Charles Scott Boyer Jr. (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 in 1975 featuring material culled
from the first two Cowboy albums.
Boyer and Talton emerged as the driving force behind Cowboy, touring with the
Allman Brothers Band for six weeks in 1973. Boyer and Talton were also recruited as
members of the house rhythm section with Bill Stewart and David Brown, at Capricorn
Studio in Macon, often working with producer Johnny Sandlin (Hour Glass). With
Cowboy, Boyer was involved in two further album projects for Capricorn before the
label’s 1977 demise: Boyer & Talton (1975) and Cowboy (Unedited) (1976) Boyer and
Talton’s involvement in the Capricorn house band, yielded fine sessions for Bonnie
Bramlett, Martin Mull, Alex Taylor, Kitty Wells, and Gregg Allman.
Gregg Allman’s Laid Back, a gold record for Capricorn in 1974, resulted in a follow-up
tour late in 1974 featuring the Capricorn rhythm section; the double album, The Gregg
Allman Tour (produced by Johnny Sandlin) featured a cameo set billed as
Cowboy/Boyer and Talton. Boyer’s work on Laid Back included a cover of his song
“All My Friends,” which had appeared on Cowboy’s 5’ll Get You Ten (1971).
Boyer worked on two highly acclaimed albums by Alex Taylor; Taylor’s Friends and
Neighbors was recorded in Macon at Capricorn Studio at a time when Boyer was
living at a lake cabin formerly occupied by the Allman Brothers and known as Idlewild
South, the title of the Allman Bothers’ second album. Boyer left Macon in 1976, moved
to Fair Hope, Alabama, and spent time in Los Angeles in the late 1970s.
Boyer worked with Locust Fork around the Birmingham circuit, joined The
Convertibles with Topper Price, staying with that group until 1988, when he moved to
Decatur. The Convertibles recorded a five-song EP tape in 1985 in Muscle Shoals,
signaling a return to a gutsier blues-oriented style. In 1988, Boyer joined Johnny
Sandlin, forming The Decoys. Boyer also gigged in Huntsville with a band called Red,
Hot, and Blue. In 1991, Boyer recorded All My Friends in Decatur at Sandlin’s Duck
Tape recording studio. The album credits Scott Boyer and the Decoys, and the title is
appropriate since it gathers together musicians from Boyer’s Capricorn days as well
his associates from the Decoys. Boyer began an on and off collaboration in 1990 with
Kelvin Holly and N.C. Thurman, who would become regulars in the Decoys. The
group began a six-year run at a club called Union Station in Muscle Shoals in 1991,
where the band featured luminary players such as Butch McDade, Jimmy Clay, David
Hood, and Roger Hawkins.
In 1993, Polygram Records released on Compact Disc a retrospective set from
Cowboy’s oeuvre culled from the Capricorn vaults, title A Different Time. Boyer has
continued writing and recording material. Boyer and Thurman contributed “Silence Ain’
t Golden” to Gregg Allman’s 1998 set Searching for Simplicity, cut at Duck Tape. He
and Sandlin recorded an album of classic country material as well as tongue-in-cheek
originals parodying the country music world, which resulted in the Scalded Dogs
project (2000). Boyer then cut a set with songwriting partner N.C. Thurman under the
title Old Dogs, New Tracks.
The Decoys recorded their Shot From The Saddle (MSR002) at Fame in Muscle
Shoals in 2001, which features Holly, Thurman, and Hood. Boyer also produced an
album of assorted songs with singer/songwriter Mitch McGee titled The Spring Cove
Demos (2001). Boyer co-wrote with Shoals-area legend Donnie Fritts “Don’t Beat
Around the Bush,” cut at Dan Penn’s studio in Nashville, and “Muscle Shoals”, cut at
Boyer’s Spring Cove Studio in 2003. Also in 2003, Boyer joined Gregg Allman and
Levon Helm on comedian Tim Wilson’s paean to Southern soul, The All Nighters,
recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound. Boyer and Thurman contributed “Don’t Hit Me No
More” to Jimmy Hall’s set on the reformed Capricorn label titled Rendezvous With The
Blues; the songwriting duo contributed “Rock Bottom Blues” to Johnny Jenkins’
Blessed Blues on the same label. Boyer’s “The Blues Are Flowing Freely” appears on
the Johnny Sandlin production of The Skeeters.
Boyer and Fritts, as committed supporters of the Muscle Shoals music community,
spearheaded a fundraising campaign to enshrine Arthur Alexander’s Florence
gravesite with a well-deserved and overdue memorial stone. Boyer performs regularly
with Donnie Fritts - he appeared at Nashville’s Bluebird in August of 2005, and he is a
mainstay of the Songfest and W.C. Handy Festival concerts (with Percy Sledge,
Bonnie Bramlett, Rita Coolidge, Delbert McClinton, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Swan, and
Gary Nicholson).
Boyer continues performing and recording at a regular pace, and has recently (2005)
begun a collaboration with his former Macon cohorts Tommy Talton, Paul Hornsby,
Bill Stewart, Johnny Sandlin – along with Texas-born Nashville guitarist Lee Roy
Parnell – to perform as the Capricorn Rhythm Section. Recent concerts in Macon at
the Georgia Music Hall of Fame demonstrate that the musical legacy, of which Boyer
is a charter member, is alive and well.
