DIG DEEPER PRESENTS WILLIE WEST first ever NY show!
Willie West is why we started Dig Deeper. An artist who – back in the 1960s and 1970s recorded a stack of incredible records – but had the misfortune to be released on labels which couldn’t or didn’t promote them, in Willie’s case because they all ended up folding. Only with the passage of time can we rewrite the history of soul music and find those records which were great musically – not those which happened to have the most marketing dollars behind them.
February 26′s Dig Deeper at Southpaw will be New Orleans soul legend Willie West’s very first show ever in NYC performing his own music. His first should have been some 40 years ago at the Apollo Theatre – but somehow, Lee Dorsey stayed on stage (with Willie’s band!) a little too long, and New York never got to hear a note. Willie was back in New York in the late 1970s lending vocals to the Meters, playing some of their classic material at an outdoor festival – but not a note of his own.
Willie West has given us an incredible legacy of soul – from the blazing R&B of “Willie knows how”, to a seemingly endless list of aching deep soul ballads like “Don’t be ashamed to cry”, to the Allen Toussaint-arranged & produced acoustic funk bomb “Fairchild” which fairly drips with the echoes of New Orleans (and likely features the Meters as the uncredited session musicians).
Don’t be ashamed if you haven’t heard of Willie West – it’s taken us quite some time to assemble his 45s (there are still a couple we haven’t been able to find after years of searching), and it’s taken Willie a fair few years to get back to NYC for his first show. To say this will be a Dig Deeper to remember is an understatement – once heard, you will never forget Willie West.
Dig Deeper is ecstatic to present Willie West’s first show in NYC, backed by the Sweet Divines, who will also be opening the night with their own set.
WILLIE WEST PLAYS SOUTHPAW ON FEBRUARY 26. GET TICKETS HERE