I remember Jim West as one of Tampa’s best guitarists back in the guitar heavy days of the late 1960s and ’70s. Jim and I were also in a contest to see who was the skinniest, geekiest kid at King High School. I won.
Jim evenutally headed off to Los Angeles and found fame and lots of MTV time as “Weird Al” Yankovik’s guitarist. Check out Al’s early videos for the tall, skinny guy with a shock of black hair. That’s our boy.
Jim can play anything on the guitar – you have to when you’re covering the pop universe doing “Weird Al” parodies – but his passion is Hawaiian Slack Key guitar. When he’s not touring the world with Al and the boys, he’s playing that achingly beautiful music around the west coast and in Hawaii as Jim “Kimo” West.
Jim is in the area visiting family and is playing a rare homecoming concert tonight (June 30th) at 7:30 in our Side Door Cabaret. It’s part of our Side Door Summer series.
For more info, check out www.mypalladium.org or Jim’s website at www.jimkimowest.com/
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