Sam West

The Evolution of Sam West's Demonstrations

by Bryan Miller
Carbondale Nightlife 2008

Singer-songwriter Sam West will release his debut CD at a Thursday, June 12 show at the Hangar 9. Despite only recently making a foray into the recording game, West has been a staple of the Carbondale music scene for four years. He's fronted a rock band and a funk trio, played innumerable solo acoustic shows, and backed a slew of bands with his bass guitar. The album, titled Demonstrations, showcases West's broad range as a songwriter and his myriad musical abilities. But the disc could just as easily be called Evolution, as it showcases not only West's forays into diverse genres, but also his artistic progression as he unifies the sometimes disparate elements of the early stages of his career into that most elusive quality: a definitive and engaging style.

"It's hard to gauge your own evolution," West tells Nightlife on a muggy summer afternoon just days before the initial run of his first CD comes back from the plant. "I guess you have to let other people do that."

West was born and raised in Marion, where he first took an interest in music listening to his father, a joke-telling forest ranger, strum a guitar and sing Hank Williams tunes. That led to piano lessons and a stint in the high-school band on perhaps the unsexiest instrument of all. "I played the tuba, but, um, you can probably leave that out of the article," West says, shaking his head.

In addition to the bulkiest of the brass instruments, West took up the guitar in his spare time. His affinity for poetry, fiction, and wordplay of all kinds made the leap to songwriting an obvious choice. Before he could drive, the walls of his room were papered with handwritten lyrics, and to this day West's apartment is usually littered with notebooks and scraps of inky paper scrawled with poems and ideas for songs.

For a few years, though, West had no public outlet. Then he and a pair of high-school buddies-- one of whom was Andy Novara, his constant bandmate to this day-- decided to put a band together. Out of sheer necessity, West took up the bass, which would later become his weapon of choice.

Shortly after graduating high school, West moved his guitars along Route 13 and set up shop in Carbondale, where he founded Community Service, a jam-fueled rock band that became a frequent headliner in bars across the city. Community Service never exactly broke up, but instead was pared down into a trio with a rotating list of regular guests. All the while West was teaming up for side projects with Zacc Harris, Tim Whiteford, John Beck, Nick Kuypers, and Ryan Oslance among others, adding funky bass licks and songs to a number of notable groups. (West remains in the trio Brothers on the Sly, who play Tuesdays at Tres Hombres, and is also the bassist for Bosco and Whiteford's full band, the New Stampede.)

While West has contributed to a number of bands and has an array of musical allies, Demonstrations is distinctly his. He did the writing, arranging, and vocals, played bass and acoustic guitar, and worked closely with producer Mike Lescelius. He notes that drummer Ron Coulter "added a lot to it" with his formidable talent on the drums, coming up with percussion tricks West wouldn't have imagined. Longtime collaborater Novara also contributed electric guitar licks on the album's faster and funkier tracks, although West mused, rubbing his chin, "Now that I think about it, everything I asked Andy to do was eight-bar solos. I probably owe him one for that."

Demonstrations is over a year in the making, which owes a lot to West's sense of perfectionism. "I had to give myself this [release] date," he says. "It could have been another year otherwise." It was also West's first extended stint in the studio, an experience that he said helped him learn what not to do in the future.

"Record the bass and drum tracks first next time," he says, as if reminding himself, and then chuckles. "And I thought I had the vocals down early on, but the sonic mirror said otherwise. I went back and spent a few weeks working on the phrasing to get it exactly right."

The hard work paid off. Demonstrations is an outstanding album, eclectic yet singular. The front half of the disc consists of more introspective tracks, and the record builds to a rollicking finish. The jazz-infused rock familiar to Community Service fans is tightened up on tracks like "Lift up the Lid" and "World Girl." "Whiskey Wings" adds bluesy flourishes to this aesthetic before swelling into sonorous, moody pop à la the Animals.

West shows off his funkier side on a pair of concurrent tracks, "Stella" and "Appletoast." The latter is an instrumental West cowrote with Novara, which echoes one of his finest unrecorded songs, the sardonic "Fool's Paradise." The former, an irrepressible dance tune with a crunchy bass line, is a giddy fusion of Emersonian sentiments and George Clinton funkadelics: "I got my soul and I got my faith/I got my evolution/I got my time and I got my space/I got my own solution just in case."

One of the standout cuts on the album is "Don't Die for Me," a ballsy antiwar song that blasts through the milquetoast sentiments of so many folk ditties. Against a rocking, full-band arrangement, West declares, "Don't die for me/I don't need your illusions/Don't die for me/Your executive conclusions/Don't die for me/Get on off the Army bases/Don't die for me/Just be free to live free."

West says he doesn't consider "Don't Die for Me" a protest song. "Too many protest songs are just about saying, 'Fuck you,'" he says. Instead, "Don't Die For Me" is a story song-- and a true story song at that. The songwriter said he got the idea when he read an article in Mother Jones about Sergeant Macy, a soldier who grew disillusioned with war after he blew up a car full of civilians in Iraq, then returned home and became a protester. While the chorus leaves little question about West's antipathy for the Iraq war, the rest of the song's lyrics tell the sympathetic story of a soldier who is misled and eventually cast aside by those who put him in danger. "Priceless lies inside a room/Honest ties to each other's tomb/Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours/We'll scratch each other's backs until the blood runs and pours."

West says "Please Explain," which opens the album and is more of a straightforward indie-rock tune, is indicative of the direction he's heading in. After writing more songs around a bass groove or focusing on intricate jazz arrangements, he's turning back to his love of lyrics and poetry. His next disc, he says, will be all acoustic and centered around lyrics and melodies. He still wants to incorporate the tricks he's learned as a funk bassist, bluegrass picker, and jazz freak into his work, but he says what appeals to him more and more is the singer-songwriter side of music.

Expect West and his band to mix it up at the Hangar show, where they plan to span the full range of his oeuvre, everything from party music to spoken-word. ("Underbelly," West's Beat-influenced spoken-word track, is a slick bit of wordplay layered over a catchy beat and rapid-fire lyrics through a wry smile. "It's a little bit of a joke," West notes. "You can overdo the spoken-word stuff-- you need a little humor.") He will be joined by Novara and Coulter, as well as several special guests. Chris Mathien and the Moonbuggy Kids will open with a pair of acoustic sets. - Nightlife

Some musicians are just hard to describe with words- they would just rather let the music speak for itself.
One such band is the Sam West Trio, and this weekend, the funky jazz collection drops their first EP, Steady.
To promote the new release, the band will play a triple dose of shows this month, including Friday, February 19 at John Brown's on the Square in Marion, and a double bill Saturday, February 20 at Tres Hombres with the Sam Sinclair Trio of Chicago. West rounds out the weekend with a solo show Sunday, February 21 at Rustle Hill Winery.
The Sam West Trio, which consists of Andy Novara on the electric guitar, Ron Coulter on percussion and, of course, West himself on bass, vocals, and acoustic guitar, has been jamming together for the last three years.
West's signature style has laid the foundation for a number of rock and jazz bands, including Community Service, which was heralded as Nightlife's best new local band in 2004. (West's 2008 release, Demonstrations, was, for the most part, a solo release.) Novara is a frontman freelancer who leads his own jazz trio on the side, and SIU music teacher Coulter has also made a name for himself in the reggae band the Rum Runners.
"The dynamic is great," West said. "There's always a solid energy. Playing in a trio allows more individual freedom, but also takes more listening. We're all improvisors and work off each other."
Each member, he adds, is able to add his own flair by communicating and feeding off the energy of his fellow bandmates.
"One of the most important aspects of a good group is listening- letting the ear open it up," West said. "We've played together long enough now that we're willing to take risks. Every time we play, the tunes are a little bit different- a little closer to edge. It's the most exciting when we fall off!"
At heart, the Sam West Trio centers on the basic fundamentals of what makes a good song a good song.
Steady's title track is as slick and straight as a smooth operator, but past shows promise that the band also likes to get down and get rowdy as well.
"These tunes are a little more stripped down, in the pocket," West said. "Though I still write the material, the band needs to take the credit."
At the Tres Hombres show on February 20, the Sam West Trio will share the stage with the Sam Sinclair Trio. This Windy City funk-fusion group tends to use more players than the three-part name suggests. Even the Sam West Trio will have additional players that night, with Mel Goot coming in to play keyboards for the group.
So while neither trio plans to be an actual trio at Tres, anything goes on stage, West says.
"There will be plenty of musician-swapping, I'm sure," West said.
After all, that is in the spirit of making music with fellow musicians.
"We're primarily a trio, but we love to incorporate guest players from bands we've played in together and separately," West said. "And of course we're always happy to expand."
This summer, the Sam West Trio plans to tour and use recordings from those shows for a live CD.
"We're really at our best live," West said.
Because he does not like to pigeonhole music into various cookie-cutter descriptions, West suggests that audiences try on the Trio just to see how it fits. He adds that the group only plans to play the Carbondale scene infrequently in 2010, so anyone interested should grab the opportunity while they have a chance.
"Just listen for yourself," West said.
For more information, log on to <http://www.myspace.com/SamWestMusic>. - Nightlife