Don’t ask me how or why I love Ramsay Midwood. I can’t tell you when or how I heard his music first. But it’s been a bizarre love affair since first listen. Ramsay is known, if at all, for his 2000 debut record Shootout at the OK Chinese Restaurant. It was released in Germany first by Glitterhouse and eventually got a re-release in the states by Vanguard. That re-release is one of the few times when a record label released a record solely for it’s artistic merit and without a care for it’s commercial appeal. Of course it tanked…gloriously. If you can get your hands on that Ramsay record or its followup Popular Delusions & The Madness Of Cows consider yourself lucky.
Like the artists he reminds me of (JJ Cale, Leon Redbone et al), Ramsay will never be a household name, but I hope he keeps popping up here and there, now and again.
Here’s a track from his forthcoming record Larry Buys A Lighter. It’s a classic Ramsay tune about New Orleans, bean pods and of course “loopers” with infectious blues guitar, distorted harmonica and one hell of a groove.
“Monster Truck”
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