Bass Hall Welcomes Boz Scaggs, 2/14

Performing Arts Fort Worth proudly welcomes back Dallas-bred singer/songwriter Boz Scaggs to Bass Performance Hall on Monday, February 14, 2011, at  7:30 p.m. Tickets are $27.50-$60.50, and will go on sale THIS SATURDAY, December 11, at 10:00 a.m.

Boz Scaggs has been one of the most prolific and popular singer/songwriters of the last 30 years. Throughout the '70s and '80s, he racked several R&B/pop hits, including "Lido Shuffle," "Lowdown" and "Look What You've Done to Me."

Scaggs continues to dazzle fans and critics alike. In his review of Scaggs' debut appearance at the Hall, in 2009, Star-Telegram writer Robert Philpot said: "From the moment Boz Scaggs opened his mouth on Jojo, his first number, it was like nearly 30 years had been erased."

Now in his mid-60s, Scaggs continues to release new music - music that challenges both him and his fans. His last two albums, 2003's But Beautiful and 2008's Speak Low, are abrupt left turns for the pop/R&B singer. They are collections of standards that are mostly jazz-oriented - an area of music Scaggs has flirted with in the past but, until now, never full embraced.

 "So many people in the last decade have gone back to the standards, the list is as long as my arm," Scaggs says. "It seemed pointless to even go there unless we were going to do something to make these songs our own. We had to find an emotional connection. We played around a lot with different tempos and feels, pushed the songs in different directions."

Made up of a wildly eclectic mix of songs, including Chet Baker's "She Was Too Good to be True," Johnny Mercer's "This Time the Dream's on Me" and the Kurt Weill/Ogden Nash title track, Speak Low was recorded at Skywalker Sound, a recording studio connected to filmmaker George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch complex. The disc was recorded in four days, with all the musicians playing in the same room, thus giving the record, Scaggs says, a "live" and "intimate" atmosphere.
"The sense of intimacy you get there is quite remarkable," he says. "You sort of naturally think that you can get closer to the music in a smaller room, but that's not always true. At Skywalker, the vastness brought us all together. The enormous space and the enormous quiet really gives you a sense of intimacy."

William Royce Scaggs was born in Ohio but raised in Oklahoma and Texas. While attending school in Dallas, he met guitarist/singer Steve Miller and joined his group, the Marksmen, in 1959. The two would cross paths again - in Wisconsin, where they played together in blues bands such as the Ardells, and in San Francisco, where Scaggs joined the fledging Steve Miller Band. After recording two well-received albums with the group, Children of the Future and Sailor, Scaggs struck out on his own, landing a record deal in 1968. Nearly ten years would pass, however, before Scaggs' career took off commercially.

In 1976, Scaggs released Silk Degrees, an album that spawned several hit singles, including "Lowdown," "Georgia" and "Lido Shuffle." Silk Degrees sold more than four million copies and won Scaggs a Grammy Award® for Best R&B song for "Lowdown." After winning more accolades for subsequent albums and singles such as "Breakdown Dead Ahead" and "Look What You've Done to Me," Scaggs took a long break from the music industry that lasted until 1988's Other Roads album.
Since then, Scaggs has been consistently touring and recording - and challenging himself. "I come more out of a blues/rhythm and blues background, but this is a different way of using my voice," he says. "And it's much more musically challenging and adventurous for me."

To charge tickets by phone, call (817) 212-4280 in Fort Worth; 1-877-212-4280 (toll free) outside Fort Worth; or order online at www.basshall.com. Tickets are also available at the Bass Performance Hall ticket office at 525 Commerce Street. Ticket office hours: Monday through Friday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. and Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Don't Miss a Dallas News Story Sign up for all the news on the Winter season, discounts & more...