Greenbeans In The Garden Bluegrass

“Our very nature demands home. It is the first essential element of our social being. This cannot be complete without home relations. ” John Potts

One of the best fringe benefits of practicing intellectual property law is meeting creative and innovative people.  Several years ago I was blessed to receive a call from Vicky West, who with her daughters went by the name The West Girls.  They needed help copyrighting their new album, Further Along, which they independently produced and wrote most the songs from their remote holler somewhere in the back hills of Tennessee.  I quickly realized that not only was the album independently produced, the family itself is simply independent — self-sustaining (in the temporal sense) and off the grid — four miles from the nearest power line!  Their album is simply great blue grass and is available in CD directly from them and via download through Amazon.  Greenbeans in the Garden is one of my family’s all-time favorite songs. (It appears that when they’re singing about greenbean gardens, they know what they’re talking about – see here.)  There’s not a bad song on the album; the entire album is a favorite of mine.  I understand that they may be soon releasing their second album …  Can’t wait to hear it.

The West Girls, now more commonly known as The West Ladies, have also been involved with several other productions under their label Homestead Blessings, such as a multi-part DVD series on valuable homemaking skills, including instruction in bread making, candle making, soap making, canning, gardening, herbs, cooking, dairy, and sewing.