Tyler Ramsey (Band of Horses) - Photos & Live Review, Joe's Pub, NYC 10-10-11

DOWNLOAD: Tyler Ramsey - "All Through the Night" (from Fuel/Friends Chapel Session)

Tyler Ramsey played a solo headlining show at Joe's Pub this past Monday, touring behind his recently released third solo disc The Valley Wind (Fat Possum). It was an intimate evening as Tyler's plaintive vocals established the atmosphere and he alternated between acoustic and electric guitar, occasionally utilizing some reverb and taped backing instrumentation. The show ran for just over 60 minutes, with one encore, and Tyler played material from all three of his solo discs and ended the evening with a cover of Jules Shear's "All Through the Night".



I found Tyler's stage banter rather charming as, I "see" him as someone who has played some big venues with Band of Horses, he seemed truly surprised and grateful for the number of people that showed up and the warm welcome he received.



It is worth mentioning that the setting at the newly renovated and reopened Joe's Pub added to the performance. While I always thought the club had great sound, the renovations opened up the sight lines and the lighting seems so much better. Given that all seats have a close proximity to the stage, Tyler's performance held the audience mesmerized (...and quiet, which was a nice change from some shows I've seen at other venues).

Tyler Ramsey's new disc, The Valley Wind, came out September 27th on Fat Possum. The disc is available for via Fat Possum’s webstore and iTunes and iTunes version comes with a bonus track of Ramsey covering Jules Shear’s “All Through The Night” (live version posted above).

Tyler Ramsey Upcoming Tour Dates:
10/13 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Café
10/15 – Staunton, VA @ Mockingbird
10/19 – Decatur, GA @ Eddie’s Attic
10/22 - Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Bar
10/23 - Santa Cruz, CA @ The Crepe Place
10/24 - Portland, OR @ The Bunk Bar
10/25 - Seattle, WA @ Fremont Abbey

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Tyler Ramsey

Tyler Ramsey (Band of Horses) - "The Valley Wind" CD Review (Fat Possum)

The Valley Wind by tylerramsey

Band of Horses guitarist Tyler Ramsey is releasing his third solo album, The Valley Wind, on September 27th on Fat Possum. This new disc is a crystalline yet warm slice of Appalachian-flavored folk/country tunes, filled with Ramsey’s rich, plaintive vocals and expressive, intricate guitar playing.

The Valley Wind was written while both on and off the road over the course of last year and recorded in Nashville, TN at Alex The Great studio in early January. Friend and bandmate Bill Reynolds (who’s worked with The Avett Brothers and Lissie) produced and aided on bass, while friend Seth Kauffman (Floating Action) sat in on drums and guitar, also singing background vocals.

The disc starts off with intricate guitar-based instrumental “Raven Shadow” which sets the tone for the disc. A number of the tracks feature Ramsey’s finger-picked guitar notes and ringing chords along with his plaintive and intimate vocals accompanied by just a brushed drum. Echo and reverb are added to some of these tracks but it is still a fairly stripped-down affair. Ramsey mixes things on the back-half of the disc with numbers like “Stay Gone”, which features great vocal harmonies from Seth Kauffman so the track sounds like a country-rock version of CSN, and “When It's Gone” and “All Night” which are hazy, almost psychedelic, numbers which would sound perfect on 70’s AM radio.

The disc is available for pre-order via Fat Possum’s webstore and iTunes. The iTunes version comes with a bonus track of Ramsey covering Jules Shear’s “All Through The Night”.

Band of Horses just finished a short run of West Coast dates and are heading to Australia in October so Tyler Ramsey is playing a short run of East Coast headlining dates in between these legs of the BoH tour.

Tyler Ramsey 2011 Tour Dates
10/06 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
10/08 – Charlotte, NC @ The Evening Muse
10/10 – New York, NY @ Joe’s Pub
10/11 – Vienna, VA @ Jammin Java
10/12 – Harrisburg, PA @ The Gallery at the Abbey Bar
10/13 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Café
10/15 – Staunton, VA @ Mockingbird
10/19 – Decatur, GA @ Eddie’s Attic

The show at Joe’s Pub starts at 9:30PM and advanced tickets are $15.



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Tyler Ramsey

Tyler Ramsey (Band of Horses) Releases "The Valley Wind" in Advance of His Third Solo CD

The Valley Wind by tylerramsey

After steadily writing while both on and off the road over the course of last year, Tyler Ramsey headed to Nashville, TN, to record his third album The Valley Wind at Alex The Great studio in early January. Friend and bandmate Bill Reynolds (who’s worked with The Avett Brothers and Lissie) produced and aided on bass, while friend Seth Kauffman (Floating Action) sat in on drums and guitar, also singing background vocals. Over a rare snowy set of six days in the southern city, Ramsey crafted nine, finely spun songs, keeping the focus on performance as they were played, and letting fresh ideas reveal themselves as they would. The sessions were intense; the three musicians separated and insulated from most normal daily goings-on during the recording period. The result: a crystalline yet warm album, filled with Ramsey’s rich, plaintive vocals and expressive, intricate guitar playing.

This new disc is due out September 27th and pre-order links are up on Fat Possum's website and iTunes.

Ramsey is perhaps most immediately recognizable as the tall, lean guitarist in Band Of Horses, having played with them since 2007, starting before the release of their breakthrough album, Cease To Begin. A well-established and praised guitar player and singer in the burgeoning music scene of Asheville, NC where he calls home, he first learned to play music on piano before moving to the guitar. Ramsey grew up listening to and studying country-blues guitar players like Mance Lipscomb and Mississippi John Hurt, and American finger pickers like John Fahey and Leo Kottke, absorbing their sound and making it all his own.

Ramsey released his self-titled debut in 2004 and followed it in 2008 with A Long Dream About Swimming Across The Sea (Echo Mountain Records), which was praised by NPR (World Café – “Heartwarming, delicate, and comforting”), Stereogum (‘Artist To Watch’), WNYC’s Soundcheck, and Popmatters, among others. That album – a collection of haunting and atmospheric songs that exude a markedly fluid, easy grace – was re-released by Brown Records/Fat Possum in January 2011.

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Tyler Ramsey