About this user
Nathaniel Street-West is an American singer-songwriter, poet and guitarist who was born (December 26, 1979) in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Nevada City, California.
His work is characterized by a highly imaginative and lyrical storytelling style, deeply creative guitar work, and a nearly instantly recognizable tenor singing voice, which spans five and a half octaves. He accompanies himself primarily on guitar, generally flanked on stage by several racks of guitars, which include vintage and modern electric guitars and acoustic guitars, a Dobro, custom lap steel guitar, a 12-string guitar, and any other guitar variations he feels like using to get the sounds he wants for his wide-ranging catalog of songs. He also frequently plays the harmonica in addition to guitar. A typical solo performance may go on for over three hours and generally involves Street-West switching out guitars here and there throughout the performance, pouring out a dizzying range of guitar riffs, tones, and specialized fingering techniques to get at the feel he wants for each song. He is equally at home on his entire range of guitars and is a very percussive player, tapping his feet, playing every conceivable part of the guitar, and using his slender, long-fingered hands to pick out a dazzling variety of different playing styles that result in a surprising scope of guitar sounds.
Of course Street-West also often plays backed by his band which has included in the last few years such interesting LA players as drummers Jimmy Paxson and Eric Powers and bass players Dave Felice and Daryl Johnson. The band continues as of January 2008 to morph into different configurations as Street-West works in the studio and prepares for the tour which will follow his upcoming release in the early Summer of 2008.
In addition to a flurry of EP's Street-West released from 1994 to 1996, he has released three major albums over the last three years through Puffin Records, Inc. His first full-length album, "Light Out For the Territory", was released in 2003. His second full-length album, "American Way", was released in 2004. And his third release, "Witness", was released in 2006.
Street-West's latest release, "Witness", was released initially on June 20, 2006. "Witness" was produced by Mark Howard (known for his work with such artists as Daniel Lanois, U2, Lucinda Williams) and the production included such notable musicians as drummer Jim Keltner, Zack Ray (Alanis Morissette's keyboardist), bass player Daryl Johnson and pedal steel player Doug Pettibone. Jim Keltner, who worked with Street-West for the first time on the "Witness" project, remarked in reference to a particularly moving song of Street-West's that appears on the album — the song, "Coldness Follows" — "it really got to me. I immediately connected to a person in my life who is meaningful to me. When art touches you where you feel that strongly, it doesn't get any better. It's what it is all about."
Street-West entered the studio during the last few days of 2007 to begin recording a new album with the drummer Jim Keltner acting as producer on the project.
For those few people to whom Keltner is not a household name, the following quote from a Variety article will help place this renowned musician within current music history:
It is "a long, illustrious line of music artists whose great art has been made greater by the drum/percussion mastery of longtime Angeleno session 'deity' Jim Keltner. As that list includes John Lennon, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, John Lee Hooker, the Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, Ravi Shankar, Pink Floyd, Elvis Costello, Joe Cocker, Neil Diamond, Brian Wilson, B.B. King, et al., let's assume the reader is now down with the 'deity' tag for the man who was the legends' drummer of choice." (From: "LA rocks if you know where to look". Variety, 5/22/2006.
After 5 sessions now completed by mid-January 2008 Keltner and Street-West have tracked 6 songs. Martin Pradler is engineer on this project (Pradler is known for his work with such artists as John Mayer, Eric Clapton, Sting, and Buddy Guy.)
Puffin Records has announced that they are very pleased with the project and expect a release date in early Summer 2008.
