Ted West: True West (Self Released)

Heady album title, True West. It’s a classic stage play by Sam Shepard (co-writer of classic indie flick Paris, Texas) . The phrase means something, at least to those who live out here on the left coast.

And obviously, after running through Ted West’s album, you can see an artist reaching out, but for West, it’s more of a spiritual direction than figurative. On the opener, “California” a delicate track, yearning for the Golden State, it’s more than just the coastline; West desires beauty, fertility, abundance and whoever he’s singing to certainly embodies those values.

As a whole, West’s renditions of rock and blues offer a lot of light country influenced AM radio songs that roll gently (try “Jimi” and the female vocal touches on “Song Of Perfect Harmony” or the borderline soft rock “Sweet Soul Survivor”) across the stereo. Even his song, “Bittersweet Descent” isn’t all that mournful; it’s come hither, it’s pleading, a lovely song, but I’m not feeling where a hardened refrain comes through.

West can call his version of this conceptual whatever he wants; if he wants to go true, then so be it. What West envisions though is more the dusk lights of California than the tumbleweeds and rugged, denim clad archetypes normally associated with the name. So pour a glass of rosé and consider yourself warned.