On Eli West’s new album, Tapered Point of Stone (April 23, 2021), he is joined again by his favoured quartet alongside a number of special guests that include Julie Fowlis, Joseph Decosimo, Stephanie Coleman, Billy Cardine and Jens Linell. We have the pleasure of sharing his title track video below.
In introducing this album, a number of questions were put to West and his answers provide a fascinating insight into his musical creativity as well as going some way to explaining why I’m so drawn to his sound…especially his comments about crafting beautiful and tuneful melodies for community – a key focus to this album which explores communal music-making and the grief of his father’s recent passing.
West is a trained designer, he sees music architecturally, visualizing his compositions spatially. It’s a highly unusual way to think about music, tied to his verdant natural world in the Pacific Northwest. On his new album, Tapered Point of Stone, due out April 23, 2021, West lays out original songs and tunes like houses built by hand, weaving their melodies into the setting of acoustic roots music that first inspired him.
Recorded in 2020, just before everything shut down, the album brings together West’s favoured quartet of musicians: Andrew Marlin (Mandolin Orange) on mandolin, Christian Sedelmeyer (Jerry Douglas) on fiddle, himself on mandolin, guitar, and banjo, and Clint Mullican (Mandolin Orange) on bass. This is the third album this quartet has built, including solo albums for Marlin and Sedelmeyer, and at this point, they operate on a near-magical wavelength. As both a noted arranger, songwriter, performer, and composer, West has been crafting a Northwest-centric roots music aesthetic through earlier collaborations with Cahalen Morrison and John Reischman, and recordings with Bill Frisell and Dori Freeman. Tapered Point of Stone showcases West’s collaborative nature. “My identity as a musician is as much about collaboration as anything,” West explains. “I’m a second born, that might be part of it? Whether music is about communication or community, the sum is bigger than the parts.”
This ethos comes from West’s passion for bluegrass, where collaborative music-making is the norm. West approaches his influences more from a John Hartford perspective than Bill Monroe, however. Whereas Monroe was about the flashy virtuosity and competitiveness of the individual, Hartford was about crafting beautiful and tuneful melodies for community: playing together, not showing off. Exposed to the joy of this music for the first time at a Matt Flinner and David Grier house concert, West says “what drew me in was the level of communication. It was a new language.” This shared language has taken West across the world, touring the UK, Scandinavia, Australia, and Europe, and has provided an endless source of inspiration, enabling him to craft a career built in combination with others. It also put him in touch with a world built by hand, away from the constant buzz of our digital society. “There’s a precedent to the music,” he says, “but it’s also young. Maybe it falls in a spot where there’s enough tradition and enough opportunity at the same time.”
Eli West on Tapered Point of Stone
‘Not being drawn to love songs, I figured to try one on. Love feels different and acts differently, in different chapters. The title track of the record, the image of a pyramid (while risking cult or conspiracy iconography) seems fitting as a symbol of priorities (Hierarchy of needs) and achievement (something to bury a notable person in).’
West’s music is imbued with a warmth that’s impossible to resist, it will draw you back time and again and Tapered Point of Stone is no exception.
Pre-Order Tapered Point of Stone (out on April 23, 2021): http://lnk.to/taperedpointofstone
Photo Credit: Jenny Jimenez