Willis Alan Ramsey, and Jim Lauderdale.

I had a lucky birthday yesterday. It started off well when I awoke to a lovely hand made card ftom Kara, and then received a free breakfast-pizza(?) from some poor Papa John's guy when I was getting gas on the way to work.(?) I then proceeded to get a free lunch consisiting of a steak, baked potato, green beans, Texas toast, and iced tea. The best part was getting free tickets to see two of the most talented singer-songwriter's alive today at the Granada Theatre. The Granada is one of the nicest, if not THE nicest venue in Dallas and if they would book a more diverse group of bands I'd gladly go there more often.

Bob and I walked in just after Jim Lauderdale's set had begun and though I was familiar with the name from KHYI (95.3-The Range) and the paper I was hesitant at first. I was completely mesmerized within minutes. This Nashville based(go figure) musician is extremely talented and has a long list of accomplishments including having songs recorded by George Jones, and making records with bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley(made really famous by the O' Brother Where Art Though? soundtrack.) As I listened I realized that I already really liked a few of these songs as I had heard them repeatedly on The Range and I had no idea who they were done by. If you like Gram Parsons, Gene Clark, George Jones, Johhny Cash and others I suggest checking him out. I need to buy some of this stuff.

http://www.jimlauderdale.com/

Willis Alan Ramsey took the stage with all the stage prescence of somebodys stoned uncle wipping out his guitar at a barbecue to play some Skynnard, Dylan or some such fare. But after a bit of a rough start he proceeded to blow minds. I won't go into too much detail here but Willis Alan Ramsey(WAR) is one of those legendary artists that is very well known, and loved amongst Americana/Country/Folk/Blues musicians and the die-hard fans but otherwise completely unknown. He released ONE self-titled album in 1972 that was met with much acclaim. Apparently it was too much acclaim for the young WAR to handle so he backed off from the whole affair, WAY off. As far as I know he hadn't performed at all until the last year or so since the mid-seventies but that didn't stop him from influencing virtually every artist that could fall under the nebulous Progressive Country/Americana/Alt-Country(eww!)/Outlaw/yadda,yadda umbrella. Lyle Lovett is perhaps the most obvious example of this and WAR even co-wrote some of Lyle's songs including "That's right you're not from Texas". The crowd of mostly grey-haired folks knew all the words and get very excited when WAR played the hits, so it made for a great time.

I'll have to admit that I was a bit let down that he didn't play his best known song "Muskrat Candlight", renamed "Muskrat Love" and made famous by The Captain and Tennille, but at the same time I can undertand his aversion to the song. WAR is releasing a new album and I hope for his sake that it catapults him to the level of fame and fortune he so greatly deserves.

http://www.willisalanramsey.com/

http://www.khyi.com/