The New Acoustic Scene, that started about a generation ago has taken the instrumentation of bluegrass to a lot of interesting places, from jam band material to singer-songwriter projects to wide open fusion groups combining bluegrass with some very disparate styles, along with more traditional music, which is still very much alive.

This week, we have a new album that I suppose to be called an eclectic bluegrass singer-songwriter record. It’s by Eli West, and it’s called The Shape of a Sway.

Eli West is a multi-instrumentalist from the Pacific Northwest, who attracted a fair amount of attention in his youth, but with two previous solo albums and his work with Cahalen Morrison, along with his own changing family circumstances, he is out with a collection of often philosophical songs, done in a setting that is somewhere between bluegrass, old-timey, and eclectic modern. Lyrically, he describes it as “an honest inventory of my life, possibly all our lives presented with enough abstraction that listeners will see something of themselves...”

West plays guitar, banjo, mandolin and pedal steel, and is joined on the album by collaborators fiddler Patrick M’Gonigle and bassist Forest Marowitz, who together with West came up with the creative arrangements on the album. Of the ten songs, six are original and there are four covers, including songs by Paul Simon and folk legend Jean Ritchie. Together the group comes up with a nice stylistic blend in an acoustic context, though there are occasionally electronic bits of spaciness. Other personnel includes Matt Flinner on mandolin and banjo, Peter Hatch on keyboards and Pharis Romero on backing vocals. Wither it’s West or Flinner, when the banjo appears, it’s played in the pre-bluegrass clawhammer style, rather than the trademark three-finger bluegrass style, so it gives the music a kind of old-timey texture at times.

Opening the album is Away Out on the Sea a song about turning your back on your home to go out on the sea, and then missing home after all. The bluegrass/old timey musical setting makes it quite appealing. <<>>

Rocks & Trees is a more introspective song in waltz time with astutely allegorical lyrics <<>>

With a bit of sonic atmospherics is Spite & Love which examines those two conflicting emotions with the aid of some birds in the lyrics. <<>>

Another fine song is Everlovin’ Need to Know which combines West’s adept lyrics with a more upbeat, bouncy musical setting. <<>>

The Paul Simon cover is a less-well-known composition, Hearts and Bones which was also the title of one of Simon’s albums. The arrangement here is quite creative, and puts a new spin on the song. <<>>

There are two instrumentals on the album. One of them is an energetic piece called Gentlemen’s Bulldog with strong fiddle work by Patrick M’Gonigle. <<>>

Another of the covers is the Jean Ritchie song Cool of the Day which the band gives a kind of spooky sound with the lyrics having a bit of that quality. <<>>

The ends with its only straight-out bluegrass style song, I’d Like to Be a Train with prominent bluegrass-style banjo work, and West doing a respectable “high-lonesome” vocal. <<>>

The Shape of a Sway the new album by Pacific Northwest singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Eli West, is an enjoyable recording of tasteful bluegrass-influenced acoustic music with thoughtful lyrics. The group assembled for the session is first-rate and provides a nice context for the songs, while West’s appealing vocals further adds to the album’s assets.

Our grade for audio quality is close to an “A” with good clarity on the acoustic instruments, and even when there are the minimal electronic effects, they are handled more as a subtle backdrop, rather then an end in itself.

Eli West has emerged on his third solo album as an admirable singer-songwriter, and the bluegrass instrumentation on his new album is just the thing to make for most-worthwhile listening.

(c) Copyright 2025 George D. Graham. All rights reserved.
This review may not be copied to another Web site without written permission.

<<>> indicates audio excerpt played in produced radio review

Comments to George: