Ramsay Midwood Becomes Eclectic
Tracklisting:
Chickens on the Lam (Intro)
Easy Street
Rotten Alabama
Interview: Nic Harcourt and Ramsay Midwood
Boxwine Ruth E
Planet Nixon
When God Dips His Pen
Pflugerville Gazebo
Monster Truck
Chickens on the Lam (Outro)
Blathering:
Ramsay Midwood plays what I like to call Psychedelic Honky Tonk. Or maybe Cosmic Space Americana? Western Boogie for Heads? Whatever you call it, I dig it. Yes, that is the back of our van pictured above. We’ve even hosted Ramsay and Jeff Johnston for a very poorly attended house show, which, despite the low attendance remains one of my favorite house show experiences. We didn’t get great video of the night, but Ramsay did sign a hamburger and he and Jeff Johnston wore Habañero Collective shirts, so I’d call it a win. No, we don’t have the hamburger any more.
Here’s a recording of Ramsay Midwood’s 2007 appearance on Nic Harcourt’s KCRW show “Morning Becomes Eclectic.” There was a very limited release of Midwood live recordings called Undone which I think was before this so none of this material was featured on that release if I remember correctly, though it does include tracks from a previous Midwood Morning Becomes Eclectic appearance. The album is super hard to find these days, but believe it or not, I am thanked!
Anyway, here’s one section of banter a little less than half-way through which isn’t too bad because the voices are clear and Ramsay’s lackadaisical responses become part of the entertainment. He just seems completely uninterested in self-promotion. My favorite part of the banter is when Harcourt hears the title of Midwood’s third album “Larry Buys A Lighter,” as “Larry Buysalighter” and can’t figure out what kind of name that is.
As always, I am simply passing this show along as it came to me. I have no information about who recorded this show or how they did it. And somehow, with Ramsay Midwood, that just adds to the whole experience. I remember hearing his first album Shootout At The OK Chinese Restaurant and feeling like he was some long-lost Americana voice that just appeared from the ether.
“That’s my state of mind right now I think I’ll go out and eat a cow And if you don’t like it you can kiss my ass ‘Cause I drive a monster truck”