"This guy is it. He's the next Leonard Cohen." - Eric Roest, former buyer for Tower Records

10 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Americana, FOLK: Angry



Details:
*Artist's recommendation: Try "Alouine"; some folks feel that this is my best song.

**Note: This album contains some of my very finest writing. There is, however, absolutely nothing on this disc that even resembles a "hit". Buyer beware!

* * * * *

"This guy is it! He's the next Leonard Cohen!

Eric Roest
former buyer for Tower Records


"Whether Scairiot is [psychologically? molecularly?] stable or not, he's one of the most brilliant writers I've come across in my several years of music reviewing. I kept pausing the tracks and skipping back so I could scribble down the lines, word for word."

Jennifer Layton
Indie-Music.com


"Scairiot is an incredibly talented 28-year-old songwriter recently transplanted from the Arizona desert... The open expanse of the southwest tinges his music with drift, and he sings of whispers and spirits with the languorous perspective of one who was born and raised in a ghost town... Much like Greg Brown or Tom Russell, Scairiot is able to create truths in his work that can be jarring at first."

Gabe Meline
The North Bay Bohemian


Here's a very heavy-handed assertion, both indelicate and immodest: Daryl Scairiot is one of the finest songwriters working today. A first-rate craftsman in the tradition of Leonard Cohen and Elvis Costello, Arizona-born Daryl Scairiot possesses a formidable command both of language and of the idiom of lyric-writing. Nihilistic, savage and scatological; tender, elegant and human, Scairiotâs songs spark with misanthropic beauty. Jennifer Layton, of Indie-Music.com, has called him âone of the most brilliant writers Iâve come across.â

Scairiotâs musical universe is a collision of the majestic and the grotesque. Finding his muses in the theater of manâs darker desires and dubious motivations, he creates brutal comedies in which these shadows confess themselves and may (or may not) be redeemed. The musical setting for these shadow-plays is a tempestuous avant-folk, Americana noir sound, evoking early Cohen, Steve Earle, Iron And Wine and Sixteen Horsepower; sometimes raunchy, sometimes splendid, with echoes of vaudeville and notable departures into rock and boozy, 1930âs-ish cabaret jazz. First and foremost a singer, Scairiot is best-known for his powerful baritone voice and his strong, memorable melodies.

Scairiot's relationship to his art more resembles that of a novelist than a musician. Interested chiefly in the more reclusive, writerly side of music, he places little importance on appearing live; in fact, he plays gigs only upon invitation. Even so, Scairiot has shared the stage with such indie luminaries as the Devil Makes Three, the Dolly Ranchers, the Andrew Jackson Jihad, Jason Webley and the Velvet Teen, as well as songwriters Steve Seskin, John Courage, Austin Willacy and Caren Armstrong.

Scairiot's newest release, Essays, shows him at his most literate and his most majestic. The lyrics, dense and meticulous, are the centerpiece, narrating scenarios of longing, envy, regret, devotion and malice in fresh and exquisite language. The music is stark and chilling: a simple, insistent guitar is joined by violin, piano and accordion and they achieve moments of heartbreaking tenderness. Patently unsuited to the attention-deficit format of pop radio, this album will nonetheless prove very rewarding to those listeners who are ready to sit down with it and let it take its time. Essays is likely to be a significant, if somewhat obscure, addition to the Song-As-Poem genre.

After spending four years in extravagantly expensive Northern California, Daryl recently returned to Phoenix, where he now lives with his wife and their daughter. He is currently pursuing degrees in Religious Studies and Creative Writing.