CAMILLE WEST BRINGING ACT BACK HOME; SHOW SET AT LENAS

by Kathryn Ceceri

The Post Star, Glens Falls, NY

August, 2003

Saratoga Springs--Folksinger and comedian Camille West might wow audiences around the country as part of the Four Bitchin' Babes, but when she gets home to Queensbury, she's just Justin's mom.

West got her start in 1989 at an open mike night, playing for the legendary Lena Spencer, and now she's returning to her Caffè Lena roots. She will perform there Saturday in her first full concert in quite some time.

In the past few years, West's name has become more and more widely known, and not only with the Babes. Her ballad, "Viagra in the Waters" was the No. 1 requested song on the nationally syndicated Dr. Demento radio program (heard locally weekends on PYX 106 FM) in 2000. She's a regular at the Somerville, Mass., Festival of Funny Songwriters, and she contributed two numbers to the off-off-Broadway revue: "Sex: The Musical."

And her writing, along with the work of such notables as Wendy Wasserman, Anna Quindlen, Gloria Steinem, and her mentor Christine Lavin, appears in the book "Life's a Stitch," an anthology of contemporary women's humor, the proceeds of which benefit causes including breast cancer.

What she and the other Babes (the current roster also includes Suzzy Roche, Sally Fingerett and Debi Smith) have learned, however, is that it doesn't pay to play for hometown audiences too often.

"In your town, you're a local," West explained last week. "I'm very careful to do it very rarely."

Last month, West attracted a standing-room-only crowd on the roof of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College, performing mostly well-known works. At Caffè Lena, she plans to play some new tunes and some things longtime fans haven't heard in years. "I want to stay fresh," she said.

She will team for several numbers with a friend, Eleanor Stanton, whom she recently ran into in Saratoga Springs. Together, the two used to perform as The Suburban Mothers from Hell--"two women with poufy flipped-up wigs, frilly aprons and big cleavers."

West is looking forward to coming back to Lena's, because she says the late Lena Spencer was instrumental in getting her career off the round, and because she enjoys having the opportunity to see such acts as '70s pop icon Al Stewart, who is playing there in September.

"I love the audiences," she said. "I love the people who come to the shows, they're so enthusiastic. Lena's is so intimate."

Right now, West is on hiatus from touring with the Babes, which has taken her and husband Scott Wodicka, tagging along on her frequent flyer miles, as far away as Hawaii. Because the Babes play theaters rather than clubs, they get summers off, and she's making use of the time working on a musical play (which she won't describe) and polishing works recently unearthed from her old computer's hard drive.

Mostly, though, she seems to be enjoying her status as mother to the famous Justin, who this summer starred as Tevye in the Youtheatre production of "Fiddler on the Roof" in Lake George.

"He's the one getting the critical acclaim," she sighed.

Justin,18, will attend college in the fall as a theater major; brother Jason, 22, is a graduate student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

West does still have her own legion of local admirers. Though her songs take the female point of view, she says audience gender is pretty much split down the middle. She thinks women bring their menfolk with them.

"We should let the guys know what we're talking about!" she said.

copyright 2003 Post Star Newspaper