Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Darrell Scott plays at 202 Market on Friday night

A crowded 202 Market got a live version of a Nashville portrait on Friday night.

Darrell Scott is one of the featured players in the Nashville Portraits exhibit at The Art Museum of Western Virginia. It was obvious from the beginning of his two-set show at 202 that he deserves his place on the walls with a pack of music greats.

It would be unfair to call Scott just a songwriter, or just a guitar player, or just a singer. Playing solo, accompanying himself on guitar and piano, Scott did not need a backup band. He’s truly one of the most expressive, smart and articulate guitarists you’ll ever hear, leaving one to imagine that he could solo endlessly on any particular idea. Not that he would do that — he had other things to say.

While Scott’s melodically evolved guitar work drew plenty of applause, his lyrics moved the crowd of more than 200. He sang of a man’s dreaming ways, which cost him love, and a journey that led him back to her, only to find out she has “a house,” “kids,” and “a doctor for a husband.” The man looks for a hanging tree to kill himself, but decides instead to pull out a pen knife from his pocket. He carves these words into the tree: “I’ll always be a dreamer.”

Whether the songs were sad, protesting, angry or funny, he altered his vocal tone and delivery to fit those moods.

Scott, minus his usual beard and beyond casual in a sweatshirt and funky, multicolored sleeping pants, opened the night with a Gibson Les Paul, playing crunchy blues that fit his lyrics: “When you hit rock bottom, you still may not be on the ground ... It ain’t love, it ain’t money, it’s whiskey that eases the pain.” Audience shouts ensued.

It looks like Scott is at home at 202 Market, where the room always sounds great. We can only hope he makes it a regular stop on his travels.

Local musician Walter Trexell opened the show, bending some interesting covers to fit his own style. Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown,” Terrence Trent D’Arby’s “Wishing Well” and the Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” were on his playlist.

Trexell, formerly one of the Trexell Brothers band that played around Roanoke, tapped out a solid beat with his foot as he put down an aggressive strum on his low-slung guitar. His resonant, middle-register voice fit all of the tunes.