Nick Scout is either going about it so wrong or so right. Under the moniker Scout, he’s just made his solo debut with a new album. But you’ve likely not heard it. That’s because it’s a very limited, vinyl-only release. Specifically, only about 150 copies.
And, gulp, no streaming.
This is a formula for either tantalizing exclusivity or guaranteed obscurity. By today’s standards, it may as well not even exist. But there’s another possibility.
“I did vinyl-only sort of as a protest, to be honest,” says Scout. “I guess I wanted to remind myself and others that it’s OK to just be an artist, to not worry about making .0001 cents per stream and what will sell and what you have to do to ‘make it.’ To just make the music you want to make and release it in a way that will find its way into the right hands if it is meant to.”
As such, the Equinox/Solstice LP is, through and through, a purist’s product. It’s also a proper introduction to Scout.
Nick Scout is already well-established as a composer (in the Central Florida Composers Forum and in film), luthier (Scout Guitars) and guitar tech (Steve Vai Band, Less Than Jake, Blue Man Group). But under the name Scout, he’s only just emerging fully as a solo artist.
As a player and string aficionado, Scout is staggeringly diverse, and this unabashedly prismatic album testifies. On it, he employs about nine different guitars spanning acoustic, electric, resophonic, 20-string harp guitar and even the personal guitar of Dante Frisiello from the Steve Vai Band.
Stylistically, Scout flexes his palette here with abandon. There’s some minimal guest accompaniment throughout, but Scout’s own playing is the unquestionable feature. If anything, Equinox/Solstice is a comprehensive primer on his range and ability. The acoustic A-side encompasses folk (“A Roosevelt Summer”), blues (“Lorraine Hotel Hymn”), gypsy jazz (“La Danse des Rats”) and contemporary classical that goes from dynamic drama to meditative reverie.
Because the B-side is electric and features some electronic production, it leans more modern and features strands of indie (“Fox Iver”), post-rock (“Early Memories”), future R&B (“It Could Be Anyone,” which features guest vocalist Cole NeSmith) and contemporary soul (“Art District”). Moreover, since many of these short cuts are more snippets than full songs, the B-side plays like a mixtape.
All told, it’s a wonderland of manifold styles and virtuosic stringmanship. As well as a debut, the ultra-limited Equinox/Solstice is a proclamation of artistic defiance, a work that opts for depth of experience over wideness of exposure. It’s the opening shot of an artist who’s chosen to emerge wholly on his own terms.
“I, personally, love the idea of having something physical to see,” Scout says. “Something someone took time to think about and create, not curate … It’s kind of intimate when you think about it.” Deluxe splatter-vinyl copies of Equinox/Solstice can now be purchased at the hot new AMP’d Guitar Den and at Park Ave CDs.
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This article appears in Sept. 2-8, 2026.