The Legend of Sol West
Solomon West was signed to Mystical Records on January 1st, 2010. The label's first solo artist, Sol was destined to become a beacon of hope for other self-conscious and self-loathing amateur musicians.
Born September 6th, 1850, it is any wonder how Sol even found Mystical Records. But as the mystery continues to deepen with this artist, the legend of Solomon West remains partially elucidated - if not just enough to keep his dedicated following intact over the past two centuries.
Up until the advent of quite a few musical machines, Sol's biography had been left to his prior writings:
"I was born ahead of my time. That’s what I found written on the letter sent to me. That, and ‘From: dad’. No date. No address ... the bastard.
Son of David E. West, I was said to be conceived on the open seas and raised there after for quite some time down in the Far East. My father was a merchant sailor from Mississippi and my mother... well, she worked late nights in the back, gas-lit parlors of Singapore's infamous opium district. Having never met my father, I up and left the Orient at a tender age in search of my elusive American heritage. What I found wasn‘t my father, but a country in the midst of civil war. Just my luck."
......
- Sol West 11.6.1867
[Excerpt from Confederate Diary]
Now with a voice, and through his partnership with Mystical Records, Sol's memoirs have become the future of the label's desert blues/cave folk division. As it happens, these genres aren't very well traversed outside of what Sol has done.
Admittedly, Sol's lure does not come from projects that are particularly spectacular... or even exceptionally interesting. Though he acts as his own spiritual architect in all areas related to his music, it is neither his role as a producer nor his accomplishments as a designer that make him larger than life. In fact, the only thing that sustains this man as one artist standing out amongst many is the most basic fact of them all... the legend of Sol West is real.
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