Ramsay Midwood

Ramsay Midwood faces little risk of charges that he sounds polished or overly refined. Rooted instead in an earthy, gritty, rugged, and soulful delivery, the Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter produces folk-rock, Americana, and roots rock that carries a substantial debt to the blues, with his material steeped in that idiom’s emotional core. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Levon Helm, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott have plainly shaped his output in major ways, as have Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, especially the latter’s early recordings. Traces of Bruce Springsteen surface in portions of his writing, while certain passages recall the darker, moodier qualities of bluesmen John Lee Hooker and Lightnin’ Hopkins.

Midwood did not hail from Austin; he was born and raised in Arlington, VA, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Both parents maintained strong interests in the arts—his father as a tuba player and his mother, who volunteered at the Smithsonian Institute, as a key encourager of his engagement with roots music, particularly folk, bluegrass, and the blues in both acoustic country and electric urban forms. After reaching adulthood he relocated to Chicago and turned to acting, joining the noted Steppenwolf Theater Company and taking the roles of Al Joad and Floyd Knowles in a production of The Grapes of Wrath. Financial pressures in the Windy City led him to accept a part in a beer commercial being filmed in Los Angeles, and his relationship with a woman already planning a permanent move to the West Coast reinforced the decision; once there, he found the climate agreeable and stayed. In L.A. he performed his songs at small coffeehouses, prompting one admirer of his singing and songwriting to recommend submitting a demo to the small German indie label Glitterhouse Records. Midwood recorded his debut album, Shoot Out at the OK Chinese Restaurant, for that label, which issued it in Germany in 2000. The release drew favorable notices across several European countries and earned him a modest but devoted following on the continent.

Following a February 2002 fire that destroyed his L.A. apartment, Midwood relocated to Austin, TX. Vanguard released Shoot Out at the OK Chinese Restaurant in the United States in November 2002.