Fred Walecki’s Westwood Music store, located on Westwood Boulevard, will open a new performance space today.
Back in the early 1970s, Billboard Magazine called Fred Walecki, owner of Westwood Music, asking him if he wanted to buy a one-page advertisement thanking the Beach Boys for all the business they had given his guitar and amplifier store.
Walecki refused.
“I told them I didn’t need to buy a page because they knew how much I loved them,” Walecki said, explaining how he was heavily involved in helping the Beach Boys with their equipment while they were producing albums.
When Billboard Magazine reached the Beach Boys’ manager and told him that Walecki refused, the Beach Boys were so outraged that Billboard asked Walecki to buy an ad, they said that they would buy an advertisement thanking Walecki instead.
A framed advertisement from that Billboard issue now hangs in Westwood Music, a landmark store started by Walecki’s father, Hermann Walecki, in 1947, located a few blocks south of Wilshire Boulevard.
Taking over the store at the age of 19 after his father died, Fred Walecki transformed Westwood Music from a rare violin and orchestral store into a reliable place for up-and-coming rock “˜n’ rollers, such as the Byrds, who could get custom-length cords, lights and other stage equipment that wasn’t made anywhere else at the time.
Today, the store will open a new performance space, with a special performance by Tracy Newman, a singer-songwriter who first entered the entertainment industry as one of the original members of the comedic troupe “The Groundlings,” and who went on to write screenplays for television and movies.
Newman was asked to be the first performer of the new music space at the suggestion of a member of Newman’s band, who was a former employee of Westwood Music. Newman also invited guitarist Shaun Cromwell to open her performance.
In 2007, Newman began pursuing a music career by writing folk songs for her debut album, “A Place in the Sun,” and performing with her band the Reinforcements at multiple venues in the L.A. area.
With two potential albums coming out in the next year, Tracy Newman and the Reinforcements will be playing many of the 30 new songs she has written since her first album at today’s performance.
While Newman said she is not nervous to perform in front of an intimate audience because of her comedic background, she said that there is anxiety in anticipating the audience’s reception to new work.
“I don’t want to forget to stay in touch with the audience. … Usually I try to keep my performances short to keep the audience’s attention … (but) if I’m really connecting with them I don’t even think about the time,” Newman said.
Mark Bookin, a Westwood Music employee, said that Newman’s acoustic folk music was a suitable fit for the performance space, which will hold around 50 occupants.
“We don’t expect U2 or the Rolling Stones to play in our space,” said Bookin, who explained that the performance area would primarily cater to acoustic music.
While there have been other songwriter events and seminars in the past, as well as weekly Sofa Jams, the new performance space will feature artists several times a month.
Although all performances are open to the general public, Walecki said he aims to help the music community.
It will be a space for new musicians to experience and learn from successful songwriters and performers such as Tracy Newman and Burt Bacharach, who recently held a songwriting seminar at the store.
“(These performances) are shortcuts for artists who are listening to these songwriters. It’s great to have a space for creative people,” said Walecki, who has spent his entire life working with artists such as David Crosby, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne.
These aforementioned artists joined together with other performers back in August 2000 for a benefit concert when Walecki was diagnosed with cancer.
Walecki has developed a relationship with the artists he has worked with throughout the years at Westwood Music.
Bookin said that these friends will come back into the store to perform in the new performance space and, much like the Beach Boys did in the past, support Walecki and his work at Westwood Music.