Inside Track 003: This Time of Year

one for the lonely

written: 20191113.0927
key: A
time: 3/4

I set out to write a “holiday song” a few years back, even daring to dream of expanding the thought into an EP I would definitely call A Very Westy Holiday.

The EP’s still a dream, but I was home in NYC a couple weeks back, and dusted off the track, while also dusting off Jolie, my Gibson ES335 modded by Paul Schwartz of Peekamoose Guitars.

Here, Jolie runs direct into my Fender Super Champ, no pedal board. My voice was ravaged earlier this year by covid, and my falsetto has turned into an adventure. This video is the 5th and final take I managed that day, and was the only take where my voice held up ok in both choruses. In my brief time back in NYC, this was the sole recording I was able to make.

I am thankful it held together at all.

I was never crazy about TTOY’s original final verse, penned in 2019. It spiraled into a blithe pessimism that felt a betrayal to the true sentiment of reflecting on a year’s passing. For the record, it went like this:

so we bury secrets deeper
so everyone thinks we’re
at peace and…