As could be said for most of us, hearing the Beatles for the first time begins a journey into music that never ends. “I decided,” said Scott Urgola “at 13, that I needed an electric guitar,” as he was transfixed to the TV during the airing of the Beatles Anthology in 1996. He progressed through that phase in high school and college but this Somers born singer/songwriter’s arrival at a musical destination didn’t start until an introduction to an American legend much further removed from the telegenic electricity of the Beatles.

Scott Urgola [photo: www.shenorockuoa.com]

“I really fell in love,” says the 25-year-old musician, who will be appearing at Molten Java on June 27. Afterwards, he jumped into all things Guthrie. Meaning not only that he began playing Woody’s songs and does Hootenanny every year on Guthrie’s Birthday in Somers, but after spending a summer archiving at the Woody Guthrie Center three years ago, he took to the road in the folk singers famous foot steps.

He traveled through 26 states and made acquaintance with Woody Guthrie’s hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. The hospitality he was showered with made him feel as though he was returning home in the shoes of Mr. Guthrie. “It was something like out of a film,” he says, “as it just made sense where Guthrie came from,” but Mr. Urgola found that Woody’s quest to find America did not die with him.

His journey intersected with a Guthrie contemporary still on the same American road. “I got to meet and play with Pete Seeger,” he said, and turned the whole experience into his first CD.

The Title cut, “Restoration Lullaby”, emerged out of the freedom he felt, as all sense of time seemed to disappear into the vastness of the land and the richness of the people. “It’s one of those
places where people
are talking lightly or
just listening, which
is the best...”

-Scott Urgola on Molten Java Returning home after a summer, he was compelled to pay his respects to Woody off the coast of Coney Island, where the singer’s ashes were scattered. There the main stanza came to him.

I’d like to go to Coney Island, shave my head, collect my thoughts Sit on by the water out near Woody and the rocks.

Vocally, Mr. Urgola sounds similar to another Guthrie protégé — Bob Dylan. Making no excuses, “I’m trying not,” he says, “to not be anything, and I try not to be anything.”

Whether it makes sense or not, he explains that the history of music means transforming what has been into something somewhat different and something sort of the same. “The process is almost a form of stealing but anybody who does it says it’s a compliment,” he says.

Complimenting him and his harmony is singing partner and girlfriend Rachel Sukret. Their musical collaboration began as classmates at Adelphi University and continues in a pretty casual but fruitful manner. A song may come to him during the day, he’ll then vocalize it over the phone to her and the result might be on display that very evening at a gig. “She can show up and just pull up the harmony,” he says.

Tied to those tunes, Mr. Urgola is not afraid to attach a folk singer’s social conscious to his sound, but he avoids being preachy or pretentious. “I try not to impose how I feel,” he says, and encourages audiences to enjoy the music even if they don’t agree with the politics.

For the gigs he usually plays, the politics flow mostly from the minds of others. Covering the Neil Young’s and Bob Dylan’s of the world is what is in demand. “I have no problem with that,” he says, because the chance to play steady is what matters.

Of course, he looks forward to a venue like Molten Java. It gives him free reign to play originals but provides an attention span that can’t be found in a bar.

“It’s one of those places where people are talking lightly or just listening, which is the best,” he concludes.

For more info. go to: scotturgola.com.