A modern-day Les Paul—with significant accolades both as musician and as inventor—Jack West has developed an unmistakably original and seriously grooving approach to the acoustic guitar. Downbeat recently described the style of music he's creating as "jaw-dropping" with "an uncanny penchant for groove”. West makes this music with new types of acoustic guitars he's invented along with new techniques for playing them. He's released seven albums, all receiving widespread critical acclaim, and performs regularly at festivals and venues across the U.S. Jack's latest album, Guitars on Life, came out in February 2026. He's currently working on a new album that showcases his virtuosic guitar work in a series of duos and trios with top bluegrass artists including Mike Marshall (of David Grisman Quintet fame), Andy Hall (from the Infamous Stringdusters), James Nash (from The Waybacks), and Jacob Jolliff (Yonder Mountain, Belá Fleck).
West’s music is solidly rooted in American folk, rock, jazz, and funk—in equal doses—with influences as far-ranging as Doc Watson, Leo Kottke, Michael Hedges, Duane Allman, Jaco Pastorius, and Bootsy Collins. You'll hear some aspect of each of these in there, but West builds on the past with enough new ideas to keep the music fresh. And some of those new ideas are in the actual tones he produces with the techniques and instruments he's invented. West's upcoming album project will feature his latest creation, a half-fretted, half-fretless acoustic guitar with octave strings on the fretless half of the neck. The sound of this instrument ranges from other-worldly to seriously funky.
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The idiosyncratic guitar technique Jack West has developed is characterized by simultaneous playing of percussion parts, bass lines, and chords. He’s a one-man rhythm section with an impressive sense for feel and groove. Dubbed the “Acoustic Spank” technique—because West spanks the top forcefully at times to produce a snare drum-like crack—West's playing features intricate layering of parts that are further enhanced by a special thumbpick of his own invention.
While some of West's impressive percussive techniques are reminiscent of those used by popular modern solo fingerstyle players, his music is far less about blazing through fully composed pieces and more about innovative grooves and ensemble interplay, with space for impromptu invention.
Recent videos from Guitars on Life have racked up over one million views on YouTube.​​ With this stunning live-in-the-studio recording, West offers fans of acoustic guitar an experience that is both technically awe-inspiring and musically satisfying. The album presents a captivating collection of steel string duets with fellow guitar explorer Walter Strauss. With West supplying the bass, chords, and percussion lines, Strauss weaves expertly filigreed melodies on top. The result is a surprisingly large, full-band sound emanating from just two acoustic guitars.
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Described as "bracingly creative" by AllMusic and "deliciously funky" by AllAboutJazz, the album has received an impressive array of positive reviews.
​Though West has been awarded over 100 patents, none of his inventions have received as much of his attention as one he calls the Gliss guitar, a radical new acoustic instrument that allows the player to change a string’s pitch over an octave in real time. West will be releasing his first music featuring this guitar in 2027.
Other inventions in his catalog include new types of fingerpicks and, due to his passion for protecting the environment, a number of new solar technologies. One of his solar inventions revolutionized residential solar installations with a streamlined roof-mount, a technology that was sold to SolarCity (and then to Tesla, who still makes it today).​​
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West recorded five albums with his group Curvature, a band that attracted some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most creative, including drummer Scott Amendola, marimba master Joel Davel, Turtle Island Quartet cellist Mark Summer, and pedal steel expert David Phillips. Legendary producer Lee Townsend, known for his work with guitar explorers Bill Frisell, Charlie Hunter, Kelly Joe Phelps and John Scofield, recognized in West another incandescent talent, producing Big Ideas and guiding the production of Around About Now. West’s composition This Life May Be Monitored for Quality Assurance (from Big Ideas) won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest for that year.
“Inventing songs is the same process as inventing technology”
Originally from Georgia, West's family history is rooted in Southern Appalachia. His grandfather and many generations prior were well-known musicians in Northern Alabama, a place he visited often as a kid. For his new album, West is integrating these family roots into the compositions while taking a more modern approach to rhythm and song structure. Traditional Appalachian and bluegrass tunes will be re-imagined in the context of West's Acoustic Spank technique to create a new style of music he calls Spank Grass. The first performances of this material will begin in the fall of 2026.
West’s accomplishments as both musician and inventor lend credence to the parallel with Les Paul—the man behind the iconic guitar that bears his name and a prolific inventor of both hit songs and new technologies. West cites Les Paul, not surprisingly, as a key influence on his life. “For me, inventing songs is the same process as inventing technology,” he says. “I just keep experimenting with new ideas until I find one that works.” Luckily for those who enjoy his music, West's creative output continues to grow with technical innovations and compelling musical ideas. As Guitars on Life emphatically confirms, he’s definitely still finding new ideas that work.
