Biography
-
Born
1951 (age 73)
-
Born In
Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa, United States
Bo Ramsey (born Robert Franklin Ramsey in Burlington, Iowa, in 1951) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He is married to Pieta Brown. Ramsey made his debut in Williamsburg, Iowa, in 1973, fronting the Mother Blues Band, and rose to prominence as a soloist when he opened for Lucinda Williams on her 1994 tour. He has produced or played guitar on several of her albums, including "Essence".
Born and raised in the blue-collar Mississippi River town of Burlington, Iowa in 1951, Ramsey not only played a vital role in shaping Eastern Iowa's distinctive blues-rock hybrid, but has continued in his still-vibrant career as a performer, much-in-demand producer, recording session guitarist and "hired gun" in touring bands of high-profile national acts.
Ramsey broke out in the early-'70s with the seminal Mother Blues Band, a honking powerhouse which also featured Iowa blues legends Joe Price and Patrick Hazell. In the latter part of the decade, the guitarist broke off to form Bo Ramsey & The Sliders.
Merging the sounds of his beloved Chess Records blues masters with Rolling Stones muscle and swampy, river basin funk, Ramsey & The Sliders enjoyed a strong following on the Midwest circuit for nearly a dozen years.
He co-produced Dave Zollo's Uneasy Street (Trailer), Pieta Brown's self-titled debut (Trailer), I Never Told (T Records) and In The Cool (Valley Entertainment), Kevin Gordon's Down To The Well (Shanachie) and — perhaps most notably — alt-country superstar Lucinda Williams' Essence (Lost Highway).
The Lucinda connection began in the early '90s, when Williams heard Ramsey's 1991 album, Down To Bastrop, in (of all places) a New Zealand record shop while on tour. She subsequently contacted Ramsey, and the two became fast friends. Ramsey played on her Grammy-winning Car Wheels On A Gravel Road (Mercury), and joined her band for part of that disc's tour. He produced and played on the basic tracks for her follow-up, the Grammy-nominated Essence — again joining her band on tour in support of that record.
He has produced recordings for Joan Baez, David Zollo, Pieta Brown, Iris DeMent, Ani DiFranco, and Kevin Gordon, with whom he co-fronted a band, and worked as a guitarist with the above and with Elvis Costello. He has produced and worked extensively with Greg Brown, including an appearance in 1999 on A Prairie Home Companion, and has been inducted to the Iowa Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, and Iowa Blues Hall of Fame.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
