by Bertha Ann MacLean
Scott Phillips, impressed all who attended his ECMA Mainstage showcase, Saturday, January 31st, at the World Trade and Convention Centre. The band included Mike Hussey on bass guitar, Bruce Timmons and Dan Doiron on electric, keyboard player Mark Doiron, Doug Dean on drums, Bob MacDonald on pedal steel guitar, and Ray Legere on fiddle and mandolin. Scott’s showmanship and quality really had the crowd rocking. Approximately six hundred people attended the showcase, and Scott felt it went fabulously well. He says he is still receiving queries about his show, and made many new and exciting connections. He was contacted by Sesac, the third largest North American publishing company, and he is in negotiations now to travel to Nashville and collaborate with their writers there. Also in the works is a plan to use the national booking agents he met at the ECMA, possibly to tour across Canada, and also a chance to open for head-line bands. Some interest has been shown by major national recording labels, especially after Scott was such a hit with the Nashville boys. He’s hopeful that something will be signed soon.
His first full length album, Day One, is selling well, and Scott feels it is just a stepping stone to greater and broader endeavors. The recording has just been nationally distributed, and is sure to gain a wider audience from Canada’s country fans. The second single released from the album, “My Love Will Always Be Like That,” will hit the airwaves early in March, and the video will be playing on CMT by the middle of the month. He is planning a second album, which he hopes to record in Nashville.
It has been a successful year for Scott, and he is pleased with the work he and his band have created. For now Scott is focusing on his local shows, and his trip to the Canadian Country Awards, held this September in Calgary. He is busy preparing for a possible Mainstage showcase at the awards, and he hopes to win that audience to his style of country playing. With his knowledge of how to work a stage, and the talent behind his style, Scott is sure to impress, and continue on his road to success. (photo: Murd Smith)
