100.1FM The Ranch Local Spotlight

Scotty Kipfer

April 03, 2021 Jacklyn Wills Episode 16
100.1FM The Ranch Local Spotlight
Scotty Kipfer
Show Notes

This weeks Ranch Local Spotlight shines on Milverton's own...

Scotty Kipfer!

Scotty joins Jackie on air to chat about everything he's been working on recently!

"Scotty Kipfer was born into a musical family and grew up in small-town Milverton Ontario surrounded by musicians who always encouraged him to play. By three years old, he was tagging along with his dad to perform with the Milverton Legion Band at local nursing homes, with a plastic saxophone in tow. At seven, he was playing fiddle in a family band. He played piano and a number of brass and woodwind instruments until he became enamoured with country music. Scotty was 17 when he finally picked up a guitar and began to write songs. 

Since then, Scotty has worked for record labels and management firms, as a radio announcer, a cartoonist, and a touring guitar player with several artists. He even transported bodies for the Ontario coroner’s department and local funeral homes which had a tremendous impact on his perspective. “You quickly come to terms with your own mortality doing a job like that,” Scotty explains, “and you’re exposed to a huge range of human emotion. It really made me want to squeeze every bit of joy out of every day I get down here.”

After spending years working in different facets of the music business, Scotty felt the urge to develop his songwriting. He started spending more time working with a community of writers in Nashville while honing his live show with performances throughout Southern Ontario and the American Midwest. At one of his writing sessions, the song “Taking My Time” was born. “I’ll never forget heading home on I-40 after that session,” says Kipfer, “I was listening to the work tape of this goofy love song we’d written, and I finally became aware of who I am and who I was going to be as an artist. It was a light bulb moment for me. I always loved the lightheartedness of the old syndicated country music shows like Hee-Haw and The Grand Ole Opry. I was so drawn in by the wit and charm, and it struck me that these guys were just having a tremendous amount of fun. I knew I had to make a record, and that it had to tap into that essence. It’s funny to me that “Taking My Time” was the song that helped me figure it out - it definitely took long enough!” 

Scotty would spend the next two years writing and producing the eleven song album. Rooted in the deep tradition of country music, and influenced by artists like Diamond Rio, Vince Gill, Randy Newman, and Willie Nelson, the record is built on catchy hooks, nostalgic melodies, and clever lyrics. Scotty Kipfer is a country music original. “The record is pretty whimsical. It’s light and fun,” he says. “A lot of it exists purely to make you smile. I try not to take myself too seriously.”

The first single, “Falling Like The Rain”, is a semi-autobiographical song about a shy guy who lands a date with a free spirited girl. When the storm clouds roll in on them, his inclination is to run for shelter but she convinces him to stay a while. She pulls him out of his shell as they dance in the rain, and he falls for her as the raindrops wash away his inhibition. “Stepping outside your comfort zone can be a little awkward,” Scotty says, “but when you give yourself over to it, that’s when the magic happens.”"