A walk in the forest with Tyler Ramsey
Ex-Band of Horses guitarist seeks the bucolic life after a decade on the road
UNTIL recently, the subject of this week’s CBLive, Tyler Ramsey was an integral member of the alternative country rock outfit Band of Horses.
Until announcing his departure to pursue a solo career, Ramsey had joined Ben Bridwell and company in 2007, prior to the release of Cease to Begin, and had undertaken the role of guitarist and co-writer on the band’s three subsequent releases: Infinite Arms, Mirage Rock, and Why Are YouOk?
Prior to beginning his tenure with BOH, Ramsey had already released an eponymous solo album in 2004.
Listening to this release it is quite obvious why BOH bass player Bill Reynolds invited Ramsey to meet the band in South Carolina. Tyler and Ben Bridwell got on well, which led to him being asked him to be the support act for the band on their 2007 tour in addition to him becoming their new guitar player.
“This is going to be an amazing tour. To have the opportunity to play solo, as well as with such a great band, I really couldn’t ask for more,” Ramsey said at the time.
The solo debut has a laid back Americana feel to it that not only highlights Tyler’s songwriting abilities and Kozelek/Cohen-sounding voice, but also his great finger-style guitar playing skills.
We are getting a little ahead of ourselves here, so let’s just take a quick look at Ramsey’s musical background. He first learned to play music on piano before moving to the guitar, and 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, and absorbing their sound before eventually making it all his own.
Whilst performing and touring with BOH he also managed to write, record and release two further solo albums: A Long Dream About Swimming Across the Sea (2008), a major step forward from the already established and consummately listenable debut; and The Valley Wind (2011), which once again displays the signs of an artist growing in confidence, particularly vocally.
Both albums contain undeniable hints of the sounds of his day job. This is not to say that he has been stealing the stock, so to speak, but buying into some of the band’s spacious sonics. Both are great releases, even more so given the intensive period in which they were created.
As a member of BOH, Ramsey found himself on the road constantly, ‘forced to make temporary shelters inside of hotel rooms and bus bunks’. In May 2017, after 10 years with the band, he felt it was time for a change, and seized the opportunity to pour all of his creative energy into his solo work, which resulted in this year’s For the Morning.
The artist’s website uses the naturalist John Muir’s quote: “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks,” to give context to the album. Tyler Ramsey and his wife settled on a plot of land many miles outside the nearest city of Asheville, North Carolina, to raise their young daughter. This enabled Ramsey to live ‘deliberately and with a little space, removed from distractions and the allure of needless consumption,’ and is how he feels ‘most creative and at ease’.
The home is surrounded by mountains, fields, and trees, and a small river winds through it all. Wild animals live in the family’s forest, paying daily visits to sing their own songs. Ramsey hand-built a music studio that affords him a ‘shelter from the cacophony or a chance to join the chorus’, depending on whether the ‘windows are open or not’.
The space and time he gained from living in this way very much influenced the songwriting on For the Morning and its overall ambience. Essentially, the things he does at home are the things he sings about in his songs – ‘neither costumed nor fabricated’ - and in keeping with his deliberate existence. He clarifies that his lifestyle is ‘not a badge to be worn but simply his preference’.
“Spending my time here in North Carolina, swimming in the stream and walking around in the woods, it’s part of my character as a musician,” Ramsey says.
“We live out in the country, I built my own studio. Out here, you have the ability to take your time and work on things slowly and comfortably. These are reasons why the music I make sounds like it does.”
So, with For the Morning containing songs inspired by his newly-born daughter, sleeplessness, being away from home and missing family, and inevitably, walks in the wood, these are Tyler Ramsey’s bucolic reflections on life from the point that he finds himself right now.
The album was recorded at La La Land studios in Louisville, Kentucky, where he, studio engineer Kevin Ratterman and Ramsey’s long-time friend Seth Kauffman (Jim James, Lana Del Rey, Ray LaMontagne), who fronts the North Carolina band Floating Action, helped flesh out the demos.
The process was complemented by spots from several guest musicians, including Joan Shelley (check out her latest release Like the River Loves the Sea), Molly Parden and Thad Cockrell singing harmony on various songs, the pedal steel player Russ Paul contributing several solos, and Gareth Liddiard from The Drones on guitar.
“I’ve learned through the years that calling the right person for the right part is so important,” Ramsey says. “While I love picking up an instrument I don’t know how to play, bringing in someone who really knows how to play it can make something far cooler happen. The guests filled these songs out perfectly.”
The best thing to do is sit down, ideally with a set of headphones, plug in and listen… four albums worth of material is not too much time out of a lazy day.
Oh, and by the way if you have not listened to Band of Horses yet… why not?!
Tyler Ramsey is at 16 Toneladas in Valencia on Sunday, November 17.
I would imagine that the concert will sell out, so get your tickets quickly.