Making room for an Aberdeen star

Jul. 3—A three-person crew from Aberdeen's Public Works Department started busting up a small square of sidewalk pavement late Wednesday morning outside The Music Project for a special reason.

The shallow hole Jeff Stevens, lead carpenter for the city of Aberdeen, plus workers Max Acosta and Connor Reed, were making was so the newest Aberdeen Walk of Fame star can fit right into that patch of West Wishkah Street sidewalk in front of "The Green Room" sign. Music photographer Darrell Westmoreland, a Harborite for life, will receive the star. Westmoreland is the 92nd recipient.

Westmoreland has enjoyed a more than 50-year career in music photography. His career, which in his words really started at the Satsop River Fair and Tin Cup Races, a four-day music festival in early September 1971, has taken him and his trusty cameras to shooting the biggest of music stars, including Elton John, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, Nirvana and countless other musicians.

"I was the guy, I literally locked up the whole Seattle market, and would go down to Portland and shoot," Westmoreland said. "Being set with that, we would. Go into the radio stations and try to get the artist's new record or album played. So then, all of a sudden, I built up an association with the radio stations."

Westmoreland shot all music genres, not just rock.

"The cool thing about that was I got to experience all the different genres of music, (got) exposed to it," Westmoreland said. "And then as I was running with the labels, as I call it, I would meet up with the record rep and then we would jump in the limo. We'd go get the artist or group and then run with them, taking them to radio stations and taking them to the record stores."

Deb Blecha, a graphic designer who's plugged into the music scene and who helped with the blue banners for World Music Day, spoke about Westmoreland and how she's glad he's getting recognized this way.

"He's more of a behind the scenes guy who (is) from our area," Blecha said. "He's well-known by many famous people outside our area. He put together his book, which I think is amazing."

Blecha loves that Westmoreland is active in Aberdeen. She also loves how he's still so humble.

"He gets involved here," Blecha said. "You'd never know he's friends with all of those famous people. He's kind, he gets down and he works with us. He has that whole other life where he goes out and he's behind the scenes and he personally knows a lot of famous people. I think that's an unusual talent and trait, and I'm really happy to see it recognized."

Westmoreland's star will go in Friday at 9 a.m., according to Stevens. And then on Saturday, at 1 p.m., the city will immortalize the words "Darrell Westmoreland Music Photographer To The Stars" into that small patch of sidewalk.

In fine style, photographically speaking, Westmoreland posted about the work through his Facebook account. One of the photos show his star, which will come with a ceremony at 1 p.m., as part of the city's Founder's Day celebration.

Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at [email protected].