Into the Great Wide Open: Brooks West

By Michael Weiler
Contributing Writer

Open spaces, open roads, smooth sailing—that’s the hope at least. Do what you want, uprooted by choice, make things happen. But it’s a rough world out there. The world of music and musicians is not very forgiving—not for the weak of heart and soul.

Brooks West, Fargo born and raised, knows this first hand. “When I moved away from Fargo I was playing four nights a week, three to four hours a night. Some years I was doing 150 shows a year, while people weren’t really paying attention. It’s not easy, not at all.”

If you have ever talked to Brooks West, you know that though he talks of tough roads, there is always a silver lining to everything. He is like Stretch Armstrong, no matter how many ways he is pulled out of sorts, he slowly goes back to Brooks West—reshaped, reformed, refocused.

After 26 years in Fargo, he made the trek to Harrisburg, PA and resided there for six years before making his way to Nashville. “Moving to Nashville sounds almost cliché,” Brooks laughs, “But a friend offered me a great opportunity to go there, hang out, play music; it was perfect.”

But Nashville (like Austin, Texas and in some circles Los Angeles) is an American music mecca. A place where people come to fulfill dreams, and more likely than not, have their dreams shattered, leaving them to pick up the pieces off the floor.

“I only stayed in Nashville for a year. Nashville had many, many ups and downs for me on a personal level, as well as musically. But what it really showed me was what I was as an artist. What I needed to do as an artist. What I wanted to do as an artist. So in that regard it was good.”

“Nashville is like going to the college-of-hard-knocks for musicians. The best musicians in the world are there. The cool ones are in Austin,” Brooks jokingly states, “but it’s a slap in the face of serious reality. There are guys and gals who are scraping just to get by, and they are the best musicians and songwriters you will ever come across. But time has kind of forgotten about them.
They were big in the 70s and 80s, but not anymore.”

So two years ago, Mr. West headed, well, west literally, and a lot more north, back home to Fargo. “You forget how brutal it is up here. Not only weather-wise either; this winter stuff sucks.

But musically too, it’s hard to get people to come to shows. It’s hard to be original here, though there are three major colleges in Fargo/Moorhead, and they all have great music programs, and they all, I am guessing, have some amazing musicians. But where are these people? Why are they not forming bands? And supporting and creating the scene here in Fargo?”

So Brooks is back to Fargo—unsure, but undaunted by what the future holds. Always carving “his” niche wherever he may be; pushing forward and moving on.

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IF YOU GO:

What: Brooks West live with performances by Brenda Weiler, Shape then Shift, Eden Parker, Dann K and Black Casket, and Shane Maland
Where: Ecce Art and Yoga, 216 Broadway
When: Saturday, March 25, Doors at 6:30 p.m., Music at 7 p.m.
Cost: $10