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Wes and Victoria

About Me


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Wes and Victoria
Wes and Victoria began their musical sojourn in San Antonio, Texas. Their first music business mentor was Augie Meyers, keyboardist and songwriter for the legendary band The Sir Douglas Quintet. Their initial lessons were conducted over piping hot bowls of caldo and Augie's homemade grilled cheese sandwiches where Augie explained the basics of gigging and shared stories of his exploits in the music business, including teaching John Lennon about the accordion and Vox organ and recording with Bob Dylan.
Putting Augie's guidance to work the duo started gigging in the San Antonio and South Texas area in a variety of their own bands, including a folk act named Little Smoke and a rock/punk act called Puffin. During this time Wes started writing original material and the duo dropped the majority of the cover material they once performed. Looking to expand the audience for their original work, they relocated up the road to Austin, Texas.
While in Austin, Wes and Victoria performed with a number of regional and national acts. They appeared on stage with Lucinda Williams, BW Stevenson, Townes Van Zandt, The Sir Douglas Quintet, Donavon, Eric Anderson, Steve Fromholtz , Jesse Dayton and numerous others. Wes and Victoria also opened a recording studio near the University of Texas called the Track Shack, where they produced local and regional acts. During this time the duo recorded and released an acoustic LP entitled "Not For Prophet" which garnered airplay in various US folk markets and as far away as France.
When the studio lease expired Wes and Victoria headed west to Los Angeles. The City of Angels proved to be the next step in their musical evolution as Victoria started getting session work, recording with Robert Altman, the famed movie director, Oscar winner Hans Zimmer, a CBS movie of the week TV score where she appeared on the soundtrack with Johnny Cash and she had the privilege of recording on Roy Rodgers last recording, adding her soulful harmonica tracks to all these projects.
In the meantime Wes continued to expand his composition and songwriting skills, scoring numerous small budget television and film projects and writing songs with Oscar winning composer Paul Williams. He scored the Los Angeles Area Emmy awards for 3 consecutive years as well as the ACE awards honoring Martin Scorsese. Wes and Victoria also performed acoustic sets throughout the LA area, appearing at the venerable venues of the Troubadour and Whiskey A Go Go along with gigs at various coffee houses and listening rooms across the city.
A series of illnesses derailed the couple, and they moved to Denver, Colorado to pursue new business opportunities. Wes continued to write; composing many of the songs that would appear one day appear on the "Ballad of Billy Saigon" CD, including the title track. Shortly after moving to Colorado Victoria was hit head on in a near fatal high speed car accident, which ultimately led to open joint jaw surgery and put a 3 year hold on her harmonica playing.
During this time Wes completed the songs for the Billy Saigon CD and began recording over a series of trip to Los Angeles. As Victoria slowly regained her ability to play, she recorded her tracks and the duo began to perform acoustic shows in the Denver area.
Once again, tragedy struck with a debilitating illness sidelining Victoria and requiring multiple hospitalizations. After three more years of recuperation Wes and Victoria once again took the stage and began performing acoustic shows.
Now back onstage, Wes and Victoria are pleased to release "The Ballad of Billy Saigon". The CD features songs of perseverance and redemption, hard won from the lives of the performers who have created it. Wes and Victoria have remained committed to their music, to each other, and to never giving up hope even in the darkest of times. Their music and their lives reflect a strength that can only be gained through lives fully lived and challenges met head on.
Get Lyrics and more of the story at our Babamuse (click here) link . There is also our artist site where you can hear the whole CD Wes and Victoria (click here) link . PTSD Spells MIA
WES AND VICTORIA are the 2009 INDIE ARTIST OF THE YEAR on the Starliners

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 22/12/2007
Band Website: www.wesandvictoria.com
Band Members: READ WHAT ROOTSTIME MAGAZINE IN BELGIUM HAS TO SAY ABOUT "THE BALLAD OF BILLY SAIGON"

" The lyrics have a healing quality and Victoria's harp playing adds a "soundtrack" feeling to the songs"
"Reunion" (my favorite) en "Beauty Way" both gems, are nice examples of these two elements combined to form those wonderful songs"
"Another thing is the perfect sound quality of this record, which almost literally took blood sweat and tears and a lot of time in the making. This turned it even more into a small masterpiece which grows on you every time you play it...over and over again...
Wes Hamil- Vocals, Guitars, Bass, percussion
Victoria Beaufort Hamil- Harmonica, Vocals

BALLAD OF BILLY SAIGON musicians:
Albert Lee- Guitar. Albert has spent the last few years touring with the Everly Brothers in addition to his own solo projects. One of the world's preeminent guitarists, Albert has toured and recorded with Eric Clapton and Emmylou Harris and a long list of others.
Stephen Bruton- Guitar. Bruton was well known as a producer for artists such as Hal Michael Ketchum and for his own solo work. He was Kris Kristofferson's guitarist before becoming Bonnie Raitt's musical director and guitarist during her late 80's Grammy spree. RIP Stephen- you will be missed.
Gary Bolen- Guitars, Bass. Gary is another one of those rockin' Texas guitar players, even if he is from Mississippi.
David Palmer- Drummer. David currently tours with Rod Stewart, having spent time in ABC.
Tony Sales- Bass. Tony was a founding member of David Bowie's Tin Machine, and was also bassist for Iggy Pop.
Paul Landsittel- Mandolin. A longtime Colorado bluegrass and folk performer.
Marc Goodman- Organ. Marc has toured with Taj Mahal and Sister Sledge among others.
Dana Walden- Organ, Piano. Dana is a hit songwriter and founding member of the group Champaign, which scored a million seller with the Dana penned tune "How Bout Us".
Lee Ann Harris- Percussion. Lee Ann is a versatile jazz musician whose touring credits include Toni Childs.
Justin Walden- Drums, Percussion. A recording artist whose drumming and programming work has been a part of multiplatinum records by Korn, Orgy and Seven Dust.
Chris Lawrence- Pedal Steel. Chris is a veteran of the road, and founder of the seminal LA country rock outfit the Neon Angels.
Nathalie Archangel- Vocals. Former MCA recording artist and songwriter whose work includes covers by Bette Midler.
Victoria Beaufort Hamil- Harmonica, Vocals. Victoria is a top rate session player, and her work has been featured in scores for CBS Movies, television specials and commercials worldwide. Her recordings include tracks with Johnny Cash, Roy Rogers, Robert Altman, Hans Zimmer and others.
Wes Hamil- Veteran Songwriter who has written with Oscar winner Paul Williams, among others. On this recording he played Acoustic Guitars, bass, percussion, "lesliecaster" and vocals.
This is the link to our iTunes location. If you use iTunes you can click this link, launch iTunes and get the music!


Influences: Great Writers , artitsts and musicians who were willing to create work without worrying about being "hip".
Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen,Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Frank Zappa, Woody Guthrie, our buddy Paul Williams, Robert Altman.
Sounds Like: Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Jackson Browne, John Prine- all great artists!
Record Label: Babamuse- www.babamuse.com
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

New Video- PTSD Spells MIA

We have a new video up on MySpace TV (as well as AOL, YOUTUBE, BLIP, METACAFE, VIMEO and more.We hope to raise the noise around this issue, every little bit helps.....please take 3 minutes to wathc th...
Posted by on Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:02:00 GMT

New Tune on the Wes And Victoria Site

NewMyspace blog post here- another small note. There is another MP3 from our last little coffehouse gig that we have now made available. Go WesandVictoria HomePage to read the post at Wes and Victoria...
Posted by on Sat, 19 Apr 2008 08:04:00 GMT

New free MP3 from recent gig

First Myspace blog post here- just a quick note. We are recording the little acoustic shows off our small console as we play these gigs and as a result there are some free mp3's that will be surfacing...
Posted by on Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:02:00 GMT