Scotch Flies by Scott Tyler

This is Scott here and I really appreciate you giving this instrumental record a listen.

Scotch Flies is a collection of 10 instrumental sketches written between September 2020 and March 2025. The idea started while my partner, Mallory Graham (together we're in a folk duo called The Rough & Tumble) were living in a borrowed cabin in the woods of Long Creek, South Carolina to ride out a few months of the pandemic. At 5PM each day, we would pour ourselves a glass of scotch and Mallory would go upstairs to write and I would go onto the front porch and work on instrumental guitar tunes we started referring to as Scotch Flies, thanks to the gnats that would inevitably end up in the glass. It was the pandemic and we had lots of time, and so I started recording them as a way of learning how to use some new recording gear. I enjoyed the process of creating some weird ambient noises and sketching out melodies on a couple guitars and a keyboard.

Then for 5 years I would mention to Mallory "I'd love to put out an instrumental record..." and then just wouldn't do it. So finally she said "Your 40th birthday is coming up. Finish the record or I'm quitting the band." And so, for a week in March, while she was on a bookbinding retreat on an island in Scotland, I holed up at our house in New Hampshire and finished these recordings.

I'm putting them out on June 2, 2025, my 40th birthday, as a way to remind myself that I can still change and try new ways of making art and music. I hope you enjoy the music.

-Scott Tyler

Tracklist

1.	Long Creek Reel	3:13

2.	RIP RBG	2:14

3.	Little Sable	2:23

4.	Opelika	1:10

5.	Honeymoon Pajamas	1:33

6.	Short Tailed Shrew	1:44

7.	New Hampshire By Moonlight	0:55

8.	Orange Blossoms	1:19

9.	You Said This Is What Iona Sounds Like	2:44

10.	Scotch Flies	1:52

Credits

released May 20, 2025

All instruments were recorded and performed by Scott Tyler.
Mastered by Dave Coleman.
Album artwork, inking and design by Mallory Graham.

Thanks to Club Passim's Iguana Fund for the grant money to purchase recording equipment to complete these recordings. Much love to Yamaha Guitars, whose gift of a Yamaha FS5 really got me interested in writing these tunes. Thanks to Dave for being a supportive ear and for being a wealth of recording knowledge and great tone throughout the years and for mastering these tunes. And finally, thanks to Mallory, for encouraging me to finally put this out, even with threats of breaking up the band if I didn't. I love you and appreciate the ways in which you exude creativity. It is inspiring.

License