Scott West’s Abbey Road adventure

“I wanted to work with Miles Showell at the hallowed Abbey Road Studios in London, because he is perhaps the best mastering engineer in the world right now,” says Scott West about recording his new song “Back To Omaha” in the UK. Showell is a 2022 Grammy Award nominee who has mastered albums by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Sting, The Police, Abba, and Queen. “I wanted to do ‘Back To Omaha’ at Abbey Road because it’s where The Beatles recorded ‘Eleanor Rigby’ with the cool double string quartet arrangement. I knew that Miles could really bring out the strings and my double string quartet arrangement during the bridge… Miles really made the orchestra and strings come to life.”

West’s albums have featured an array of well-known guest players, including Tesla members Frank Hannon, Troy Luccketta, and Brian Wheat, as well as Daniel de los Reyes (The Killers), James Baker (War), Pink’s original drummer Josh Egan, Beck’s saxophonist Christopher Lea (from San Diego), Steve Vai’s late violinist Alex DePue, Lee Rocker (Stray Cats), Prairie Prince (the Tubes, Jefferson Starship), and Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon from Stevie Ray Vaughan’s band Double Trouble. The 2021 video for West’s song “Fallback” included Steel Breeze frontman Dan Bauer and London guitarist Timmy Barnes of Stoneground.

Regarding the inspiration behind “Back To Omaha,” West says “When I was little, my mom showed me all of the constellations in the sky and told me the myths and stories behind them. Because of her, I use a lot of stars and constellation references in my lyrics. The stars are the backbone of ‘Back To Omaha.’” After he discovered that a close friend at work was raised on an Omaha farm, “I went home that night thinking about Nebraska and how life is. When you are having your best day, you usually don’t realize it until years later, when you look back. Some of my very best days were the days I spent growing up in a small Nebraska town, where people loved you for who you were and really looked out for you. I realized that everyone has their own version of this place in time, wherever their own ‘Omaha’ might be metaphorically.”

He recalls, “When we were little kids, my family would drive from our small town to Omaha to visit my grandmother, and she would treat us like gold, showering us with love and attention. She would always look for and find the very best in us. Like my friend at work [the one from Omaha], she was extraordinarily kind and caring. The second verse is about my grandmother. The last time I saw her was in Omaha and my family was moving to California. I was ten years old and she was in her mid-eighties. I knew that I would not be back to Nebraska for a very long time and would never see her again. She also knew this, that she would never see me again. She told me, ‘When you miss me Scotty, you can always find me up in the stars.’ I remember just kissing her cheeks over and over again, and we were both crying. I could taste the salt in her tears, but I didn’t care. I just kept kissing her, so she would know how much I loved her and how much she meant to me.”

When the time came to write his next single, “The song just flowed straight through me. I wrote it in less than 20 minutes. I just let my emotions flow and take me back to Omaha, that moment in time where everything is the very best and you are loved just for being yourself. ‘Follow the stars back to Omaha.’”