competition. Scott’s songs have been heard from the Sunset Strip to the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, and on a number of national television shows and commercials. He has had songs recorded by Brooks & Dunn, Steve Seskin, and The Derailers. Recently, he appeared on a Music Row Democrats compilation album alongside The Mavericks, Todd Snider, Nanci Griffith, and others.
LONG BIO
Scott B. Bomar grew up in Nashville, but moved to Los Angeles in 2000 and started writing music with a much stronger country sensibility. “That might sound a little backwards” he explains in the liner notes of his recently released ‘Radio Drive,’ “but I’ve always been one to kick against whatever happens to be in front of me.” While his music represents an eclectic variety of Americana influences from roots rock to alternative country to soul to contemporary folk, he notes; “Country music is really just simple and direct storytelling. It’s about love, loss, longing, desire, disappointment, hope, fear, people’s lives…It’s about things that are real….There’s probably a lot of stuff [I do] that might not exactly sound traditional, but my hope is that the songs are good enough to be called country music.”
Scott B. Bomar has been compared to writer/artists in the vein of Steve Earle, Tom Petty and Lucinda Williams. “Ultimately I consider myself a songwriter first and foremost,” he explains. “A few years ago I had a conversation with Guy Clark backstage in Cerritos, California and he suggested I refer to myself as a ‘songwriter-singer’ to emphasize my first priority. I kind of latched on to it because it seems to fit, and also because I really like Guy Clark,” Bomar laughs.
After a few years as a staff writer for Nashville publishing houses Larga Vista Music and Sony/ATV/Tree Music Publishing, Scott’s considers his professional base to be Nashville, but he spends most of his time at his California home on a little street near the ocean called Radio Drive – the inspiration for the title of his current album. Recorded primarily in Santa Monica, California, “Radio Drive” was co-produced with Marty Rifkin, a gifted steel guitarist and multi-instrumentalist who has recorded with many artists who’ve been a direct influence on Scott’s writing, including Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Dwight Yoakam, and Elton John. Rex Schnelle, who has collaborated with Waylon Jennings, Chris Cagle, Bill Anderson, Jon Bon Jovi, Tim McGraw and others, contributed some additional production work in Nashville.
“I’m happy with what we came up with,” Bomar notes, “because the record really showcases the songs - which is what Nashville is all about - but it’s also got a little of that West Coast edge that gives it a slightly different vibe.”
“Working with seasoned Nashville writers has taught me a lot about the craft of songwriting,” Scott explains. “It’s great to be able to travel there regularly and immerse myself in that world – because I love Nashville and its rich musical history and creative community. It’s nice, though, to spend a lot of time away to get some perspective, refresh my creative well, and hopefully come back with some great ideas.”
As a writer, Scott has received awards from the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Jewel’s Soul City Café Song Competition and the ASCAPlu$ award which recognizes “writers whose works have a unique prestige value.” In April of 2002 he and his wife Melanie received second place in the national Chris Austin Songwriting Competition at Doc Watson’s Merlefest roots music festival in North Carolina, which was judged by Si Kahn, Kate Campbell, Jim Lauderdale and Gillian Welch, whose own career was launched when she won the competition in 1993. In addition, he has composed music for TV shows and commercials and has played in several of The Nashville Songwriters Association’s annual Tin Pan South songwriter festivals.
During high school and college Scott played in several bands, performing in coffee houses and bars around the South. Inspired by a chance encounter that resulted in several days of hanging out in the recording studio with musical hero Steve Earle, he decided to throw himself into songwriting.
In 2000 he married Melanie, a singer, songwriter, drummer and percussionist who has most recently been playing with renowned guitarist Will Ray, and moved to Los Angeles at her urging. “We formed a band and called it Bomar,” Scott notes. They began working on songs together, picking up gigs at Molly Malone’s, The Gig, The Knitting Factory, McCabe’s, Universal City Walk, Highland Grounds, Viva Cantina, and the now-defunct Crooked Bar on the Sunset Strip - “anywhere they’d let us play a few songs,” Scott jokes. Honing what “Rootstown” magazine called their “well-crafted roots music,” Scott and Melanie performed in the Los Angeles Circle of Songs showcase, Hollywood’s monthly Western Beat roots music show, the historic Bluebird Café in Nashville, and on Billy Block’s nationally syndicated radio show.
In 2001, Scott released "This Kind," his country-tinged roots rock debut. One of the songs on the CD, “Inside Looking Out” (co-written with Matt Slocum of the band Sixpence None the Richer), received some national and international airplay on Americana radio. “Village Records” noted the album's “finely crafted songs” and asserted that “the major record companies release hundreds of discs each year that don't come close to what this one has to offer.”
Scott and Melanie released their first duo CD, "Maladies of Love" in early 2002. Produced by the multi-talented True Tunes recording artist Rex Schnelle, “Maladies of Love” featured guest appearances by Ryan McMillen (Sandra McCracken), Phil Madeira (Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Buddy & Julie Miller, Alison Krauss), Tammy Rogers (Buddy Miller, Rosie Flores, The Jayhawks) and a handful of their Nashville friends who dropped by to lend their talents to the self-released disc. One reviewer called “Maladies of Love” a “heady brew of folk, country and some pop with a lyrical emphasis [that is] edgy with some great hooks.”
Scott’s most recent 2005 release, “Radio Drive” features Melanie on backup vocals and percussion on several tracks. Other guest musicians include long time Dwight Yoakam sideman Skip Edwards (who’s played with Lucinda Williams, Buck Owens, Chris Hillman, Dave Alvin and others), Fiddlers Tammy Rogers (Buddy Miller, Rosie Flores, The Jayhawks) and Gabe Witcher (Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson), and “Tonight Show” Band trumpeter Lee Thornburg (Bonnie Raitt, Tom Petty, Ringo Starr, Etta James, Ray Charles and many others). Close friend Paul Duncan (Kepano Green, Sensefield, Echo Division), who was the lead singer of Scott’s first rock band back in high school, plays piano, Wurlitzer and organ on many of Radio Drive’s tracks.
The roots rock influence is obvious on songs like “Love Town, Pop. 2” and “All I Need.” He veers into more confessional territory, however, on moodier tracks such as “Keep on Drivin’” and “Relentless Pursuit of Your Heart.” He easily transitions from the playfully sexual soul sound of “Soon As You Get Home” to the hard country of “How Many More Tomorrows” and “Poison to Me,” to the retro shuffles of “It Gets Me Every Time” and “To Whom It May Concern.” The political subtext of “Two Paper Town,” a sparsely produced commentary on what Bomar calls the “cookie-cutter cloning of American communities,” is powerful, as is “The Ghost of William Tines,” the true story of a Tennessee Death Row inmate who was executed in 1960. It’s no surprise that after exploring sex, love, temptation and politics, Bomar, who has a degree in Theology from Vanderbilt University Divinity School, tackles religion in “I Sold My Soul.” Though exploring a range of styles and subject matter, he effortlessly weaves each track together with an accessible rootsy approach that evokes the cream of Americana artists who’ve crafted compelling story songs about the joys and challenges of real life.
In his review of "Radio Drive," noted music journalist Robert K. Oermann called Scott "the hillbilly Tom Petty" and "a striking new voice...His "Radio Drive" CD knocked me right on my butt...an extraordinary listening experience and a rallying cry for honesty, roots and meaning in music."
The “Radio Drive” album was forged largely out of Scott’s collaborations with various other songwriters. In addition to working with top Nashville writers, Scott linked up with Brian Hofeldt and Tony Villanueva of the The Derailers, an Austin-based group heavily steeped in the music of Buck Owens and The Beatles, to collaborate on four of the album’s thirteen tracks. One of those songs, “I Miss Johnny Cash,” co-written with Hofeldt and Capitol recording artist Eric Church was recorded by country superstars Brooks & Dunn, but not released. “Obviously, the Brooks and Dunn thing was a big disapointment,” admits Bomar, but everybody loves Johnny Cash and I believe the song will find a home on country radio one of these days.”
Recently, The Derailers recorded Scott’s song “Every Time It Rains,” which was included on their 2006 Palo Duro Records release, “Soldiers of Love.” No Depression magazine dubbed it a “gorgeous weeper,” while the Philadelphia Enquirer noted its “cool, pop-tinged atmospherics." During the summer of 2006, The Derailers performed it on the stage of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, which Scott considers one of the highlights of his career. “I have a profound respect for the deep tradition that the Opry represents in the history of American music. Just to be a miniscule part of that – even if only for a few moments - was breathtaking.”
Recently, Scott appeared alongside The Mavericks, Nanci Griffith, Darrell Scott, Todd Snider, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Shawn Camp, James McMurtry, Tim O'Brien, Bobby Braddock, and Norman & Nancy Blake on a Music Row Democrats compilation album, performing “Two Paper Town,” a song he co-wrote with Steve Seskin and that music journalist Jay Orr called “an incisive tune about corporate America's continued narrowing of the dialogue of everyday life.”
Currently, Scott B. Bomar is happy to bounce back and forth between Music City and Tinsel Town, writing songs and playing gigs. “I love the Bakersfield sound from the 60’s and the West Coast singer-songwriters and rockers who congregated around Los Angeles as much as I love the classic country of Nashville, soul of Memphis and spirit of the South,” Bomar explains. “Hopefully, I captured a little of all of that on this record. I’m pleased with “Radio Drive” because it reflects where I am, both musically and professionally. If other people dig it, it makes it that much sweeter.”