West, who was born in Toronto but spent much of his childhood in Ottawa, has been playing with Weird Al for more than 40 years.\u000D\u000A\u000D\u000AIt\u0027s Weird Al\u0027s camp and kookiness that gets the attention, so it\u0027s easy to overlook the stellar musicianship that grounds his music. Pretty Fly for a Rabbi wouldn\u0027t fly if it didn\u0027t sound like it was The Offspring itself up on stage.
West, who was born in Toronto but spent much of his childhood in Ottawa, has been playing with Weird Al for more than 40 years.
I really didn’t know who Al was — just some guy with an accordion. I said, ‘Does he have any gigs?’ and they said, ‘Yeah. And they’re paying gigs too. So I said, ‘Sure.’ A few days later I got a call from Al and he said, ‘You’re the guy.’ When I began to learn the songs I realized they were really well-crafted and the lyrics were very clever. It’s not something he just threw together in five minutes. We play every different style, so musically it’s a fun challenge — everything from polka to metal.Article content
Your solo career has all been about Hawaiian slack key guitar. What is slack key and how did you begin playing it?
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