Paden West
Portland, Oregon, United States
Music
Press
Tuesday, September 2. Los Angeles. The sixth and final live regional round performance competition takes place tonight here at the legendary Mint nightclub.
Come watch the following talented artists perform and compete to advance to the international contest finals and a chance to perform on an internationally broadcast Mountain Stage Show. Our youth showcase performer Paden West opens the show at 8 PM.
Stay tuned for upcoming newsletters announcing tonight's winner, as well as the selection of the remaining four general round finalists.
As of midnight last night, the general round of this year's contest is now closed for entry.
A sincere thank you to all of the artists who submitted to this year's contest. Your entries support NewSong's production of our live regional rounds and showcases, which have become the cornerstone of our artist development programming.
I hope that you'll take advantage of the discounts and opportunities that our contest partners are providing to all of this year's entrants.
Hope to hear you out there,
Gar Ragland
NewSong Director & Co-founder - The Mountain Stage NewSong Contest, presented by Folk Alliance
Paden West – a closer look at his eponymous new CD.
By Fordman, part of the band Test Burn and roving reviewer of the street where you live for Spin66 Studio.
I have an advantage over the casual browser of this CD. I was fortunate to have seen Paden perform as a mid-teen at a SoundWall showcase: a music camp for 13-17s, in a very nice theatre on campus nearby. I made note of the fact this one kid seemed to have a lot more of what the other children were going to the camp to try and get. I looked for him the following year and, again, was not disappointed.
And here I find my notion of having seen a quite unique talent confirmed by four well-crafted, original songs that seem to mark time in the journey toward seeing the world as a young man. The artwork, photos and song titles portray a confident young man on the street with an emblem of style, and it seems that if you walked up and asked him any sort of question, he’d have quite something to say.
The back cover has him in rural roots and closer to where he’s going than where he’s been. The work is sincere an unpretentious; both big pluses in my book, and there’s confidence and substance, with a structure and frugality of Mason Williams, smeared with early Pearl Jam, all while Dave Mathews waits with a knife and fork…
That makes it much clearer, doesn’t it? Give him a listen and keep an ear open, we’re going to be hearing a lot more from Paden West.
- Spin66 Studio
October 1, 2008 - Paden West has been selected as a nominee for the 2008 Independent Singer Songwriters Award Contest in the category of Best New Artist. Check out http://www.issa-music.org starting October 13, 2008 to find out more. Contest winner will be announced in November. Congratulations, Paden! - Independent Singer Songwriter Association
Discography
My first EP, "Paden West" (self-titled), was released on 11/18/09 with four songs ("Counting Down the Days," "Haze," "What a Place to Be" and "Rope Swing"). The other songs in this EPK are works in process and were recorded, mixed & mastered in my studio.
Photos
Bio
Music’s pretty much my life. I do have a few hobbies (winemaking, basketball, billiards…). I started playing guitar at 7. I home-schooled. That allowed me the time to focus on music and get the instruction I needed. When I was 12, I started writing and recording songs. At 13, we converted the garage into a recording studio. At 14, I had a couple of studio engineer gigs.
At 15, I started attending summer performance sessions at Soundwall, a rock music camp in Santa Cruz. One intense week of: form a band, practice and perform a concert in the UCSC music theatre. I also went to summer sessions at Berklee. At 17, I was selected to play my song - “Running On You” - at the Berklee Performing Songwriter’s Showcase.
The tools in the studio are an integral part of how I write. Basically I live there, so I can play, compose and record anytime I want to. I write most songs on acoustic guitar, recording the music and scratch vocals, then head to the drum kit to lay down a backbeat. Then I start layering riffs, rhythms and instruments until the song that’s in my head comes together. Electric guitar rigs, bass guitar, keyboards, midi - whatever it takes.
Whether it's solo and unplugged or wired with a band, performing live is what I enjoy most.
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