A few songs from my forthcoming album, tentatively titled "Baby You Win," produced by Bryce Goggin (Pavement, the Ramones, Antony and the Johnsons, Evan Dando)at Trout Recording in Brooklyn, NY, and co-produced by Graham Norwood.

And featuring:

Lead vocals, acoustic guitar: Cliff Westfall
Electric guitar: Scott Metzger (Shooter Jennings, Wolf!, Phil Lesh, Joe Russo's Almost Dead)
Electric and acoustic guitar, harmony vocals: Graham Norwood (Bryan Scary, Ward White)
Pedal steel: Dan Iead (Norah Jones, Cass McCombs, Valerie June)
Bass: Jeremy Chatzky (Ronnie Spector, Bruce Springsteen, Laura Cantrell)
Drums: David Christian (Sam Cohen, Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse, Mary Timony, Sweet Cream)
Keyboards: Charlie Giordano (Bruce Springsteen)

Plus guest harmonies from Matthew Horn (A Don Piper Situation) on "Sweet Tooth," "Hanging On," and "The Man I Used to Be," and Barbara Endes (Girls on Grass) on "A Lie If You Must"...

A native of Owensboro, Kentucky, with family roots in the same small town (Rosine) that produced "The Father of Bluegrass" Bill Monroe, Cliff Westfall was raised on the hardcore honky tonk and bluegrass traditions of the area, and cut his own musical teeth in the Lexington cowpunk scene before moving to NYC. Like his fellow Kentucky natives Dwight Yoakam and Sturgill Simpson, Westfall writes country music from the inside out, with a sensibility that comes from genuine immersion in the world that first produced the music. And also like them, he manages to take the music in new directions while maintaining an indefinable but recognizable core of authenticity. This is no museum piece or too-reverent reproduction of a bygone era, but rather something vital and contemporary.

Westfall's new record, the soon-to-be-released Baby You Win, reflects a broad palette of country and near-country influences over thirteen tracks, from the Yoakam-like flash of leadoff track "It Hurt Her to Hurt Me," to the swampy, Bobbie-Gentry-on-a-bender vibe of the closer "The Odds Were Good," with stops in between on bluesy rockers ("Off the Wagon," "I'll Play the Fool"), the country-meets-surf of the title track "Baby You Win," 70s-era Jerry Lee Lewis on "Till the Right One Comes Along" (backed by a killer piano turn from Springsteen keyboardist Charlie Giordano). Plus stops in Laurel Canyon ("The Man I Used to Be"), Sun Records-era Memphis ("Now and Then"), and some seedy jazz dive of the mind ("Sweet Tooth for You"). The list goes on...

ref 3 NOT TO BE USED FOR REPLICATION

Off the Wagon (single edit)

My forthcoming album, "Baby You Win," produced by Bryce Goggin (Pavement, the Ramones, Antony and the Johnsons, Evan Dando)at Trout Recording in Brooklyn, NY, and co-produced by Graham Norwood.

And featuring:

Lead vocals, acoustic guitar: Cliff Westfall
Electric guitar: Scott Metzger (Shooter Jennings, Wolf!, Phil Lesh, Joe Russo's Almost Dead)
Electric and acoustic guitar, harmony vocals: Graham Norwood (Bryan Scary, Ward White)
Pedal steel: Dan Iead (Norah Jones, Cass McCombs, Valerie June)
Bass: Jeremy Chatzky (Ronnie Spector, Bruce Springsteen, Laura Cantrell)
Drums: David Christian (Sam Cohen, Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse, Mary Timony, Sweet Cream)
Keyboards: Charlie Giordano (Bruce Springsteen)

Plus guest harmonies from Matthew Horn (A Don Piper Situation) on "Sweet Tooth," "Hanging On," and "The Man I Used to Be," and Barbara Endes (Girls on Grass) on "A Lie If You Must"...

All tracks mastered by Alex McCollough of True East Mastering, Nashville, TN

BIO
A native of Owensboro, Kentucky, with family roots in the same small town (Rosine) that produced "The Father of Bluegrass" Bill Monroe, Cliff Westfall was raised on the hardcore honky tonk and bluegrass traditions of the area, and cut his own musical teeth in the Lexington cowpunk scene before moving to NYC. Like his fellow Kentucky natives Dwight Yoakam and Sturgill Simpson, Westfall writes country music from the inside out, with a sensibility that comes from genuine immersion in the world that first produced the music. And also like them, he manages to take the music in new directions while maintaining an indefinable but recognizable core of authenticity. This is no museum piece or too-reverent reproduction of a bygone era, but rather something vital and contemporary.

Westfall's new record, the soon-to-be-released Baby You Win, reflects a broad palette of country and near-country influences over thirteen tracks, from the Yoakam-like flash of leadoff track "It Hurt Her to Hurt Me," to the swampy, Bobbie-Gentry-on-a-bender vibe of the closer "The Odds Were Good," with stops in between on bluesy rockers ("Off the Wagon," "I'll Play the Fool"), the country-meets-surf of the title track "Baby You Win," 70s-era Jerry Lee Lewis on "Till the Right One Comes Along" (backed by a killer piano turn from Springsteen keyboardist Charlie Giordano). Plus stops in Laurel Canyon ("The Man I Used to Be"), Sun Records-era Memphis ("Now and Then"), and some seedy jazz dive of the mind ("Sweet Tooth for You"). All killer, no filler...

The Odds Were Good

Sweet Tooth

The End of the Line

A Lie If You Must

The Man I Used to Be

I'll Play the Fool

Off the Wagon

More and More

Till the Right One Comes Along

Baby You Win

It Hurt Her to Hurt Me

The title track from my album Baby You Win, released July 13, 2018 -- this take was recorded on July 18, 2018 on WFMU's "Honky Tonk Radio Girl" with host Rebecca Birmingham.

Baby You Win -- Live on WFMU's Honky Tonk Radio Girl show

My song "It Hurt Her to Hurt Me," recorded live on July 18, 2018 on the Honky Tonk Radio Girl show on WFMU.

It Hurt Her to Hurt Me -- Live on WFMU's "Honky Tonk Radio Girl" show

New York-based country songwriter Cliff Westfall writes songs about heartache, loss, addiction… you know, funny songs. Or he can turn on a dime and dive headlong into a sentimental weeper. The Kentucky native delivers with a mixture of wit and bravado that, for Westfall, is central to what country music is all about. On his debut album, Baby You Win, released July 13, 2018, he’s assembled a crew of some of New York’s best musicians to explore a new idea of Americana, drawing inspiration from sources often forgotten by the current country scene. 

To record Baby You Win, Cliff Westfall enlisted producer Bryce Goggin (Pavement, the Ramones, Antony and the Johnsons, Evan Dando, Phish, Akron Family) and renowned New York guitarist Graham Norwood. The three drew from their extensive connections to assemble a band with a massive list of credits on the scene, like electric guitarist Scott Metzger (Shooter Jennings, Phil Lesh, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead), pedal steel player Dan Iead (Norah Jones, Valerie June), bassist Jeremy Chatzky (Ronnie Spector, Bruce Springsteen, Laura Cantrell), drummer David Christian (Danger Mouse, Mary Timony’s Helium), even the keyboardist from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band - Charlie Giordano.

Westfall was born and raised in Owensboro, not far from tiny Rosine, Kentucky where Bill Monroe invented bluegrass music, and he grew up listening endlessly to Kentuckians like The Everly Brothers who changed the path of popular music. Though he got his start playing cowpunk music in Kentucky, he soon left his home state behind for the bright lights of New York City. “The term ‘country music’ is almost a misnomer anyway,” argues Westfall. “A big part of the original audience was people a generation or two removed from the farm who had migrated to the city. People more familiar with factory work and honky tonks than with the back end of a mule, you know? The music they wanted to hear was as much about cutting loose, dancing and having a good time as it was about sadness and hardship. That was kind of the story of my family. Or maybe I’m just attracted to neon lights, I don’t know.”

Popular tracks by Cliff Westfall