Watch Dylan Scott Deliver Somber Cover of a Keith Whitley Classic

Dylan Scott is channeling the late great Keith Whitley, delivering a breathless performance of his classic song “Don’t Close Your Eyes.” Scott performed a stripped-back version of the song as part of CMT’s Campfire Sessions.

For the song, it was just Scott and his guitar. The loneliness of the set certainly hyped the emotion behind the song, and Scott put his own spin on the song while keeping the emotional core intact. It’s even more impressive given that it took Scott four hours to record the tune.

“Oh, it was freezing,” he explained. “It’s hard to sing. It’s hard to play guitar. My fingers were frozen. Your body starts shivering and stuff. I think we sat there for about four hours.”

Scott enjoyed the opportunity to deliver a back-to-basics approach to music. The musician explained that when he’s touring, he’s playing with a full band. This was a chance to really let his voice carry the performance.

[See Dylan Scott Perform Live]

“We don’t get to do that very much,” he said. “We’re always playing live shows with the full band, so this was a cool moment for us to just strip it all down and play ’em and hear ’em that way. Honestly, we’ve never really even heard ’em that way, so it was really cool.”

Dylan Scott Explains Why He Chose Keith Whitley

Scott also gave some insight into why he chose Whitley to sing. It turns out that the singer has personal history with Whitley’s music. Scott’s father gifted him Keith Whitley’s Greatest Hits as a child. It was the first album he ever owned, and it’s also the one that Scott used to learn to play the guitar.

“It’s just one of them songs that’s really been with me from the beginning of my career,” Scott said. “My first ever talent show was ‘Don’t Close Your Eyes.’ I won it. It’s one of them special songs that’s, like I said, been with me from the very beginning.”

Scott also proved to pick an emotional song. It’s something that Whitley was known for. The country legend once talked about the extra emotion that he put into his music. Whitley revealed he would sometimes cry.

“It’s not uncommon for me to get so wrapped up in a song that I cry several times when I sing them,” Whitley told the Associated Press. “That’s the difference between my music and some of the other folks.”

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[Photo by CMT/YouTube]