The +West End+ Story

West End – The Band

Since 2020, international studio group West End has released three albums on Spare Time Records. Two more are presently underway. Working between Ireland and the USA has allowed everyone involved to expand their horizons and to have a great deal of fun (the craic is at least 90)!

As we roll the credits here, the name will have a clickable link for more info and after that (in parentheses) will follow a recent band credit or a major award.

Kirk Beasley (Robbie Gardiner), Bobby Ogdin (Brandon Flowers), and recording, mixing and mastering engineer Travis Turk (Audio Engineering Society Life Achievement Award) are founding members of West End from its start in Nashville. We have added from Ireland, Tom Shinny (Epic Shadow), Jason Duffy (Jerry Fish), and recording engineer Kevin Frieden from the Barn of Music. From little old Nashville we can count our great friend and compatriot Bruce Dees (Ronnie Milsap, just to name one), plus Michael Saint-Leon (Buddy Guy, and two Grammys), who is now a regular since the America NA project, as well as Billy Contreras (Ricky Skaggs).

Tim Smith, Roddy Smith, Joe Wright, and Charlie McCoy (Country Music Hall of Fame) of the Spare Time Pickers have contributed their talents, notably to A Merry West End Christmas (STR719).

The late Nashville legends Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden (writers of “Everlasting Love”) were very generous to help us out. Nashville newcomer Steve Zachar brought us “Survival Skills” on America NA (STR721). Ireland’s Michelle O’Dwyer will be featured on two new songs for West End, and we look forward to two new songs from Nashville stalwart Deb Thomas.

West End – The Earliest Attempt

In Nashville, many long years ago (40 maybe?), Kirk Beasley recruited a number of his talented friends to begin recording a group of songs that he was writing, along with Ray Perkins and other Nashville writers. The core of that first iteration of West End was Kirk, Bobby Ogdin, Jon Goin, and David Humphreys. Ben Harris at GroundStar Laboratories engineered and mixed the first two songs, and soon after Travis Turk became, and remains to this day, the chief engineer for West End.

West End – The Name

Here is what Kirk says: “I grew up in Nashville on West End Avenue, about halfway between Vanderbilt University and Belle Meade. In 1979, I was looking for a place to live after returning to Nashville from Cincinnati. I was not flush with cash. My friend (and co-writer of “Dodge City”) Graham Fuqua lived in an apartment building at 32nd Avenue South and West End Avenue. It turns out that the building’s owner was the head of Epic Records in Nashville, the great Billy Sherrill. In addition to being the producer of George Jones, Tammy Wynette, and many others, he was also a family friend. So … Billy’s building manager overlooked my sad lack of credit references and let me have an apartment there. Night after night, I sat and wrote songs in that apartment overlooking West End and the city skyline.”

West End – The Album

Several years ago, Kirk moved to Ireland from Hawai`i and worked with a number of music professionals there. In 2018, Spare Time Partners LLC was formed in Tennessee. STR715 was recorded in Ireland and Tennessee (2018 – 2019) with a mix of Irish and American singers and players. You can read more about this in the notes on the album page.

West End – The Song

The first song on STR715, West End, is the song of the same name, penned by Kirk and Ray Perkins in the aforementioned apartment.