Nashville West

• Genre: Cosmic American Music
• Hometown: El Monte
• Nashville West Website

About

Anyone familiar with Nashville West will tell you that the best thing about them was the otherworldly and soulful flatpicking of the late, great former Byrds member Clarence White. Along with the passionate drum stylings of Gene Parsons (no relation to Gram, but another ex-Byrd as well), Wayne Moss, and Gib Guilbeau, Nashville West were Cosmic American Music pioneers. They were one of the very first bands in music history to blend soulful Rock 'n' Roll with the comforting twang tones of country music, producing a sun-flared sound all their own. White produced weeping slides and harmonic bends with his Bluegrass-rooted picking skills, and country guitar players and enthusiasts will really dig hearing one of the earliest renditions of the Parsons/White B-bender guitar. From the opening title track to the down-home cover of Merle Haggard's "Sing Me Back Home," Nashville West brought out their inner electric cowboy, minus the rhinestones and mythical lore that often dressed up much of yesteryear's country music.

- Eric Shea