Georgia native and current Chattanooga resident Scott Colson is a soul man whose gritty vocals combine the smokiness of Otis Redding with the country twang of Darius Rucker, while at the same time he can belt out a rock tune with the raw energy of Elvis Presley and Robert Plant.
Hailing from Macon, Georgia, the birthplace of Southern rock, Colson grew up listening to the likes of early Elvis Presley and classic R&B, and those sounds settled deep in his heart. One listen to his songs, and you can hear how many different musical styles have influenced him.
“I’ve been doing deep dives into almost every musical genre for my entire life,” he says.
Colson, who goes by Slaw when recording and performing, explains the nickname comes from a playful evolution of his last name.
“A lot of folks have asked about the name and where it comes from. I wish there was a cool story, but here’s the deal: My friends started calling me by my last name, Colson. The ones who thought they were funny started saying Coleslaw. Then the lazier ones just shortened it to Slaw. And here we are—Prince, Sting, and now… Slaw. That’s how it happens,” he explains.
When Colson was young, his family moved to Peachtree City, Georgia, just south of Atlanta. Although music has always been a part of his life, he didn’t start playing, singing, and writing songs until high school. When he went to college at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, he won the school talent show singing a version of “Heartbreak Hotel” for his fraternity and played around with small acts at several bars and clubs around town.
Throughout his twenties and thirties, he played with a number of blues and rock bands. Eventually, he put music aside to focus on creating a successful business that provides beach equipment gear to renters of vacation properties. All the time he was renting bicycles and beach chairs to vacationers, however, Colson had music on his mind and wanted to get back and put everything he had into a solo project.
About a year and a half ago, he sold his business and started the process of making his debut album as Slaw, the fittingly titled Here I Come.
Produced in Nashville by Shawn Byrne, Here I Come showcases Colson’s knack for capturing the range of human emotion in raw, gritty blues songs and tender, vulnerable ballads. The eleven songs on Here I Come roar to life with the title track, a defiant, minor-chord bluesy declaration that anything is possible as long as you reach out to get it.
The song reflects the singer’s own experience. “It’s about hanging in there and going for it when the time is right and when you have the right opportunity.”
The sparsely rendered “If I Hadn’t Found You” opens with Colson’s yearning vocals accompanied by an acoustic guitar before the song swells with emotion as harmony singer Kayley Hill joins him for a transportive ode to finding that special person in your life and the difference it can make.
“I wrote the song about my wife, who’s my soulmate,” recalls Colson. “I felt like my life was on hold and that I wasn’t going anywhere; she came along, inspired me, and supported me in all I do, especially in my music.”
Hill and Colson join forces again on “Baby Don’t Cry,” an evocative, hook-laden love song that counsels moving on after the end of a relationship. According to Colson, it’s the oldest song on the album. “I probably wrote it when I was 17, and it opened my eyes to the process of songwriting.”
He was playing two chords over and over, and he wrote the melody over the chords. Colson and Byrne thought it would be cool to include a Led Zeppelin sound on the album, so “Heavy Load” features a wicked Stairway-esque recorder section. The stomping track has a sonic resemblance not only to Zeppelin but also to rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kansas.
The Mississippi Delta country blues “When It’s Done” tells the tale of a man who discovers he’s traded his soul for the health of his sick son, while the gently unfolding symphonic “The Best of Me” evolves into a swirling, up-tempo reflection on the nature of failure and the hope for forgiveness.
Here I Come closes with the striding guitar anthem “Hang My Head and Cry,” a moving reflection on the nature of freedom. Says Colson, “I wrote the song during covid, when we were all being told what we couldn’t do. That really got to me. The song’s about realizing how priceless it is to be free to pursue your passions and know you can always get back up and start again when things go the wrong direction.”
Colson believes that “great music is a beautiful marriage between the sound and the lyrics.” Although he often starts with the sound of the song, looking for a hook or a melody that’s cool, he says, “when you get the notes and the lyrics to merge perfectly, that’s when you have something special.”
Learn more about Colson at slawmusic.com