Hi Guys,
Last summer when I was up in West Virginia with Lynn’s family, one Tuesday evening we went to a singers night in the backroom of a hardware store in Shepherdstown…..it was a really cool gathering of local musicians playing and singing traditional West Virginian songs….I’ve never seen so many banjos and hammer dulcimers in one room and when it was over, as enjoyable as it was, a beer was very necessary!!
We toddled a few yards up the street and low and behold, an English pub….called The Devonshire Arms….well we had to….however the only English things in there were us, a dartboard, oh and they served Boddingtons on draught. In the corner was a local musician whose name I never got, she was singing and playing a four string banjo and to her left stood her Mum and little sister around one microphone singing harmony vocals. To be honest, having just sat through 3 hours of banjo based music, a quiet pint was the order of the day and another banjo was the last thing I was wanting to see!! So a quick one it was, but just as we were about to make our way home, she did a version of John Denver’s “Country Roads” that I had never heard before and it had me rooted to the spot.
By the time I got home, to be truthful, I’d forgotten about it but just before Christmas, Blacky & I were at a party, a little worse for wear as I remember, and someone asked us to sing. That version of that song was the first thing that came into my head. I’ve just finished recording it for my new EP that will be released later this year but you can download it now, for free, (and feel free to share it with the world !!) from my website www.alanwest.co.uk . Enjoy.
Hope you are well
Kindest, Alan
Last summer when I was up in West Virginia with Lynn’s family, one Tuesday evening we went to a singers night in the backroom of a hardware store in Shepherdstown…..it was a really cool gathering of local musicians playing and singing traditional West Virginian songs….I’ve never seen so many banjos and hammer dulcimers in one room and when it was over, as enjoyable as it was, a beer was very necessary!!
We toddled a few yards up the street and low and behold, an English pub….called The Devonshire Arms….well we had to….however the only English things in there were us, a dartboard, oh and they served Boddingtons on draught. In the corner was a local musician whose name I never got, she was singing and playing a four string banjo and to her left stood her Mum and little sister around one microphone singing harmony vocals. To be honest, having just sat through 3 hours of banjo based music, a quiet pint was the order of the day and another banjo was the last thing I was wanting to see!! So a quick one it was, but just as we were about to make our way home, she did a version of John Denver’s “Country Roads” that I had never heard before and it had me rooted to the spot.
By the time I got home, to be truthful, I’d forgotten about it but just before Christmas, Blacky & I were at a party, a little worse for wear as I remember, and someone asked us to sing. That version of that song was the first thing that came into my head. I’ve just finished recording it for my new EP that will be released later this year but you can download it now, for free, (and feel free to share it with the world !!) from my website www.alanwest.co.uk . Enjoy.
Hope you are well
Kindest, Alan