West Coast Duo Quest with Carl Broemel

 
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Very excited to share the news that Tyler will be heading back out on the road with Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket) for the West Coast Duo Quest - a new leg of the collaborative shows the pair put together earlier this Spring! Tickets for the shows are on sale now, and be on the lookout for more dates to be added real soon.

Hope to see you out there!

July 7 @ Knuckleheads in Kansas City, MO | Tickets*
July 9 @ Larimer Lounge in Denver, CO | Tickets*
July 11 @ Live from the Divide in Bozeman, MT | SOLD OUT*
July 12 @ The Bartlett in Spokane, WA | Tickets*
July 13 @ Polaris Music Hall in Portland, OR | Tickets*
July 14 @ Columbia City Theatre in Seattle, WA | Tickets*
July 16 @ UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley, CA | Tickets*
July 18 @ Highland Park Ebell Club in Los Angeles, CA | Tickets*

For The Morning Relix Review

 
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via Relix

“There’s a dream of home for those that work out on the road/ And there’s a vision of the road for all the others,” Tyler Ramsey sings on his fourth solo LP, his voice blanketed by swooning slide guitar and a delicate acoustic strum. “I can tell you what I’ve seen because I’ve been at both extremes/ There’ll be a time you will wish you could trade your life for another.” It’s a sentiment as old as pop music itself: a musician worn down by traveling and missing his family, and the sobering realization that the touring lifestyle isn’t the fantasy one may think. It’s the central theme from For the Morning , his first album since 2011’s The Valley Wind and a reemergence into the solo realm since leaving Band of Horses in 2017. Ramsey crafted the record partly on tour, cramming in writing sessions in hotel rooms and on airplanes, and partly at his idyllic home near the woods outside Asheville, N.C. Both of those realities, the longing and the contentment, flow through the music. “Who will bring in the firewood? And who’s gonna keep up the fire?” he sings on the haunting folk reverie “Firewood.” Is he referencing an actual pile of kindling or the foundation of a marriage? With its weepy steel guitars and acoustic-heavy arrangements, many of the highlights here—like the gospel-tinged “Your Whole Life” and fingerpicked “White Coat” — suitably feel like they were written in middle of a forest, with a hunting dog nearby and a smartphone nowhere in sight. It’s Ramsey’s dream of home, solidified in sound.

Tyler Ramsey plays a hometown album release show at the Masonic Temple

 
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via Mountain Xpress

Before he was a husband and father, Tyler Ramsey used to do a lot of his songwriting at night. While living in downtown Asheville, he’d go to his little basement studio and work through melodies and lyrics as he found his musical voice.

Though he’s still up fairly late while out on tour, Ramsey enjoys being able to return to his current home life, including early wake-up calls courtesy of his young daughter. The shift in schedule has become so thorough that it’s made its way into the title of his new solo album, For the Morning.

“Part of what inspired that song ‘For the Morning’ was the desperate feeling … of change and kind of going with it,” Ramsey says. “When you become a parent, you kind of lose yourself, so that had a lot to do with it. Not really the sleep schedule part as much, but it’s part of it.”

 

For The Morning, an album by Tyler Ramsey on Spotify

 

Now based in Candler, the longtime local resident plays what he calls “a proper local hometown album release show” on Saturday, May 11, at the Asheville Masonic Temple, sharing a dreamy, sonically rich set of songs that he’s elated to give the attention it deserves. That journey began in 2004 with his self-released, self-titled album, which he followed with 2010’s A Long Dream About Swimming Across the Sea, his first collection to come out on a label. He feels that his sophomore record’s release got off to a strong start with “an energy around it” and reviews and articles in national and international publications. Immediately afterward, however, he joined Band of Horses.

“My touring ability fell off, and my focus shifted a little bit. And then I was fully in the band, and we were writing and getting ready to do Infinite Arms,” Ramsey says. “That was a great phase and a creative time for me. I think that was kind of a shift for that band, too, because it was me and Bill Reynolds contributing a lot of ideas and a lot of energy to that record.”

When he put out his next album, The Valley Wind in 2011, he didn’t have any time to tour it because he was immediately back on the road with Band of Horses. Released on Fat Possum Records, the album received decent attention, but with Ramsey unable to play solo shows or radio stations, the album all but evaporated from the cultural consciousness.

“I’m still kind of disappointed that I allowed that to happen,” he says. “At the time, I kept with the band, and it was starting to taper off as a creative outlet. And by the time I had [For the Morning] starting and I started to feel like I had the energy to create a new record, I realized if I do that again, it’s a waste of my time to put a record out at all, as well as a waste of other people’s time.”

He continues, “If some label or a booking agent is waiting on me to do something and they’re excited about it and I’m unable to give it the time — I didn’t want to do that again. I didn’t want to have this record disappear again. All of it felt like a massive shift in what I wanted to do with my time and who I wanted to spend my time with. It was a big change, but it was time to make it.”

Ramsey’s For the Morning demos were fairly fleshed-out. He also did some planning with Black Mountain-based musician Seth Kauffman (Floating Action), who rode up with him to La La Land studios in Louisville, Ky., in Ramsey’s gear-filled van. But mostly, Ramsey let the duo’s sessions with engineer Kevin Ratterman take a more natural course.

“I always feel like it’s better to kind of spring things on people,” Ramsey says. “I like the energy of someone hearing something and working it out a little bit more closer to the moment. [Seth] did have a couple things that he’d loosely charted out, like bass lines for songs. But I think everything kind of came together when we were actually in the room working on the record.”

While on tour playing these songs, Ramsey has built in various visual cues to strengthen his bond to the material. For example, the “White Coats” line, “You went out across the river to lay down in the sunlight where it filters through the pines,” is a visual image from Ramsey exploring his Candler property.

“It’s a way for me to connect with the song again if I’m performing it. I really, really feel strongly that if you’re performing in front of people, you need to do whatever you can to make yourself feel that the meaning of the song that you’re singing or put yourself back in that moment of why that song was written,” Ramsey says.

“Because that’s performance. That’s what you’re doing in front of an audience. If you’re just up there singing words and playing chords, that’s probably fine with some people, but I really do feel that for the songs that I’m singing, I like to be in the moment of the song so I can create a really cool atmosphere in a live setting and draw people into the song.”

WHO: Tyler Ramsey

WHERE: Asheville Masonic Temple, 80 Broadway, tickets at thegreyeagle.com

WHEN: Saturday, May 11, 8 p.m. $20 advance/$25 day of show

Tyler Ramsey Gives Folk For The Gentle Soul

 
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via Diandra Reviews It All

As Tyler Ramsey played his Mercury Lounge set, I kept on thinking of the meek; playing tunes that felt like mild-mannered folk songs. Yet, as I write this, I know someone out there will think I am insulting him. On the contrary, I love and respect a gentle soul, and often wonder when being kind became associated with either weakness or numbness. For Ramsey, a good man does not deny all that is wrong; he just can’t let it stop him to what is right.

Despite being a tall guy with burly beard, Ramsey emanates the tender-hearted. He loves his band, his crowd, and bridging the two through a warm, easy-going ambiance. He will make his quick quips between songs, but the truth is his music is a mental takeover. Playing a few new songs from his newest record, For The Morning, his music played like the scenes from a black and white film on the man of 2019. For Ramsey, people are not only struggling according to love, though most music follows such a notion, they feel unfulfilled in every element in their life: financial, career, self-image, familial, etc.

When you are a kid, your goal is to make dreams come true, when you are wise, your goal is to redefine dreaming. Ramsey’s music feels like maturity because he sings to the many times, as adults, we try to do right by ourselves and the ones we love after another dream does not come true or a plan fails to fruit. Thus, the winding chords of his melodies and his beautifully tragic suites make you happily somber. They make you rest into the fact that feeling calm through life’s instability might be the very definition of inner peace.

Vocally, Ramsey feels like Twain and Willie Nelson turned their voices into soil and, from it, his was grown. He sprouts his notes as if they have been sullied by the dirt and rocks of a life that has been crushed and arisen again like, chunks of ice floating up in a cup of whiskey. Such imagery invokes the emotions and quiet loveliness of Ramsey’s voice, and his ability to show good people suffer like bad people; the difference is that they try to do better.

CHICD: Tyler Ramsey and Matthew Fowler at Schubas – 4/22

 
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via Mid West Action

Tyler Ramsey and the audience at his show were all about the music. He talked and held their attention with ease as he started to play the first song solo. For the next song, Brian Landrum joined him, bringing some pedal steel for “Cheap Summer Dress.” Simple and moving, Ramsey sang so softly his mouth barely moved. This song is a great example of one of the things I love about this album: Ramsey’s masterful use of a quick minor interval to convey unease and evoke a haunting quality to his songs. The performance left me with a light floating, melancholy feeling.

The full band joined him for the next song, jumping in at full force on “The Valley Wind,” a reworked version that was a little faster and had real punch to it–especially with drummer, Kevin Rumley. He did a lovely gentle shuffle when called for, but he rocked out when given the opportunity. Watching him wail and sing along was really a joy. The harmonies brought by Landrum and bass player, David Macinnes, left me with chills, especially at the end of “Your Whole Life.” But, it was an echo from the album, the seamless transition between the instrumental “Darkest Clouds” and “Firewood,” that really made me weak. They followed it with a delicious psych-tinted jam session in the middle of “Worried.”

Ramsey brought different flavors to his music. It made the live performance interesting while staying true to the song, almost like a perfect cover of his own work.

See the Gallery at MidWestAxn.com

5 Questions With Tyler Ramsey

 
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via Do617

Sylvia sat down with Tyler Ramsey before his show tonight at Great Scott!

The songs on the new album For The Morning were written during a time in your life where there was much change. (near the end of lead guitarist/songwriter with Band of Horses, the birth of your daughter and a move to the country). How did this album (and its title) come about?

The song “for the morning “ was written on the piano with my infant daughter in her carrier on my chest. It somehow marked the beginning of the new group of songs that came for this album, and also for me it symbolized the massive shift that was happening in my life. To me, this album and the story around it began there at the piano so I decided to make that song title the title of the album as well.

What can fans expect on this tour? Will any of the songs you penned for BOH make the setlist?

I think fans can expect songs from all of my previous work, including the songs from those albums- the fun part has been reworking old material and reshaping into a live setting with the band I have been lucky enough to play with.

If we turned on your music player right now, what artists/songs would we see on your playlist?

I’ve been on tour a lot and listening to tons of different things- I will say the main things that have been on repeat lately are Strand of Oaks “eraserland”, Cass Mccombs “tip of the sphere”, Mountain Man “magic ship”, and the new Damien Jurado- those are just the new ish releases!

What is your favorite song to perform live?

That changes from day to day, but lately playing the instrumental “darkest clouds” into the song “firewood” from the new album has been great- it’s fun to see the audience react to that.

What else is coming up for you?

A lot of touring this year- my first solo Europe tour, some fun festival dates with my band, and hopefully more duo shows with Carl Broemel. I’ve also been recording some instrumental music at home- going to see what that can turn into when I have time to work on it some more.

Ex-Band of Horses' Tyler Ramsey plays 04.18 at The Basement

If you're a longtime Band of Horses fan, take note of this last minute notification that former lead guitarist and co-songwriter Tyler Ramsey will perform solo at The Basement on April 18th. Ramsey released his latest album For The Morning at the beginning of April; tracks like "Firewood" and "A Dream Of Home" have the same pensive folksiness that helped Band of Horses skyrocket to fame. In fact, "A Dream Of Home" took shape on a day off from a Horses tour, and "Evening Country" is a country version of the Horses' track "Evening Kitchen". But there's plenty of original Ramsey composition on this album: Guitars, piano, drums, and droning synths and strings create a lush soundscape that will draw you into his world. Take a listen to "Firewood" below, and check out Ramsey and his new tracks when he comes to The Basement on April 18th.

- Will Sisskind, The Deli

Tyler Ramsey Evokes Nick Drake on Sublime 'For The Morning'

 
 

via Glide Magazine

Tyler Ramsey literally had nothing to prove when he opted to put his solo career in second gear and join forces with Band of Horses for a tour in 2007. That stint with the group became a decade long association, one that found him splitting his time between his individual pursuits and writing and recording with the group as a whole. It didn’t deter him from pursuing his own muse at the same time — in fact, he was able to further spur his creativity by making prime contributions to the band’s repertoire as well — but by 2017 it became clear that the lanky singer and guitarist’s talents were best served by the forlorn ballads he continued to record on his own.

Now, four albums in, that premise is clearer than ever, courtesy of an album that’s so sensual and sublime, it’s easy to imagine folks touting him as an heir apparent to none other than Nick Drake. Not that the comparison hasn’t been tossed out before, but if anyone most deserve it, Ramsey’s clearly the one. The album title alone evokes a dewey-eyed perspective, a dreamlike state that finds the world reckoning with dreams that were sown in the immediate hours before. Certain songs — “Your Whole Life,” “Darkest Sounds,” “White Coat,” “Firewood,” and “Cheap Summer Dress” being the most apparent — convey a sense of hushed circumspect, a sound that’s low-key, lethargic, but enveloped by a breathless beauty too tangible to deny. It can seem contradictory at times — a song like “A Dream of Home” is both earnest and upbeat, while “Breaking a Heart” recalls Neil Young sounding resilient and yet resigned. Indeed, Ramsey has that ability to entice his listeners into sharing his solitude, and once lured inside those intimate environs, they’re engaged, ensconced and content to deliberate on any tender perspective.

Ultimately, For The Morning is an album of meditative moods, one that demands more than a momentary embrace. It speaks in soft tones, a perfect way to contemplate possibilities and whatever cerebral setting the day may hold in store.

 

For The Morning, an album by Tyler Ramsey on Spotify

 

Magnet Exclusive: Download Tyler Ramsey's 'Breaking A Heart'

 
 

via Magnet Magazine

Tyler Ramsey’s “Country Teen” was arguably the best thing about Band Of Horses’ Why Are You OK. So it makes some sense that he broke from the group a year after the album’s 2016 release to resume his solo career. “Ten years is a long time in any relationship, except for maybe a marriage,” says Ramsey. “Especially with a bunch of dudes who are basically living together and carrying all the stereotypical baggage of being in a rock band.”

With the new For The Morning (Fantasy), the versatile multi-instrumentalist has found common ground between the subdued acoustic nuance of his previous work and the lush Americana grandeur of Band Of Horses’ Grammy-nominated 2010 album, Infinite Arms. Nowhere is that reconciliation more evident than on “Your Whole Life,” “A Dream Of Home” and “Breaking A Heart” (the last track available here as a free download). With its pronounced Laurel Canyon vibe, “Breaking A Heart” sounds like some lost Desperado-era Eagles gem, though with a mist-shrouded Appalachian soul. “The chorus was looping around in my head for a while,” says Ramsey. “I had everything written for the song, but there were a few lines troubling me, so I called my dad and we came up with the last few lyrics 20 minutes before I tracked the vocals.”

Seasoned singer/songwriters Thad Cockrell and Molly Parden provide harmony vocals on the song, and the fluid pedal-steel accompaniment comes courtesy of Music City session ace Russ Pahl. “Russ did it in Nashville and sent the files over,” says Ramsey. “I was literally jumping up and down when I heard it.”

When he’s not on the road, Ramsey lives with his wife and daughter on an idyllic piece of rural real estate 14 miles from his hometown of Asheville, N.C. Much of For The Morning took shape during Ramsey’s regular writing excursions into the woods on his property. He took the demos he made at home to La La Land studios in Louisville, Ky., where he worked with engineer Kevin Ratterman and longtime friend Seth Kauffman (Jim James, Lana Del Rey). Finishing touches came at Fleetwood Shack, the Nashville studio of former Band Of Horses bassist Bill Reynolds, who departed the group the same year as Ramsey.

Not that Ramsey is opposed to looking back. For The Morning includes “Evening Country,” a full-band variation on “Evening Kitchen,” from Infinite Arms. “It was the only thing on Infinite Arms that was super bare bones,” he says. “That was the dimension I was really pushing in that band, trying to give fans something that’s more intimate. It was fun to have that influence.”

Download “Breaking A Heart” at MagnetMagazine.com

Tyler Ramsey performing new album at Horizon Records

 
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via Greenville Journal

Tyler Ramsey is as surprised as anyone that it’s been almost eight years since his last solo album. But there are some pretty good reasons for that gap, most notably that for six of those years, Ramsey served as lead guitarist for the folk-rock sensation Band of Horses.

“I was fully absorbed in touring and doing a couple of records with the band, and time flew by as it does when you’re wrapped up in a project,” Ramsey says. “I didn’t feel like it had been that long; when I hear now the amount of time that’s passed, it’s surprising to me because I’ve been able to be creative. Hopefully there won’t be a big gap of time again.”

Part of the reason that Ramsey can work a little faster on his own music now is that he left Band of Horses in 2017 after several intense cycles of touring and recording.

There are moments in Ramsey’s songs that are reminiscent of Neil Young in his folk-music phase, and others that bring to mind the chiming country-rock guitars and rich vocal harmonies of bands like The Byrds or the Eagles, and he explores those sounds to the fullest on his just-out album “For the Morning.” The idyllic arrangements were inspired by the bucolic scenery around his home in the mountains outside Asheville, North Carolina, but the album itself has more restless origins.

“It’s a record that represents a lot of change,” Ramsey says. “It’s a big shift. I’d attribute that to constant having moved into being a dad, making decisions about moving forward in my career, that was all going on when I was writing the songs.”

In fact, some of the songs were written when Ramsey was still part of Band of Horses, most notably “A Dream of Home,” a harmony-drenched midtempo rocker about being on the road and thinking of home.

 

For The Morning, an album by Tyler Ramsey on Spotify

 

“That song reflects my life and being torn between the path I was on and a simpler, more grounded way,” Ramsey says. “That reflects that yearning for a different path.”

Even though Ramsey is happier as a solo artist on a smaller scale than Band of Horses, he still struggles with the conflict of pursuing his music and spending time with his wife and young daughter.

“When I walk out the door to go on tour, I know that I’m going to do what I’ve been preparing myself to do my whole life,” he says. “I’m torn; but the flip side is that when I come home, I’m 100 percent home. I can hang out with my daughter all the time. I get this solid block of time where it’s us hanging out and doing everything we want to do together.”

The “For the Morning” album is rich with intricate, layered, full-band arrangements, which will make things interesting when Ramsey plays the material solo in a show at Horizon Records on Saturday.

“My goal is to write songs that people can get engaged with, with just a guitar and a voice,” he says. “My hope is that I’m writing songs that are engaging enough and people won’t think there’s anything missing.”

The show is part of Horizon’s celebration of Record Store Day, a day that recognizes independent brick-and-mortar record stores around the country.

“It’s important to keep record stores going all over the place,” Ramsey says. “It was where I discovered all of my new music. But the main thing is that I’ve known Gene Berger [the owner of Horizon] forever. He’s always been such a huge supporter of local music and music in general. He’s helped me out so much over the years, so when I talked to him about the possibility of doing it, it was a no-brainer to get in there and play.”

What: Tyler Ramsey
When: Noon Saturday, April 13
Where: Horizon Records, 2-A W. Stone Ave., Greenville
Admission: Free
Info: 864-235-7922, http://horizonrecords.net/