Child of the Blues
Track notes by Dr. Lyn Schenbeck

“Child of the Blues” is a tribute to drummer Yonrico Scott. He was the first drummer in Diane’s band Soul Suga’. Yonrico was born in 1955 in Detroit, Michigan and studied percussion with Motown drummer George Hamilton.
In 1979 he moved to Atlanta to became Artist in Residence with The Neighborhood Arts Center’s Department of Cultural Affairs. This immensely talented musician was soon one of the top drummers in the city. He played with local musicians as well as a long roster of nationally known players like Stevie Wonder. In 1995, Yonrico joined the Derek Trucks Band recording and touring the world for twenty years. In 2010, they won a GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Blues album.
Diane Durrett met Yonrico in the ‘90s when she opened for the Derek Trucks Band. Yonrico was an entertainer in his own right with his highly expressive facial and body movements as he laid down the groove. He would grin and chant “give the drummer some” when it was his turn to break it down and solo.
They became friends when Diane, then producing up and coming artists, hired him to record on sessions. They would have long talks about life and laugh about ‘road stories’ and crazy things that would go on in their music worlds; their relationship evolved into a close friendship.
A few weeks before he passed away in 2019, they had a songwriting session together where Yonrico was reflecting on his childhood. He had deep musical roots and even deeper feelings of loss. That’s when they agreed that he wasn’t just a blues man but he was a child of the blues! Diane said, “I wrote the lyrics, but we were telling his story. It was an honor to write his last song with him.”
Soul Suga’ together with his friends, recorded “Child of the Blues,” around Yonrico’s pre-recorded drum track. They were all shattered by his death. This recording became part of their grieving process.
As you listen to this song, you will hear all the anguish, sadness, and frustration because he passed, and the friendship and love that the friends of Yonrico will always feel for him.
Yonrico’s drum track is the foundation of the song, much as he was a unifying factor in everything he played. The intensity and anguish is felt in every improvisational response that Daniel Groover plays on guitar. The undercurrent of Junebug’s percussion and Tyler Neal’s guitar melts into every aspect of the song. The warmth of the Hammond B3 by Yoel B’nai Yehuda, background vocals by Ronda Scott, Yonrico’s sister, and Mike Mattison, and the tears and exclamation in Diane’s exquisite vocals portray the love and friendship they all felt for each other and for Yonrico.
Yonrico Scott was surely “A Child of the Blues.”