(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)

The True West were formed by guitarist Russ Tolman, a veteran of the Suspects (with Steve Wynn and Kendra Smith), who had released the single Talking Loud/ It's Up to You (1979), and of the Meantime, who had put out Two for One/ She's So Wild/ Sex Fit (Inbetween, 1981), along with singer Gavin Blair at the peak of the Paisley Underground.

The EP Hollywood Holiday (NewRose, 1983) brought them to prominence with some of the least clich�d tracks of the entire movement. Tolman was responsible for the visionary/cursed tones reminiscent of Television. To his ventures into distortion, arpeggios, reverb, feedback, and solos, the True West owed their infernal sound. The songs shared a dense, driving, powerful, and sinister rumble. Standouts included the violently psychedelic raga of Steps To The Door, one of the genre�s masterpieces, the satanic tribalism of I'm Not Here, and the haunting acid-rock elegies of And Then The Rain and Hollywood Holiday, a neurotic, anthem-like Neil Young-style ballad, all tracks that masterfully combined rather different forms of lamentation.

Drifters (PVC, 1984), the last album Tolman recorded with True West, perhaps best defined the post-Paisley Californian folk-rock school: alongside psychedelic songs like Look Around and languid Byrds-inspired tender tracks (At Night They Speak, Speak Easy), the martial and dramatic melodies of Shot You Down and Hold On triumphed, underpinned by Tolman�s jingle-jangle guitar and the danceable beat of the drums. The apex of this style is the sorrowful ballad And Then The Rain, perhaps their greatest masterpiece, with a chorus worthy of Jim Morrison. The Windbreakers recorded Tolman�s Portrait Of Blue in 1989.

After the band�s breakup, Tolman recorded Totem Poles and Glory Holes (Zippo, 1986) and Down in Earthquake Town (Skyclad, 1988), while the True West name was revived for posthumous outtake collections West Side Story (Skyclad, 1989) and TV Western (Skyclad, 1991), later consolidated in the anthology Best Western (Skyclad, 1991).

Following that model of mature, masculine folk-rock, Tolman recorded nostalgic solo albums in the 1990s such as Goodbye Joe (Skyclad, 1990) and Road Movie (New Rose, 1992), attempting to reconstruct his virginity as a Dylan-style "storyteller." The EP Sleeping All Alone (New Rose, 1992) and the albums Sweet Spot (Brilliant Records, 1994) and City Lights (Blue Rose, 1998) continued the saga of this small but great psychedelic poet�though the last one included mediocre country-rock songs like Salinas, despite accompaniment from Steve Wynn and John Wesley Harding.