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Alabama Music Office.com goes to Shoals Creek near Florence, Alabama to attend a performance by Scott Boyer at Dick Cooper Party Spring 2016. Scott Boyer sings about Johnny Wyker.

Charles Scott Boyer II (17 October, 1947), professionally known as Scott Boyer, a consummate guitarist-singer-songwriter, gained acclaim internationally as a founding member of the seminal folk-rock group Cowboy, and as the songwriter of hits for Gregg Allman, Eric Clapton, and Bonnie Bramlett. Boyer spent his youth in Upstate NY and Kentucky, before settling in Jacksonville, Florida, where his musical skills were honed. He played piano and viola, before gravitating to the guitar. In 1965, Boyer and, following Dylan and the Lovin’ Spoonful’s foray into electrified folk, put together a band two high school friends, David Brown and Butch Trucks (Allman Bros.), blending folk and rock elements.
Boyer had an early hit with “Sandcastles”; encouraged by Duane and Gregg Allman, Boyer and trio found a club gig in Daytona Beach, and then cut a cover “Let’s Get Together,” later a huge hit for The Youngbloods, another folk-rock trio. Changing the name from The Bitter IND, to the 31st of February their early singles paved the way for a 1967 session at Criteria Studio in Miami resulting in an eponymous album on Vanguard Records, reaching No. 98 on the Billboard charts.
During this period, Boyer participated in open-air groundbreaking concerts at Riverfront Park in Jacksonville, witnessing the emergence of what would be labeled Southern Rock; on scene were bands such as The One Percent (later known as Lynyrd Skynyrd), The Second Coming (with future Allman Brothers members Berry Oakley and Dickie Betts), and Duane Allman, himself (Gregg would remain in Los Angeles a while). The 31st of February expanded to a quintet briefly to include Duane and Gregg Allman; that quintet cut demos under the name The 31st of February, which were sent to Vanguard but declined; the session reappeared in 1971 as Duane and Gregg Allman, The Early Years on Bold Records.
In 1968, Boyer was living in Gainesville, FL, and playing with keyboard player Bill Pillmore; the two co-wrote “Living in the Country,” which appeared on the first Cowboy album Reach for the Sky on Capricorn (1970), which also featured Boyer’s song “It's Time,” the title song of Bonnie Bramlett’s first solo album (1974) on Capricorn Records. The band, Cowboy, formed in Orlando in late 1968, cut four albums for Capricorn Records between 1970 and 1977: these were Reach for the Sky (1970); the second album, 5'll Getcha 10, was cut at Muscle Shoals Sound’s 3614 Jackson Highway Studio in 1971, which featured Boyer’s “Please Be With Me” featuring Duane Allman; the song was picked up by Eric Clapton, who covered it on his Grammy-winning 461 Ocean Boulevard, in 1974. A double album on Capricorn titled Why Quit When You’re Losing was released in1975 featuring material culled from the first two Cowboy albums.



Video by Jerry W. Henry