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Ballad of the Whitman Greeks

from My Northwest Home by Wes Weddell

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In Walla Walla, ‘the city so nice they named it twice,’ I stayed with a friend who lives just off of the Whitman College campus. Several students told me variations of a story about an old law still on the books in Walla Walla where any building that houses more than five (or so) unmarried women becomes a brothel; thus, Whitman has no independent sorority houses outside of the dorms (but it does have fraternities). After a few days of researching said story, I learned that it was a fairly common urban legend among campuses across the country, although Chester Maxey—a former Whitman president cum mayor—is credited with confronting the issue of prostitution in Walla Walla. Despite its historical fallibility, the lyrical potential of the story was just too good to pass up. For the first of two times in this collection of songs, I borrowed a page from Woody Guthrie’s book, placing new words in the framework of an old tune (and then splicing in an original chorus in a different time signature!)—Pete Seeger’s “Ballad of Sherman Wu” figured prominently into my various inspirations.

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from My Northwest Home, released December 8, 2001

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Wes Weddell Seattle, Washington

For the past twenty years, Wes Weddell has worked multiple shifts in the engine room of Seattle’s roots music scene as frontman, sideman, writer, teacher, and community-builder. "Always heartfelt and well-constructed" ("Seattle Weekly"), listeners have come to expect Weddell's songs to "speak for themselves" ("No Depression"). ... more

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