Paula West leaned into the mic and seemed to tap deep into some inner well of song as she belted the line "I could be another Lincoln, if I only had a brain," the plaintiff tune by Harold Arlen from the Wizard of Oz.
A far cry from the scarecrow's version, West's interpretation wrung all the longing and desperation from the tune, a skill she's adeptly applied to many well-worn songs through a singing career that's stretched across three decades.
"Good music stays with us and is open to different interpretations," said West, sitting in the lounge of the Nikko Hotel where she's performing a series of shows in Feinstein's, running Feb. 10 through Valentine's Day.
As a frequent musical champion of the standards of the Great American Songbook, West is also known to deep dive into the catalogs of Bob Dylan and the Beatles among other purveyors of song. Her versions are imbued with a smoky voice and a gift of fleshing out the emotions behind the words, which she's plied in concerts between San Francisco and New York -- in some of those city's most revered rooms and halls.
West didn't even find her voice until she was in her early 20s, and even then she only considered it a creative outlet to maybe entertain friends and family once or twice a year.
"And then it became a passion," she said.
West was born on Camp Pendleton Marine Base in Oceanside, California, the daughter of a U.S. Marine. She played clarinet in the high school marching band but quit when she deemed it wasn't cool. She moved to San Francisco in 1988, drawn to its creative spirit and left-leaning politics. For more than two decades she worked as a waitress in the city until her interest in singing began to edge out the day-job.
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"So it was time to stop waiting tables," West said, "and try to put even more time in working professionally."
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Back when West first dipped her toe into San Francisco's musical waters, most of the hotel bars had pianos, often with jazz trios. She worked five nights a week singing in hotels, bars and restaurants, gradually honing her craft. The rooms got bigger and the gigs took her between the East and West Coasts, backed by some of those city's top jazz musicians such as longtime collaborator, pianist Eric Reed. Her career has taken her to temples of jazz like New York's Lincoln Center and SF Jazz.
Like all musicians, West's career hit a brick wall in 2020 when the pandemic abruptly shut down live music gatherings while the few live performances moved online. In place of the shiny gowns she wore for the stage, West spent her days in pajamas.
"I wasn’t going out," West laughed, "'it’s time to put my 5 o’clock pajamas on.'"
A series of livestream concerts at St. Joseph's Art Society -- a project by decorator Ken Fulk in a revamped San Francisco church -- kept her spirits and finances going.
"We subsequently did three live streams at his place and literally saved my butt," she said.
Unlike in her early days of singing, the majority of hotels in San Francisco are no longer populated with pianos and the number of gigs are fewer. West bemoans some of the lost creative spirit in her adopted city.
"I think we’ve lost some reverence for the past here, as far as some of the institutions," West said citing the current battle over Another Planet Entertainment's proposal to remove seating from the historic Castro Theater to accommodate concerts. "You have to have some reverence for some of the things we’ve had in the past."
West is not an entertainer who keeps her views and politics beyond the curtain -- she's a steadfast supporter of the Democratic Party and isn't shy about using her platform to skewer conservative politicians -- even if it means alienating some fans.
"It’s very important to me and I can’t help observe it and speak out when I can," she said. "There is no middle ground when it comes to racism, bigotry, homophobia."
During her concerts at St. Joseph's, West paid tribute to young Black men who had suffered at the hands of police brutality. As an African-American, West recalls as a child being followed through grocery stores, and even in San Francisco still feels the impact of her skin color.
"You’re walking down the street and somebody’s in their car and all of a sudden you hear the lock slam," West said.
When West performs her run of shows at Hotel Nikko this weekend, a certain Dylan will be hanging out in the green room -- her dog Dylan -- named of course for that other well-known composer whose songs West loves to sing.
"He’s a sweetheart," West said -- referring to her dog.
