The New Way Down began for Wes as a side project from his main gig as the drummer in math/rock group The Deviled Eggs: an underground Baltimore favorite. As he began exploring and expanding his guitar skills and a different sound, he realized this was more than a side project and The New Way Down was officially born. The band has included an ever changing family of musicians, with Wes at the helm.

After a move to Philadelphia, he really hit his stride as a singer songwriter and quickly became a huge part of the developing folk scene in the city. The band was voted one of The Philadelphia City Paper’s Top Ten Bands of 2008 and the group became a mainstay of the Philly music scene. They played their funky folk music anywhere and everywhere, from bars to garden centers...and even a prison! The New Way Down also appeared at the Philly Folk Festival in 2011! The group has shared the stage with bands such as Hoots and Hellmouth, O’Death and The Extraordinaires, as well as singer songwriters Amos Lee, Andrew Bryant, Birdie Bush, Chris Kasper, Mike Beresh and Caleb Stine. Accompanying Michael Smith of The Good Hand, Wes opened up for folk luminary Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. 

No stranger to his own personal demons, he has had his ups and downs as well as his ins and outs…of hospitals, rehabs and psych evals. Even at one of his lowest points, hospitalized at John’s Hopkins, Wes held onto songs as a way to work through his feelings and put a smile on other people’s faces, serenading the night staff with a guitar lent him by a kindly nurse. It was there, in Hopkins, that doctors first began to address the mental health struggles at the root of Wes’ addiction…he has been clean ever since!!!

Many years later, happily married and working a solid trade restoring antiques, Wes continues to make a style of music only he can make. One that blends the city with the country, and the wild rogue with the family man, into one cohesive whole that, if it sounds like anything, might just sound like peace.