CAMILLE WEST--ANSWERING THE CALL TO BABE-DOM

by Susan Seay

The Post Star, Glens Falls, NY

April 17, 1997

For months, Camille West had been ready to lay down her guitar and quit scrambling for gigs at coffeehouses and folk festivals. She was ready to set aside the last seven years of perfecting her musical act, return to college and look for a job. Then, in February, the phone rang.

"Want to be a Bitchin' Babe?" asked Debi Smith.

"Are you kidding?" West squealed.

Of course, she'd love to hit the road with the foursome that has played to packed concert halls for seven years.

The Four Bitchin' Babes was founded by folk star Christine Lavin, who  blends song, comedy and baton twirling in her ensemble of female songwriters to examine real-life issues facing women. "These women speak to the masses through their songwriting, their stories of getting by, getting it taken care  of, getting over it and, most important, getting it on sale!" according to a press release.

Lavin is retiring as of September, however, and has bequeathed her spot to West, whose work has a similar emphasis on humor.

West's life with her husband and two sons in Queensbury will change come August, when she'll begin to rehearse with the Babes and cut a live album with them at the Birchmere, a big club outside Washington, D.C. The Babes' fall tour will then take her winging around the country for shows two or three weekends each month.

She's 40 years old...and psyched.

"It's so exciting I can't believe it," West said in a recent interview. "I'm hanging out with famous folks. This is incredible-little old me!"

The three other women in the group are: Sally Fingerett of Ohio and Megon McDonough of Illinois, both original Babes, and Debi Smith of Virginia. Each is an established performer with a unique folk style. But none packs a punch to the funny bone like West, according to group members.

"She's just the cat's pajamas," said Fingerett. "Just right. She's going to be fabulous. We're very excited to have her."

Westward Ho

West grew up on Long Island and became smitten with the guitar at summer camp when she was 11. In  her adolescence she began writing mournful songs, which she and her husband, Scott Wodicka, now affectionately call "wrist-slitters." She kept her talent at home through the early years of adulthood, as she raised two boys, Justin and Jason, now 12 and 16. It wasn't until West returned to school at Adirondack Community College that she came out of her musical closet. A writing-class teacher ended one semester with an informal gathering, telling her students to bring something different they'd written. West brought a song. A fellow student pointed her to Caffé Lena, where they hold open mike nights. West tells the story like this:

She painstakingly rehearsed several  lead-ins, songs and a patter of jokes for in between (West does not like to wing it on stage), and the crowd responded well.
After the show, Lena Spencer, the founder of the cafe, asked West to step into her office. West, wide-eyed, followed Spencer onto the fire escape, where the cultural pioneer held all her high-level meetings.

        "Where have you been performing, dear?" Spencer asked.
        "The living room," West replied.

Spencer looked at the sky for a moment, then said, "I don't believe I know that club."

As she had with countless artists throughout the years (including Christine Lavin), Spencer encouraged and fortified, giving West a chance to play with other artists, then a show of her own.

"Mine was the last performance that Lena ever saw in  her club," West said.
Spencer had an accident the day after West's first solo performance in 1989 and died a short time  later.

"I don't know if I've ever really gotten over her death," West said.

 She began a career on her own after that, with her husband as manager.         She recorded a cassette called "Suburban Mother From Hell," which West no longer promotes. She even buried a cassette in her back yard not too long ago, a ritual to help her put those early years behind her. Two songs live on, however: "Getting Raptured" and "Freud."

Now she's busy promoting her new CD, "Mother Tongue," produced by Tony Markellis of Saratoga, which she made with help from Molly Mason, Jay Ungar, Billy Novick, Tony Trischka, Richard Bell and Peter Ecklund, among others.     She always has music on at home, but won't listen to her own work. Unless one of her songs starts to play on the radio, which always brings a thrill, she said.

West hooked up with the Babes when Lavin asked her to perform one song with them last year during their show at The Egg in Albany. Then it came out that Lavin was retiring from the group, and the invitation to jam turned into a one-song audition in front of a large audience.

        "I can't impress upon you the stress," she said.

West performed a short comedy routine that ended with her song "Ladies against Fanny Floss" a rousing diatribe against designers who promote unwearable clothes for the average woman.

Ready and weighting

Although she didn't hear from them for several anxious months, they liked West, whom the slightly older Babes now adoringly call the "Baby Babe." Between now and August, West's goals remain what they have been for years: write a handful of new songs, stop smoking (none of the other Babes smokes) and lose weight.
She wears a nicotine patch now while she writes in her journal at the kitchen table and drinks her own special blend of herbal tea with no calories.

West considers herself first and foremost a writer, then a musician and performer. The journal helps her clear out the thoughts that won't become songs, as well as capture ideas that will, she said. She is constantly searching for the kernel that will turn into an idea, that will become a very funny idea, that will blossom into a song. Then she writes the music. She's confident the songs will come, she said, and she feels healthy, happy and ready to folk 'n' roll.