Scott Vestal at Monkey Finger Studio

Scott Vestal has written many fabulous banjo instrumentals, a few of which already reside within the canon. When he set out to write one for this project he promised it would be a straight ahead bluegrass tune. Wayne Benson tells me that he asked Scott beforehand about the song and Scott told him that it was pretty straight. "Like a Scruggs tune?" Wayne asked. "Yeah," was the response he got.

With only one key change and two meter switches per chorus, I guess this is pretty straight by Scott's standards and it makes for a very enjoyable banjo tune. It is one of my favorites on the album. Rob's dobro work is especially fine.

Rob Ickes and Tim Stafford at Monkey Finger Studio

When the tune was finished, our audio engineer, Brent Truitt, asked Scott for the song title to put down on the track sheet. Scott admitted that he didn't have a name yet and someone in the room hollered "Buy A Stealth," referring to the name of the signature banjo line that Scott manufactures. Brent misheard and wrote down "By Stealth" and the name stuck. It actually seems like an appropriate name for this sneaky little tune.

"This tune initially came to me as I was setting up a new Stealth banjo for a customer. When I get one set up pretty close I like to play around on it an hour or two per day for about a week until everything feels right. Maybe the tune was inside this particular instrument - I don't know where else it could have come from!"

Scott Vestal

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