India Ramey - Baptised By The Blaze
Mule Kick Records, 2024
Singer/songwriter India Ramey releases her fifth recording in Baptized By The Flame. She released her national debut, Shallow Graves (Self Produced, 2020), before it, along with three independent projects: Snake Handler (Self Produced, 2017), Blood Crescent Moon (Self Produced, 2013), and Junkyard Angel (Self Produced, 2010). Ramey is specializing in country and western music, heavy on the western. She is most like Ashley McBryde in her singing and songwriting, but deals with considerably darker topics with greater cleverness. Ramey’s “sound” is cinematic, soundtrack ready for inclusion with neo-spaghetti westerns of Robert Rodriguez or Quentin Tarantino. Think of Ennio Morricone in therapy.
Her most arresting music deals with her withdrawal from benzodiazepines following a 12-year treatment for anxiety. “The Mountain” is Ramey’s testament to endurance in the face of overwhelming emotional odds. Most effective is “Piece Of My Mind” where the singer responds to industry slags and naysayers with:
“So if you want to know me / I’ll give you a piece of my mind
But I’m gonna have to warn you / It gets dark in here sometimes.”
Luke Wooten (The SteelDrivers, Jim Lauderdale, Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley) produced Baptized By The Blaze, presenting the most fully realized version of Ramey's progressively developing sound. Backing Ramey are drummer Tommy Hardin, bassist Alison Prestwood, pedal steel guitarist Scotty Sanders and guitarists James Mitchell and Set Taylor. The instrumentalist recorded their parts in a single day and Ramey christened the disc with her hard-bitten honky tonk inclination.