Billy Beale’s ‘Kansas City Hear I Come’ is your Westport Roots Festival song of the day

May 9, 2014

Natalie Gallagher,

The inaugural Westport Roots Fest, centered around the Westport Saloon and taking place on Saturday, May 24, is approaching fast. To prepare for the pending roots romp presented by the good folks at Little Class Records, The Pitch will be highlighting a “song of the day” from one of the featured artists in the weeks leading up to fest.

There are plenty artists who sing odes to their hard times, hard drinking and lost women. The blues is a genre wholly dedicated to those themes – and Kansas City’s Billy Beale likes to call himself a “blues preservationist.” Then again, Beale isn’t romanticizing anything when his sandpaper vocals scratch against his Delta-influenced guitar rhythms. When he sings about his trials and tribulations, there’s something in his inflections that makes him utterly, heart-wrenchingly believable. Beale was released from prison last July (he was serving a sentence following his felony conviction of a DUI), and we’re glad to have him back out in the world, making music – where he belongs. Beale’s newest record will be released on Little Class Records on Saturday, May 24.

For more information on the Westport Roots Festival, to view the full lineup and to purchase tickets, go here.