ALLENTOWN, Pa. — To bluesy rocker Boz Scaggs, the success he had in the 1970s with the Top 10 hits "Lowdown" and "Lido Shuffle" and the five-times-platinum album "Silk Degrees" was largely a matter of timing.
- Bluesy rocker Boz Scaggs performs at 7 p.m. Sunday at Miller Symphony Hall in Allentown
- Tickets, at $69.50 and $89.50, are available at www.millersymphonyhall.org, or 610-432-6715. Fewer than 50 seats remain
- Scaggs is best known for his 1970s hits "Lowdown" and "Ledo Shuffle"
"I’d always been interested in rhythm and blues, and so it was at that time, during those ‘70s, that a lot of the popular music became accessible to everyone," Scaggs said in a relaxed voice on a recent Saturday morning, calling from his home in San Francisco.
"The rhythm and blues chart, the pop chart, they were sort of separate entities, but during the ‘70s, they came together. And so I think that we were doing something that was just sort of in the Zeitgeist; its time had come.
"And, you know, we struck a nerve, and it held on for a while."
More than 45 years later, those songs apparently still strike a nerve.
And Scaggs is still on the road. He plays a nearly sold-out show (fewer than 50 tickets remain) at 7 p.m. Sunday at Miller Symphony Hall in Allentown.
Success in the '70s
The 1970s was certainly a high point for Scaggs' career.
His 1974 album "Slow Dancer" was his first to go gold. But it was with "Silk Degrees" that he had his biggest hit.
"Silk Degrees" hit No. 2 on the albums chart, and got four Grammy Award nominations: Album of the Year and both Best R&B Vocal Performance and Best Pop Vocal Performance.
"Lowdown" won the Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues song.
Scaggs' success continued with his 1977 album "Down Two Then Left" and 1980's "Middle Man," which both sold platinum and charted in the Top 10.
"I was beginning to get a vision of what I was looking for, and I got lucky — I found some musicians who really answered a lot of questions I’d been asking musically for a long time."Boz Scaggs
"I was really prepared for that kind of thing to happen," Scaggs said. "I worked really hard during that time. I toured and I did a number of albums and there was a real sort of thrust to my energy at that time.
"I had the backing of my record company — I made a lot of friends in the industry, mostly. I had a lot of people rooting for me and working with me and for me in the record company.
“I was beginning to get a vision of what I was looking for, and I got lucky — I found some musicians who really answered a lot of questions I’d been asking musically for a long time."
Several of the musicians on "Silk Degrees," David Paich and brothers Jeff and Steve Porcaro, went on to form the platinum-selling band Toto.
"Things all came together," Scaggs said. "And I wish everyone had one of those runs.”
A time of discovery
Scaggs said another reason the 1970s was good for him is that it was a time of discovery for all music.
“The ’60s were when a lot of things formed for my generation – that came out of rock ‘n’ roll in the ‘50s," he said. "It came out of our generation. We were the creators. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan — some of the seminal characters that began to be the mainstream for the first time.
"And that just blossomed into the ‘70s into an enormous explosion of musical experimentation and cross-pollinations of different music. It was an explosion that we’ll probably never see again. It just couldn’t happen again.
"I’m not diminishing, of course, any other generation’s contribution, but what happened in the ‘70s, it can only happen the first time once."Boz Scaggs
“Every generation will have its own, that’s inevitable. But so much happened during that period that it would be hard to come around. It can’t do that again.
"I’m not diminishing, of course, any other generation’s contribution, but what happened in the ‘70s, it can only happen the first time once.”
While Scaggs had his biggest success in the 1970s, he's continued to produce music that's won accolades, and continued to win fans.
Continuing success
His 1998 album "Come On Home" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album, as was his 2019 disc "Out of the Blues."
“Well, I think it was really good musicians, and material," he said. "I’ve worked with a particular core of musicians on three albums — I guess I refer to it as a trilogy in some ways.
“And the musicians that we chose and the kind of material, I feel like I got a pretty well-rounded look at a certain genre of music — it’s bluesy."
"I knew I had more of a direct idea of what I was looking for and had the right players to pull it off. Just one of those things — sometimes your number comes up."Boz Scaggs
He used a friend, Steve Jordan, to produce the first two discs, 2013's "Memphis" and 2015's "A Fool to Care." But for "Out of the Blues," he said, "I decided to go on my own because I had some ideas that had come up and some content that I wanted to try out that were more my own than [his].
“And it just kind of came together. I think some ideas had been cooking for a while that we got to try out on that album. It’s just a confluence, I think.
"I knew I had more of a direct idea of what I was looking for and had the right players to pull it off. Just one of those things — sometimes your number comes up," he said with a laugh.
Still more music on the way
Scaggs said his journey isn't finished. He said he was in the studio just a week before the call, working with new material.
"There’s some sorting out to do, but I definitely have one in the works,” he said. “I can’t really tell you much, ‘cause I’m not quite sure. I’m shooting off in several directions and this is sort of to test the waters, trying a variety of material.
"It’s sort of two projects at once and I’m trying to combine them, perhaps. It’s complicated — I wish I could be more helpful. I don’t know what it’s going to be.”
But Scaggs said that music is on hold while he's on tour — where, he said, he still offers up much of his 1970s catalog.
"Well, if you’re a musician, it’s not amazing. You’re a musician, and you don’t turn it on and turn it off. You are as you are, and you’ve chosen to do what you do. It’s something that I didn’t turn off long ago."Boz Scaggs
“The core of those songs that were on ‘Silk Degrees,’ and a couple of albums after that, the music seems to stand up pretty well, most of it," he said. "It can be readapted and it fits my voice and it fits my style, and so people want to hear it.
“It’s been renovated — I listen to it back and it was definitely another person and another time, is the way it seems to me. But I still feel close to some of it and can get myself around it. And audiences seem to – it stands up.
“It was a time of developing my style, and that development continued and it still seems relevant."
In three weeks, Scaggs will turn 79, and he's been a professional performer for more than 60 of those years, starting as an early bandmate of Steve Miller and a member of the Steve Miller Band.
But Scaggs says 60 years doesn't sound amazing to him.
“Well, if you’re a musician, it’s not amazing," he said. "You’re a musician, and you don’t turn it on and turn it off. You are as you are, and you’ve chosen to do what you do. It’s something that I didn’t turn off long ago.”
BOZ SCAGGS, 7 p.m. Sunday, May 21, Miller Symphony Hall, 23 N. 6th St., Allentown. Tickets $69.50 and $89.50 (other sections sold out), www.millersymphonyhall.org, 610-432-6715.
