West journeys to Columbia
Published Oct. 26, 2007
Lizzie West was always going to be a woman who did things her own way. In the 34 years of what she calls her "journey," the Brooklyn troubadour signed to a major record label, escaped from it, discovered Leonard Cohen and launched herself on a path down the Holy Road. And tonight, she's walking down the aisle. If hers is a world of puffed-up, primped-out pop tarts, singer/songwriter Lizzie West is the peace-loving exception.
Like her musical heroes, West comes with a story worth hearing. She might sound like Martha Wainwright and think like Gandhi, but she started out like a busker. The late '90s found a then 23-year-old West taking to the streets and subway stations of New York in an attempt to conquer her biggest fear: singing.
"People had always told me that I couldn't sing, that I wasn't good enough, and I believed them," West said. "I decided to get over what I was most afraid of and spent many hours down in the subway just finding my voice, and two years later I signed to a major label."
Almost before the ink dried on her contract with Warner Bros., West found herself in a real-life scary tale, tied to a mass appeal mindset she didn't share. By the time she left, it was easy, West said.
"The (reason) for my leaving Warner Bros. happened the first time I was censored and not allowed to be true to my spirit as an artist," West said. "All I heard was, 'You can't release this song. You can't use this photograph on your album cover.' It's like any dysfunctional relationship. It slowly creeps up on you."
In 2001, West withdrew to a Zen retreat in California to find one of her biggest influences, Leonard Cohen. On this quest, one of her last before her life changed direction, West brought along her 10-year tour companion the "dharma dog," an animal "with one eye turned inward, one outward and a bullet in his neck."
"I wanted to talk to a teacher and have somebody tell me that my journey was right," West said. "I picked somebody that inspired me, so I took the dharma dog or the dharma dog took me, whichever way you choose to look at it, and we went looking for Leonard Cohen. It was an experience."
Now, the Whitman-quoting, socially aware songstress travels across the U.S. as an artist-in-residence to promote her ideas and way of life in a way she never felt comfortable promoting her music.
"We really see ourselves as nomadic artists," West said. "I no longer measure how much my music matters by thousands or millions of people who listen to me. Sometimes it's 10, and sometimes it's 1,000, and either one is OK with me."
Since they met in a New York City café in 2005, West and her fiancée, tourmate Anthony Kieraldo, who's stage name is Baba Buffalo, have spent their time developing Holy Road Tours, a national artist co-op with headquarters in Columbia.
"We're just part of it, really," West said. "We're experimenting in ourselves to help other artists walk journeys that are non-commercial. It's not about the bottom line, it's about peace and social justice in this world."
West also said the quest itself is about the journey.
"I don't know if I learned it on my mama's lap or if it I learned it going through the music industry machine, but I learned that it's my journey and nobody else's," West said.