Tyler Ramsey is perhaps best known for his stretch as lead guitarist in Band of Horses, but beyond that he’s been fixture on the Blue Ridge music scene since the early 2000s. The western North Carolina tunesmith played in the Asheville indie folk band DrugMoney and has released a handful of solo albums starting with a 2004 self-titled effort. And now he’s got another record under his own name coming in February.
It’s called “New Lost Ages,” and below you can hear the title track, a weighty, pensive rock tune that wishes for a turnaround in our current divisive times.
As Ramsey put it in a statement: “[The title track] is about letting go of innocence and facing the reality of a society that is in decline. One that is refusing to change course or even pause itself. It’s searching for hope in all of this. It’s wanting my children to be able to experience this world with wonder and joy and not have to carry the weight of our mistakes.”
To make the new album, Ramsey traveled to Seattle and worked with indie heavyweight producer Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, Father John Misty, The Shins, Built to Spill) to craft 10 new songs that will surface on February 9.
“Each album carries me down a different path, every record drawing in new people, new experiences,” Ramsey continued. “And ‘New Lost Ages’ was this new process, where I really trusted a producer by handing over my songs and was willing to work on anything that he felt needed work.”
Ramsey has tour dates planned in the new year in support of the new record. He’s playing at the Highlander Mountain House in Highlands, N.C., on January 24 and Pearl Street Warehouse in Washington, D.C., on February 20.
Press photo by Parker J. Pfister/courtesy of Big Hassle
