Scott Niolet Clearing The Debris CD

When Mississippi Coast native Scott Niolet lost his home in Hurricane Katrina, it was a wake-up call. The singer/songwriter decided that life’s too short, so he married his longtime girlfriend and prepared to record, a task he’d put off for nearly fifteen years. “The time had come to record the album I’d basically been writing my whole life,” Scott said. “I just finally had the impetus to record my songs, and I also had something to say.”Country, blues, rock and pop all converged as Scott traveled to New York to record “Clearing The Debris,” a landmark debut album produced by longtime collaborator turned album producer Stephen Pitalo.“Scott and I met at LSU back in the early 1990s,” Pitalo said. “And we stayed up late writing drinking songs. A few of those stood the test of time, and we just filled in the blanks after that. Scott’s been through so much, from the hurricane to personal battles, that I knew this album would be overflowing with emotion. It’s heartfelt, it’s angry, it’s funny…it’s just reflective of who Scott is.”"I'd been writing and performing as a singer/songwriter all my life, " Niolet said, referring to his man-with-a-guitar-on-a-barstool performing persona. "But to have the opporunity to expand the songs into the full productions I heard in my head when I wrote them....it's amazing. The album takes these songs into the world I always knew they could inhabit."Scott recorded the demos in a FEMA trailer in Pass Christian, Mississippi, and sent them up to New York. Stephen enlisted piano rocker Jason Yudoff as arranger, bringing funky blues and classic rock-piano feel to the larger scale production. New York's finest studio players joined the party, as did Dave Fisher and Doug Shank of the Diesel Street Kings, adding their blues guitar sound to the sessions.Fans of Jimmy Buffett, Elton John, Bob Seger, Kid Rock, James Taylor, and country rock from the 1970s will enjoy Scott’s debut album, “Clearing the Debris" on Lapdaddy Records.