'West Side Stories' is the debut album release from The Westies, a band formed when Michael McDermott (acoustic guitar and vocals) met Heather Horton (fiddle and vocals), just after he avoided a jail sentence for unknown misdemeanours.
The rest of the gang are: - Lex Price (bass), Joe Pisapia (electric guitar) Ian Fitchuk (drums and piano). In addition to this you have John Deaderick on additional piano and Fred Eltrinham and Daniel Tashian who both play on the track 'Devil'.
The band's name is taken from the title of a mob of American Irish punks that had their origins in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York in the 1960s and 70s. Certainly, there is a gang element to this album, the stories unravelling in the songs detailing the lives of those living on the edge in the underclass of the city. The style of the music is primarily within the Americana genre, and there are favourable comparisons that can be made with early Tom Waits or Bruce Springsteen.
The album opens with 'Hell's Kitchen' a wonderfully slow paced country style ballad that lyrically is brilliant, bemoaning the loss of the neighbourhood: - “Everything is closin' down, even Armstrong's aint around. Imagine that/ Everything that made it home, has been chewed to the bone. It makes me sad...
This pavement is lined with scars, and the ghosts that died in these bars, between 9th and 10th.”
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This is a classic opening track, and one that has a resonance on both sides of the Atlantic, as in the UK, same as the US, vast areas of cities are being redeveloped losing all their character and every essence of individuality to make huge sums for the greedy property developers and the bankers.
'Devil' is another excellent track, a bluesier Southern style number that revisits and updates Robert Johnson territory of meeting Mr. Lucifer and coming to an arrangement: - “I made a deal with the devil, night before last. It was down in the harbour, the river rolling fast... I made a deal with the devil for my soul.”
Whilst the subject matter on these and the eight other tracks on the album may not be bright and full of joy, this is no bad thing, the darker tone of the album resonates with the struggles that people have on a daily basis, and for that should be celebrated.
The album is available in CD format or download from The Westies online and is certainly worth the investment. Can't wait for the second album!
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