“Scott is the kind of musician they don’t make anymore, in the mold of the late Pete Seeger – unpretentious, deadly serious about his craft, dedicated to preserving traditional American music and instruments, unabashedly faithful to left-liberal values, and so versatile he can make you weep one moment over the story of a dying steel town…and snicker appreciatively the next at a driving Mississippi blues song full of earthy innuendo…” – Pamela Constable, The Washington Post

A traditional acoustic Blues singer-guitarist, Scott Ainslie is also a historian and songwriter with personal roots in the Civil Rights era and a great affection for cross-cultural exchange. Scott has received numerous awards and grants for his work documenting and presenting traditional music including support from

• The National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency in Washington DC

• The North Carolina Arts Council

• The Independent community artist award in Durham NC

• Lifetime achievement award from the 1st Annual Slide Guitar Festival

• The 21st Annual Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award, St. Andrew’s College Laurinburg, NC.

A traditional musician with expertise in Southern Appalachian fiddle and banjo traditions; East Coast and Delta Blues; Scott has been performing roots music and presenting teaching concerts on the African roots of American music and culture in community and educational settings since 1986 when he joined the prestigious North Carolina Visiting Artist Program and took his first artist-in-residence position in a racially-polarized community in eastern NC.

Scott has spent decades looking for the right story–the right set of facts, the right bit of history, a personality, a moment in history–to give a song a chance to live and breathe among us like when it was new. Along the way, he has developed expertise in the many African retentions–musical and cultural–that remain present and active in American music and culture today.