Scott Sharrard: Saving Grace
Scott Sharrard was the guitarist in Gregg Allman’s solo band for the singer’s last nine years and his musical director for the final few. He played on Allman’s swan song Southern Blood and co-wrote the elegiac, moving “My Only True Friend.” Listening to his fifth solo album, Saving Grace, it’s easy to hear what Allman liked about Sharrard and it lies in the guitarist/singer’s firm rooting in, and abiding love of, blues and R&B. The tracks pulsate and swing. Sharrard’s deep-soul singing is featured as much as, or more than, his strong guitar work—bobbing, weaving and riding atop the grooves created by Memphis’ Hi Rhythm Section and Muscle Shoals’ The Swampers. It isn’t a coincidence that Sharrard chose to record with two of Southern soul’s greatest rhythm sections. But for all the greasy R&B focus, the album’s emotional core is the swaggering midtempo blues neo-classic “Everything a Good Man Needs,” Allman’s last known original composition. Sharrard co-wrote the song and they cut an instrumental track for Southern Blood , but it was never finished and probably wouldn’t have fit the album’s sepia tone anyhow. The Saving Grace version features drummer Bernard Purdie and a swaggering, simmering vocal by Taj Mahal—it was a stroke of genius by Sharrard to deputize a pair of Allman’s peers and heroes to animate his final tune. Taj brings extra depth and gravity to the song, conjuring Allman’s spirit with his vocals riding atop Sharrard’s weeping slide lick. The song is a fitting epitaph, and it sits naturally right near the middle of the album, a highlight that also illustrates the strength of the rest of the material.