On Tuesday, February 20th, we were spoiled with a coffee house-esque performance by Tyler Ramsey and Jeremy Lister. Like a session from the intimate video production company OurVinyl coming out of Nashville, the three-hour performance at Pearl Street Warehouse highlighted each artist’s unique voice and musical prowess while evoking equal parts sorrow and hope for tomorrow. 

Jeremy Lister, a crooner turned acapella singer turned ultra-marathon runner, opened for Ramsey on the first show of the 24-stop tour running through the beginning of April. If you’re in the mood to have your mind blown, you need to see Lister sing…anything. Beginning his acoustic set with his song “Hostage” from his 2007 EP Just One Day, his flawless falsetto just absolutely comes out of nowhere and had me looking around the room in shock to make sure someone else was seeing this happen. As he belts out “never letting you get away,” you pray that you continue swimming in his vocals for eternity. Lister’s banter with the crowd was equally top-notch. 

While skillfully strumming his 2019 single  “LOVELOVE,” he shared that it’s composed of the same four chords that have famously climbed the charts and became hit songs. He then proceeded to effortlessly transition into a mini-mashup of “Africa”, “Hey Soul Sister”, “Complicated”, and “Poker Face” and then back into his tune. The crowd was laughing and singing along–an unusual but lauded and welcomed feat that Lister succeeded at. In addition to vinyl and some shirts, Lister was selling hot sauce that he and his brothers make (Blister Hot Sauce.) Like his vocal range, Jeremy Lister tries a little bit of everything and excels at a lotta bit of everything. You can catch him now through March 2 in Chicago opening for Tyler Ramsey.

Tyler Ramsey would take the stage with his tall and slender build with a gentle demeanour graciously thanking the audience for attending the first performance of his current tour.  Tyler Ramsey, formerly lead guitarist for Band of Horses, decided in 2017 to step away from national touring and long stints on the road and live a quieter life amongst the serene landscapes of Western North Carolina with his family.  Earlier this month Ramsey released a masterful new album New Lost Ages.

This evening would deservedly showcase songs from New Lost Ages, but he would sprinkle the performance with several songs from the full breadth of his five solo-albums including a luscious and harmonic version of "White Coat".  True to the intimate coffee-house setting, Ramsey would spend the evening with a sparse and beautiful three person band configuration with a serene pedal steel guitarist and Jeremy Lister on backup vocals.  Throughout the evening Ramsey would ct the audience with his beautiful etherial vocals and magnificent guitar playing.

Expressing the same sentiment as country artist Parker McCollum in his track “I Can’t Breathe” when he laments “I'm on the road missin' home, missin' the road while I'm home,” Ramsey’s lyrics in 2019 song “A Dream of Home'' perfectly explained his hiatus from touring recently with “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.” 

In conjunction with the recent release of Ramsey’s newest album New Lost Ages, he is back on the road for a two month stretch across the country. He reflected on leaving his family at home and quipped during the show that it was an “interesting sensation to leave the house.” 

As he gripped his guitar with confidence and competence, his feet quietly rested on the stool supporting his craft. Accommodating the various arrangements during his set, Lister was gratefully smiling, if not beaming, as he provided backup vocals and backup guitar duties.  Throughout the evening Ramsey gratefully smiled from behind his beard and expressed his sincere gratitude to the audience.

With my minimal musical knowledge and an arduous image search, the pedal steel guitar is what was producing ethereal and mournful sounds alongside Ramsey’s pensive lyrics. Between witnessing the meticulous manipulation of the instruments with ease and passion and Ramsey’s Neil Young vocals we were lovingly wrapped in their waves. As he performed his tribute to late guitarist Neal Casal, “Flare (For Neal Casal)” highlights that painful crescendo in Ramsey’s voice and lyricism when he begins “I saw a flare on the sea/ Somebody out there signaling.” With a brief understanding of Casal’s tragic end, hearing and watching this song played live ached in my chest. 

Informing the crowd that he lives in Asheville, NC (a notably “crunchy” town whose residents value taking it slow and pickin’ it fast), it immediately clicked–his eight-inch Red Wings laced to the top, thick, salt and pepper foliage, and gentle gaze belonged in the mountains, which is where he actually wrote his new album.

New Lost Ages, the album, is masterfully produced and thoughtfully written, yet New Lost Ages, the tour, is captivating and demands your emotional surrender.  

Tyler Ramsey is touring through April 10th and we highly recommend seeing him and emotionally surrendering to his music at a venue near you. The world needs more Tyler Ramsey and we hope you surrender your heart to his music as we have.

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Jeremy Lister

To learn more about Tyler Ramsey, please see the following web resources:

• Webpage
• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• TIDAL
• Spotify
• Soundcloud

To learn more about Jeremy Lister, please see the following web resources:

• Webpage
• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• TIDAL
• Spotify