 |
Jim West | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | James West |
| Born | December 18, 1953 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | Rock, slack-key guitar |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, producer |
| Instrument | Guitar |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Labels | Westernmost, Scotti Brothers, Volcano, Placebo |
| Website | jimkimowest |
James West (born December 18, 1953), also known as Kimo, is a Canadian guitarist best known for working with "Weird Al" Yankovic. [1]
West was born in Toronto, Ontario on December 18, 1953, and grew up in Tampa, Florida. At age 12, he started playing guitar. [2] By age 16, he was playing professionally in various Florida rock bands, including at least one with later bandmate Steve Jay.
In the early 1980s, he came to Los Angeles, where Jay introduced him to "Weird Al" Yankovic. He auditioned for Yankovic after being introduced by Steve Jay and the two have worked together ever since. [3] [4] West can be heard and seen on all of Yankovic's videos, albums, and concerts since 1983.
West is also a composer for film and television and produced a number of CDs for independent artists.[ citation needed ] He has released fourteen solo slack-key guitar albums. He performs regularly at concerts and festivals.[ citation needed ]
In 2018, he received his first Grammy nomination a Moku Maluhia: Peaceful Island in the category of Best New Age Album. [5] In 2020 his album, More Guitar Stories received another Grammy nomination for Best New Age Album and subsequently won that category. [6]
He has a private studio in Los Angeles, [7] but spends several months a year in Hana, Hawaii. [8] He retains his Canadian citizenship.[ citation needed ]
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Best New Age Album | Moku Maluhia: Peaceful Island | Nominated |
| 2021 | More Guitar Stories | Won [9] |
Keola Beamer is a Hawaiian slack-key guitar player, best known as the composer of "Honolulu City Lights" and an innovative musician who fused Hawaiian roots and contemporary music. Keola Beamer descends from one of Hawaii's most respected musical families.
Philip Kunia Pahinui, known as Gabby Pahinui, was an American Hawaiian slack-key guitarist and singer of Hawaiian music. He also went by Pops Pahinui.
Slack-key guitar is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in Hawaii. This style of guitar playing involves altering the standard tuning on a guitar from E-A-D-G-B-E, which has been used for centuries, so that strumming across the open strings will then sound a harmonious chord, typically an open major. This requires altering or "slacking" certain strings, which is the origin of the term "slack key". The style typically features an alternating-bass pattern, played by the thumb on the lower two or three strings of the guitar, while the melody is played by the fingers on the three or four highest strings. There are as many as fifty tunings that have been used in this style of playing, and tunings were once guarded fiercely and passed down as family secrets. In the early 20th century, the steel guitar and the ukulele gained wide popularity in America, but the slack-key style remained a folk tradition of family entertainment for Hawaiians until about the 1960s and 1970s during the second Hawaiian renaissance.
Poodle Hat is the eleventh studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on May 20, 2003. It was the fifth studio album self-produced by Yankovic. The musical styles on the album are built around parodies and pastiches of pop of the early-2000s. The album's lead single, "Couch Potato", is a parody of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. The single failed to chart, although the album's song "eBay" eventually peaked at 15 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles in 2007.
Even Worse is the fifth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on April 12, 1988. The album was produced by former The McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer. Recorded between November 1987 and February 1988, this album helped to revitalize Yankovic's career after the critical and commercial failure of his previous album Polka Party! (1986).
Dare to Be Stupid is the third studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on June 18, 1985. The album was one of many Yankovic records produced by former McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer. Recorded between August 1984 and March 1985, the album was Yankovic's first studio album released following the success of 1984's In 3-D, which included the Top 40 single "Eat It".
"Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D is the second studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on February 28, 1984, by Rock 'n Roll Records. The album was one of many produced by former McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer. Recorded between October and December 1983, the album was Yankovic's follow-up to his modestly successful debut LP, "Weird Al" Yankovic.
Polka Party! is the fourth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on October 21, 1986. The album was produced by former The McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer. Recorded between April and September 1986, the album was Yankovic's follow-up to his successful 1985 release, Dare to Be Stupid. The album's lead single, "Living With a Hernia", failed to chart.
The Grammy Award for Best Hawaiian Music Album was an honor presented to recording artists from 2005 to 2011 for quality Hawaiian music albums. The Grammy Awards, an annual ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, are presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency, and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".
"Fat" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of "Bad" by Michael Jackson and is Yankovic's second parody of a Jackson song, the first being "Eat It", a parody of Jackson's "Beat It". "Fat" is the first song on Yankovic's Even Worse album.
"I Love Rocky Road" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic about a man's obsession with rocky road ice cream. It is a parody of the Arrows' 1975 song, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", originally sung and written by Alan Merrill, in the style of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
"Jurassic Park" is a parody of Richard Harris's version of Jimmy Webb's song "MacArthur Park", written and performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic; it was released both as a single and as part of Yankovic's Alapalooza album in October 1993. "Jurassic Park" was penned by Yankovic after he remembered the enjoyment he had when he combined a classic rock track with a recent movie theme with his 1985 song "Yoda". Yankovic decided to combine the plot of the recent movie Jurassic Park—a film about a park on a fictional island where geneticists have succeeded in cloning dinosaurs—with the classic Richard Harris track "MacArthur Park".
Dennis David Kahekilimamaoikalanikeha Kamakahi was a Hawaiian slack key guitarist, recording artist, music composer, and Christian minister. He was a three-time Grammy Award winner, and in 2009 he was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame.
"Trapped in the Drive-Thru" is the eleventh song from "Weird Al" Yankovic's twelfth studio album Straight Outta Lynwood, which was released on September 26, 2006. This song is a parody of Trapped in the Closet by R. Kelly. To date, the song is Yankovic's longest parody, and his second longest song ever released on his studio albums.
"Craigslist" is a song by American musician "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a style parody of the Doors, and contains lyrics inspired by postings at the online classified advertising service, Craigslist. Yankovic described the idea of the song coming about thinking how it would be "anachronistically weird" for Jim Morrison to scream about Craigslist. Yankovic opted to use Craigslist as an example of something big in both the popular culture and his own life, and spent time exploring its listings to compose the lyrics. The song was released shortly after the closure of the Michael John Anderson case, a factor Yankovic considered "unfortunate timing".
Internet Leaks is the second EP released by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic. Released digitally on August 25, 2009, its lead single is a parody of "Whatever You Like" by artist T.I. For Yankovic, the EP was an experiment in using the Internet as a way to release music in an efficient and timely manner. As a result, the lead single, "Whatever You Like", references the Great Recession of 2008. The EP also contains style parodies of the Doors, Weezer, the White Stripes, and Queen; all of the songs, except for "Ringtone", had been released as separate digital singles between October 2008 and August 2009, preceding the record's release.
Makana, born Matthew Swalinkavich, is a slack-key guitar player, singer, and composer.
Patrick Landeza is a contemporary Hawaiian slack key guitarist. He is the first mainland-born Hawaiian to win a Nā Hōkū Hanohano music award. He was born in Berkeley, California on June 23, 1972.
"Bob" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic from the 2003 album, Poodle Hat. The song is a parody sung in the style of Bob Dylan, and all of the lyrics are palindromes as is the title. For example, the song's first line is "I, man, am regal—a German am I", which reads the same when reversed.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is the soundtrack album to the 2022 film Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, a satirical biopic, loosely based on the life and career of comedy musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, who is also credited as executive producer and co-writer of the film. The film, co-written and directed by Eric Appel, stars Daniel Radcliffe as Yankovic, along with Evan Rachel Wood, Rainn Wilson, Toby Huss, Arturo Castro, and Julianne Nicholson in supporting roles.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
   | This article about an American musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
