Truman Price / True West String Band

"Music of the frontiers"

Welcome. Truman plays a variety of folk music, chiefly on fiddle, solo or with the True West Band. These pages in progress include calendar notes, a little about the people, some videos and video links (at the bottom of the page), Songs of the Oregon Trail, a CD with Jane Keefer, with help from Mike Horner, a Rough & Ready CD with Wes (and either Taco or George Taevs on bass) and a few other related pages.

- - photo by Jesse Beam

The True West Band

plays authentic music(s) of the frontier, from Appalachian fiddle tunes along the Oregon trail into the West; we admit a variety of influences from other sources, including ancient ballads, Scandinavian fiddle tunes, Norteno polkas, blues, swing, etc.

The core of True West for years has been Truman Price, fiddle, and Wes Messinger, guitar and banjo. We often perform as a trio: Truman, Wes, and either Don "Taco" Austin , Tim Crosby, or Paul Clements (see "Some Folks" below). Or a quartet. Or with other good musicians.

We've never advertised, so performances are strictly due to word-of-mouth encounters, but we've done hundreds (and thanks to everyone for passing the word!): outdoor festivals in the summers, weddings, libraries, for years a second-and-fourth Saturday of the month 3-hour gig at the Old World Deli in Corvallis. It was good practice. A list of some of the gigs that turned into multiple repeat performances is shown below the calendars. We don't tour, although we occasionally play in Washington.

In process: currently sticking photos with the past calendar pages - one or two each, so far

2008 Calendar (so far)