It's Here! - New CD, "By the Side of the Lake" - Seattle release concert April 11

At long last, "By the Side of the Lake" has arrived in tangible CD form! It'll start making its way out to some radio stations this week, and should appear on iTunes and a host of other digital media outlets before too terribly long. A copy, of course, can be yours with just a few clicks of the mouse at www.wesweddell.com, which is sporting a brand new look in conjunction with the release.

The full 'WW Band' will also be on-hand for a special release concert April 11 at Nectar in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood (bandmate and 'Lake' co-producer Alicia Healey will open the show). Truth-be-told, we're awfully excited!

* April 11 (Sun) - 8:00pm
Seattle, WA: Nectar Lounge
412 N 36th St.; (206) 632-2020
Advance Tickets (21+)
Full-band CD release concert for "By the Side of the Lake"
Featuring: Alicia Healey; Brian Hoskins; Dave Bush; Erin Kreiger; Amanda Monger
- Alicia Healey opens -

Tukwila, WA: Cascade View Elementary School (March 15 & 16)

More innocent questions from the younger kids, though "Are you rich?" seems to transcend age... Kudos to Amanda for packing me a sack lunch both days!

Seattle, WA: The Children's Museum

I swear, if they hired me for ten minutes, the room'd clear out after eight--just something about the space, I suppose, and the delightfully restless nature of young kids. Slow day on account of the gorgeous weather, so we try the more central Storytelling room instead of my usual 'theater' space. One huge plus: the small balcony-like fort off to my left makes for great heckling aesthetics (Statler & Waldorf at age four...).

By the Side of the Lake - Lyrics

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Rough Mixes: One Way It Might Look

Victory Music asked me to write for the now on-line only Review a while back, and this is the first one I've gotten in. Calling the column, however regular it might be, “Rough Mixes” ...

“Want to know one of the great things about being a musician?” I asked the students assembled in front of me for the first of six school presentations recently: “Gigs rarely start at 8:00am.”

Regarding my invitation to speak here on theme ‘doing what you love’, of course, the fix was in (as it so often is). One of my band-mates teaches in the district, and I’ve backed up his choirs going on five years now—it’s not like I made some exclusive cut or won the Yellow Pages/Google lottery. Just the same, I’ve learned that the narrative can assume markedly different appearances based on what details I choose to omit. For example: “Wes Weddell was pleased ‘Musician’ made the cut at a local middle school’s Career (‘Impact’) Day, and honored to be asked”, read my third-person vain Facebook status that afternoon, rather than “friend-of-a-friend called in a favor”, which would have been no less accurate. One’s a whole lot more romantic, though—and feels a whole lot more validating.

This brings me to what has become one of my stock phrases when describing many facets of the ‘scene’: “It’s not about what you’re doing, it’s about what people think you’re doing.” Problem is, I resent the hell out of this perception, and I still care tremendously about the art itself, while the marketplace tends also to weigh a few other factors that may or may not overlap with my creative skill sets.


Read the whole thing here.

Bellevue, WA: Crossroads

As I do more and more work with Reilly & Maloney, whose aversion to monitors is legendary, I get better and better and trusting the room and working with what it gives me--but, man, it's nice to hear yourself well! The work Bob Conger does at Crossroads is nothing short of remarkable, given the mall/food-court traffic, tiled floors, and massive glass pergola... Enjoying getting the new stuff further out there (and, as always, a treat to do it under the Puget's Sound banner), though after tonight I'll likely clamp down on local appearances to put a 'premium' on the inevitable "By the Side of the Lake" release concert.

Redmond, WA: Swedenborg Church of Puget Sound

A lot of peers in my various circles do gigs like this all the time, often with UU / UCC / Spiritual Living congregations in addition to these sweet Swedenborgians (fascinating fellow), and becasue I speak the language folk often assume that I have a lot of overt material in my canon suitable for these sorts of occasions. Not that my songs are incongruous, but I think of my writing as being more story-centered than message-centered, with perhaps more ambiguity and room for listeners to draw their own conclusions. That said, it was a blast to have some 'community'-oriented tunes that fit this morning's messages (unknown to me until I arrived) to a T! And the DanceWorks Studio space in which they met is way cool, too...