Album Notes

"Proves once again that he deserves to be a cult figure, if he isn't one already." Dirty Linen Feb/March 2005 "A visionary slice of Americana...joyously weird and transfixing" An Honest Tune Spring 2005 "Catchy, witty and subtly sinister." No Depression Mar/Apr 2005 Joe West is a true story teller and a perfect character in this American dream. With deep roots in New Mexico, he paints this landscape in song with a familiar ease and a comforting grace. At the same time, he employs outrageous fiction to create a world almost more life like than the real one. more press: Dirty Linen #116 Feb/March 2005 pg 90 JOE WEST SOUTH DAKOTA HAIR-DO (frogville fv-00015) Joe West is such a class act that he even wears a white Colonel Sanders-type suit, although it seems a little inconguous considering the proletarian, white trash images some of his songs convey. If Lou Reed's roots were in New Mexico and Texas, he'd probably sound like Joe West. There's a sparse, economical quality to West's songwriting style. The lyrics often deal with alcohol and drug-laden characters. As with West's past albums, the production allows the singer's melodies and intriguing lyrics to stand out; the rythem section is funky and the electric guitar understated but sharp. "Cold Canadian Love" is a haunting song that features very effective use of dobro. "Reprimand" and "Jamie III" seem to be sequel songs to "Jamie Was a Boozer" the title song of a previous West album. Jamie also shows up in "More Than You'll Ever Know" a song that alludes to the hey day of the Sex Pistols, and in "Video Taping Our Love" . With SOUTH DAKOTA HAIRDO. Joe West proves once again that he deserves to be a cult figure, if he isn't already one. PEC +++FLYIN SHOES REVIEW++++ JOE WEST SOUTH DAKOTA HAIRDO http://www.frogvilleplanet.com Joe West: South Dakota Hairdo (Frogville Records fv00015) Just how many great singer/songwriters are there out there? I'd never heard of Joe West before but he seems to be at least three records into his career and it really shows: there's ten songs here written and performed with complete assurance, hopping from one style to another so that other reviewers seem to have given up trying to categorise him. How could you, when on one song he could be Lou Reed. on another Mike Scott in the early 90s, and on another, Kinky Friedman? And each of the other songs are different again? He sings about real life, enjoying the humour, the sadness, the strengths and weaknesses of people's lives; the lyrics are intelligent and literate and the music is beautifully structured and played, varying from a fairly sparse arrangement of guitar, fiddle and harmony vocals to a fairly full on band sound driven by electric guitar and piano. On the first few hearings I wasn't sure I could go with a whole album of his vocals, which are a bit nasal and querulous, but I seem to have got past that as the songs have grown on me. There's just so much to listen to in this album, snatches of lyric and background details in the music, that it's still a growing pleasure and I've probably played it 20 times. And he namechecks both North and South Dakota, and I challenge anyone to tell me of another album that does so. And the Santa Fe Reporter said: "God bless Joe West and his countrified freak show". Amen to that. This album available at the frogville website above. John Davy +++FLYIN SHOES REVIEW++++ __ FREIGHT TRAIN BOOGIE REVIEW - 5 STARS JOE WEST South Dakota Hairdo... (Frogville Records) You'll want to fasten your seat-belts for this one, because South Dakota Hairdo is one hell of a ride down the incredible highway of Joe West's imagination. Wonderfully literate and musically impeccable, West and his band present a high-energy vision of that other life that exists somewhere on the fringes. They say that true artists look at life through a different lens than the rest of us, and that must be true; how else can a song titled "South