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Caught halfway between amplified Americana and big-hooked heartland roots-rock, Jason Scott & the High Heat create a sweeping, dynamic sound with razor sharp lyrics that reaches far beyond the traditions of their Oklahoma City home. It's an intoxicating cocktail that shakes up Guitar Town era Steve Earle with a splash of John Cougar Mellencamp, a twist of Tom Petty and the dashboard pounding positivity of The Hold Steady.
Too loud for folk music and too textured for Red Dirt, this is the sound of a genuine band rooted in groove, grit and its own singular spirit. Jason Scott's unique past - a Pentecostal upbringing, years logged as a preacher-in-training, and an eventual crisis of faith - has instilled both a storyteller's delivery and a unique perspective about life, love and listlessness in the modern world.
While his bandmates grew up listening to popular music, Jason's childhood was shaped by the sounds of Sunday morning church service. He sang in the choir and eventually learned to lead his own congregations, often turning to music to get his messages across. Whenever the opportunity arose, he'd sneak off to his uncle's 1979 Ford Bronco, where he'd listen to the Conway Twitty tapes that offered a glimpse into a world so dissimilar from his own.
Although Jason would eventually leave the church altogether for a career as a songwriter, his time as a pastor - forging connections with others, using songs and stories to strengthen the bond - helped prepare him for life on a different kind of life onstage.
A multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer and session musician, Scott launched his solo career in 2017 with the Living Rooms EP and spent the following year balancing his time between the road and the studio. Things began to expand as he assembled the High Heat, a band of musicians and roots-rock Renaissance men who, like their frontman, juggled multiple artistic pursuits.
Watch the new video for ‘Quittin’ Time’, premiering exclusively on Holler, below.
The song makes room for a dual-guitar attack, a barroom piano solo and a storyline about a hardworking man's fruitless attempts to escape his limited horizons.
"To anyone who's ever felt trapped at a dead end job, or in a dead end town, and can't seem to escape despite their damndest efforts, this song's for you”, Scott explains, about the single, taken from Castle Rock, the band’s full-length debut, out on February 11.
