By Preston Gossett | Arts & Life Editor, Video by Sarah Gill | Broadcast Reporter
Singer-songwriter Jake Scott has been wanting to come to Waco for some time, but what got him here was a direct message through Instagram for him to perform at Waco resident Scotty Swingler’s proposal.
Swingler and his now fiancé and recent Baylor graduate, Ambree Meek, are both musicians. He said that it was only fitting for their proposal to reflect their love for music.
“I wanted it to be the best night ever for Ambree because she’s a mega-fan,” Swingler said. “So I dreamed up this idea that the perfect engagement for Ambree would be if we could dance while he’s serenading us basically.”
Common Grounds was significant to their story for multiple reasons. Swingler and Scott said that in addition to Common Grounds being the best performance venue in town, it’s also where Swingler and Meek prayed together and read scripture every morning last semester.
Meek said it was meaningful that it happened to be at Common Grounds because it signified what they wanted their relationship to be based around: their shared faith.
“So I walked in and Scotty is standing there with Jake on stage, and there’s a little table with a photo of us and a Bible with my new last name, Ambree Swingler, on it, and then the ring and the flowers,” Meek said. “We danced first to ‘Tuesdays,’ and then [Scotty] got down on one knee.”
“Tuesdays” is about the season of life Scott is in right now and that he’s been in for the last couple of years.
“It’s about the joys of being newlyweds and then also kind of realizing that we get to do life together,” Scott said. “Not to quote the song or anything, but it’s not just about the highlight moments. So much of it is based around just spending time together and loving that.”
Meek has been able to watch Scott grow for the past couple of years.
Scott released his first E.P. in 2013 under the name Tossing Copper, and it caught a lot of traction really early on, propelling him to where he is now. From 2014 to 2017, Scott said he mainly wrote songs for other people, not focusing on making his own music or playing shows.
Scott describes the turning point as his existential crisis: he hadn’t written a song in almost three years, and that made him realize that what he wanted to do was write his own songs and be an artist.
“Since January of 2018, I’ve been in the middle of this project where I’m releasing a new song every month and it’s been amazing,” Scott said. “So my advice: Don’t wait for the doors to fly open for you, and don’t wait for the moment to be perfect. The people who get places just start doing it.”
