ANDY WEST

Andy West biography
Andy West, born in 1953 in Newport, Rhode Island, is known primarily for his work as bassist for The Dixie Dregs in the 1970s and 1980s, but his work goes far beyond that.

Meeting up with Steve Morse at Richmond Academy Military School, the pair became the center of a band called the Dixie Grit. Moving on to college, they created a new group, playing originals mixed in with covers of the Allman Brothers Band and The Mahavishnu Orchestra, and The Dixie Dregs, still the premiere southern rock/bluegrass/jazz fusion band was born.

In the 1980s, when The Dixie Dregs called it quits, West became a software programmer for a major corporation. His bass playing pushed into the background he occasionally appears as a sideman, and sometimes has even been a full member of official bands, such as the new age group Zazen, and The Mistakes, with Mike Keneally, Henry kaiser and Prairie Prince.

In 2002 he released his first album under his own name, along with his band Rama, which included Dregs alums Rod Morgenstein and T Lavitz, as well as other prog icons, such as Mike Portnoy, Kit Watkins, and again Mike Keneally.