Jeffrey Scott

Jeffrey Scott learned to play the blues from his uncle John Jackson, a renowned player from Fairfax, Virginia. The elder Jackson, born in 1924, had given up the guitar by the late 1940s but was “discovered” in the 1960s by the folklorist Chuck Perdue. After that, he wound up making six albums and touring across the United States and Europe.

Today, his nephew Jeffrey, who started learning the guitar from his uncle when he was only six, carries on the family tradition. He is a great storyteller and a masterful guitar player, very much in the tradition of his Uncle John. In an interview with the website Acoustic, Folk and Country Blues, Jeffrey recalled his uncle’s final words to him, when he told his nephew that the blues is “just like being in a relay race. You have to take the blues and pass it on to someone else before you go.”

Jeffrey passes the blues to anyone who gets the chance to see him perform, but the blues is not the only thing that occupies his time. In Culpeper, Virginia, John and his wife run a successful 100-acre family farm, raising hogs and Texas Longhorn beef cattle. Jeffrey also works as a mortician and a long-haul truck driver. The blues is not something Jeffrey pursues for fame. He plays the music because it’s in his blood.