Bill Scorzari – The Crosswinds of Kansas (self-released, 2022)
Bill Scorzari is one of those rare singer-songwriters who are gifted with various talents, great songwriting, captivating musicianship and a distinct singing style that draws you in. He recently independently released his fourth album, titled The Crosswinds of Kansas.
A large amount of “The Crosswinds of Kansas” was inspired by his three-month-long “Now I’m Free Tour” in 2019. This period became a passage of self-discovery. Bill crossed the United States, starting in the east coast, reached the west coast, and traveled back. He visited waterfalls and did some hiking and climbing, thinking about his life experiences of loss, gains, and change.
At times, Bill composed haiku as a way to pass the time on the long drives between performances. The tour came to an unexpected early end when Bill learned of the sudden decline in the health of his then 94-year-old mother back home in New York.
Reading about Bill’s experience driving back home brought back memories of a pre-pandemic road trip I made with my wife from North Carolina to New Mexico on Interstate 40 (I-40). Between West Texas and New Mexico we encountered very strong winds, saw scary dust devils whirling towards us and I had to grip the steering vehicle of the rental vehicle for hours. It looks like Bill had a similar experience a little farther north. Bill began his four-day drive back home from California. When he arrived to Kansas, on the second day, the winds were blowing so hard North and South across I-70 East that he had to fight the car’s steering wheel for hours just to keep his car going straight down the highway.
Bill stopped in Hays, Kansas for the night and woke up the next morning with a painful neck and arms from wrestling those persistent crosswinds the day before. The following lines came to him while he was driving, “Then, came the crosswinds of Kansas unleashed, and it pushed me hard, north and south, all down I-70 east… As I tore home to my mother, before her health, it would fail, at 94, I felt another love leaving me lost, like a nail in a cross.”
Bill says, “When I wrote ‘I-70 East,’ I immediately knew that it was going to be the first track on this new album, even before I wrote the others, and when you cue up this record, it’ll be the first song that you hear when the music begins.”
After arriving home in New York, he secured 24-hour care for his mother in late 2019, and started to write new songs. It was a collection of new and reworked songs from his back catalog.
The final result is a nice packaged, deeply satisfying album where music is as important as the lyrics. It opens with an electric performance with distorted electric guitar à la Neil Young. However, the album is very diverse and Bill mixes rock energy with the laid back acoustic sounds of American folk, Native American flutes, Tibetan singing bowl, intricate Americana guitar, bluegrass claw-hammer banjo, chamber folk and a captivating mix of conventional vocals and spoken word.
Bill says, “I found that a lot of the songs on this record wound up having an upbeat feel, even when the lyrical content wasn’t necessarily upbeat, or at least not primarily or entirely so. It’s a very satisfying thing when that happens, like positivity shining through and prevailing over our struggles with adversity.”
The CD edition of the “The Crosswinds of Kansas” features beautiful artwork, song lyrics and detailed liner notes and credits.
Lineup: Bill Scorzari on lead, backing and harmony vocals, acoustic guitar, dobro, mandolin, electric guitar, Native American flutes, Tibetan singing bowl bell; Brent Burke on dobro; Chelsea McGough on cello; Cindy Richardson Walker on backing vocals, Dan Mitchell on piano and Hammond B3 organ; Eamon McLoughlin on fiddle; Fats Kaplin on fiddle, viola and pedal steel guitar; Juan Solorzano on slide guitar, electric guitar, baritone guitar and lap steel guitar; Kyle Tuttle on banjo; Marie Lewey on backing vocals; Matt Menefee on banjo; Mia Rose Lynne on harmony vocals, Mike Rinne on harmony vocals; Neilson Hubbard on drums, Native American drums and percussion, wind chimes, triangle, plastic hands and keyboard bass; Ty Allison on Navajo chanting; and Will Kimbrough on mandolin.
Bill Scorzari is a New York native, with an engaging raspy and nuanced vocal style, a talented lyricist and multi-instrumentalist as well. Although he worked as a New York Trial Lawyer for many years, he decided to become a full-time musician. His discography includes four albums: Just the Same (2014), Through These Waves (2017), Now I’m Free (2019) and the new The Crosswinds of Kansas (2022), all independently released.
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.