(September 5, 2025) He was thrust to the forefront of popular music nearly a half century with “Lowdown” and the monster proto-Yacht album Silk Degrees, and Boz Scaggs is still the coolest cat in the room at age 81.
For the past three decades, Scaggs has recorded in a leisurely fashion, creating convincing collections covering acoustic pop, blues and classic R&B. And now, seven years removed from his Out of the Blues project, he is preparing an album where he gently interprets the classic Great American Songbook. Detours arrives on October 17.
In anticipation of the album, today Scaggs released an advance single, an acoustic reinterpretation of his own early song, “I’ll Be Long Gone.” Featuring pianist Jim Cox, “Long Gone” is a cool ballad about a man who is ready to move on to a better life after being stuck on “hold” in a relationship for too long:
I’ll be long gone
By the time you make up your mind
Gotta make my own way
Around the kinda misery I find
The song finds Scaggs in great voice and displaying his always-strong storytelling skills. Hearing him still doing this well is a treat, and gets us excited to hear how the rest of Detours develops. Check out “I’ll Be Long Gone” below.
By Chris Rizik
