The Westsylvanians

IN THE LATE 1600s, restless settlers began pushing into the heavily wooded region west of the Allegheny Mountains. Loners by nature, they blazed idiosyncratic paths of destruction and built crude, rough-hewn shacks and poorly planned, unremarkable towns. Their rude and antisocial nature was fueled by cheap homemade whiskey, which also made them quarrelsome. YEARS PASSED. Generations of rude and drunken Westsylvanians gave way to more refined, polite, and sober Westsylvanians, who birthed new generations of rebellious...

YEARS PASSED. Generations of rude and drunken Westsylvanians gave way to more refined, polite, and sober Westsylvanians, who birthed new generations of rebellious, godless drunkards, who somehow raised thoughtful, even-keeled, hard-working types (the drinking gene, it seems, tended to skip generations).

A MODERN GENERATION of Westsylvanians began making an unholy racket in Indiana, Pennsylvania in 1988. Though most now live in exile, irregular meetings continue to the present-day.

A thousand or more recordings are said to exist, and yet only two studio albums could be located as of this writing: Allegheny Front and Dusk Falleth, both released on the estimable Twolick Recordings.

WHILE ITS MEMBERS ARE LEGION, three Westsylvanians are keystone: Matt Calvetti lives in Pittsburgh, Westsylvania. Joel Huzinecz lives in Ohio. Jeremy Lloyd lives in Tennessee.

SO I SEZ TO HIM I SEZ... www.westsylvanians.com.