Great Scott! True talent right on patch

For the Black Country singer/songwriter’s between-song banter is drier than the Sahara and funnier than watching an old woman hitting a Mercedes convertible with her handbag causing the airbag to deploy in the driver’s face. And that happened. YouTube has the proof.

Easy and witty, never-happier than with a brandy in his hand and a guitar over his shoulder, Scott has a rapport with fans that’s worth the admission price alone. At a recent sell-out gig in Liverpool, his audience was so amused that it was like watching stand up with Scott playing the ring master.

Wolverhampton’s prodigal son is one date away from wrapping up a stunning spring tour to promote his second album, Home II, which he made in his shed in Tettenhall. It’s a quiet space, far beyond the madness of the A41 and Smestow Brook, in which one of Britain’s greatest and most under-rated talents makes music that will endure for decades.

Scott has a joyous talent. Cut from the same cloth as such late greats as Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, Tim Buckley and his talented son, Jeff, Scott has the voice of an angel and the finger-picking guitar skills of a man possessed.

And after a final spring gig in picturesque Darwen, he’ll decamp to his shed – tea and cake in hand, presumably – to start writing album number six. It’ll bring to an end a heady project of two-and-a-half years in which he’s cut two albums – Home I and its sister, Home II – and launched his own label, Shedio.

Spring will turn to summer, summer will turn to autumn and Scott will quietly, methodically pick his way through a collection of new songs that will enthral his many followers in time.

We should consider ourselves lucky. The unassuming fan of Wolverhampton Wanderers who prepares for major tours by trialling new music at the city’s Newhampton Arts Centre is an exquisite performer. He was a regular kid whose route to musical brilliance was paved by loving parents. All those long evenings borrowing his dad’s Led Zeppelin records created the performer that so many know and love.

Beverley Knight was brought up on a diet of Al Green and Chaka Khan, rather than long-haired rockers from the Midlands. But she too was supported by fabulously generous parents, Delores and Eddie, who encouraged her to follow her dreams.

Like many other famous soul queens, she began singing in school and church choirs. And as Beverley progressed through the ranks at Woodfield Infant, Woodfield Junior and Highfield School, all in Penn, they murmured their approval.

And as such celebrities as David Bowie and Prince purred about her talent, both observed her progress with a quiet sense of satisfaction. Delores continued to make her regular trips to the local market and catch up with her daughter when she had time. So starry yet so normal. So talented yet so humble.

Who’d have thought the girl with the geeky glasses and bunches who fell over during a school performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat would go on to sing Greatest Day for Nelson Mandela, or Happy Birthday for the legendary Mohammed Ali?

A three-times Mobo winner who showcased her talent on the debut album, B-Funk, Beverley broke into the mainstream with the triumphant follow-up Prodigal Sista. Musically, she is as far removed from Scott as Aretha Franklin is from John Martyn. She likes soul, he likes folk; she likes Swarovski-encrusted heels, he likes desert boots; she likes razzle dazzle, he likes a pint of craft ale and, one imagines, a roaring open fire in a far flung country pub.

On high days and holidays, you’ll find Beverley starring in some West End show, belting out Whitney Houston hits at the 2,163-seat Dominion Theatre, hitting the road with Take That or hosting her own BBC Radio 2 series on gospel music. Scott, meanwhile, is pouring over complicated guitar tunings in his shed.

And yet a unifying theme joins them both. It is Wolverhampton. It is normality. And it is the determination to pursue a dream.

It’s not so long ago that Wolves was named the fifth worst city on the planet. Outstripped only by crime-hit Detroit, Michigan, and the ugly, chaotic and sprawling Accra, Ghana – not forgetting the dreadful Seoul and dangerous Los Angeles – it outdid itself two years ago when it was named both the UK’s most miserable place and the least prosperous.

Yet there are diamonds in the rough. Talent thrives in the unlikeliest of places and opportunity is unlimited for those who seek it out. Scott and Beverley are proof positive.

Artists who follow their own path and write their own script, the stories of Scott and Beverley are ones that inspire us all. Ay they.