What if Neil Young wore his heart on his sleeve in the fashion of one Chris Carrabba? Tyler Ramsey is an old-school troubadour, a bearded country boy who relishes in defeat and singing songs for the broke-down trucker in all of us, an emotional child in a working man's uniform. A Long Dream About Swimming Across the Sea is a storyteller’s album in the vein of My Morning Jacket, Wilco and Iron and Wine.
“Ships” and “Birdwings” explore the shuffling rhythms of Americana while “Once In Your Life” and “Night Time” delve into quiet digital backbeats, an acoustic Postal Service... almost. And “Once In Your Life” does both, beginning as a plaintive ode to the loveless before pulling a 180 and jumping into foot-stomping, dancehall country, the sort you can still hear all over the Texas Hill Country in small towns like Gruene and Luchenbach, and no doubt in Ramsey’s Asheville, NC as well.
The instrumental “Chinese New Year” recalls The Black Keys or maybe Kings of Leon. “No One Goes Out” is admittedly the anthem of my February, about long nights of hard drinking, playing shows and feeling like the King of Pain.
Ramsey speaks his mind with backwoods clarity, his songs written late at night, on the porch, drinking Pabst and all alone. Or maybe fireside with friends and loved ones, feeling alive in the cool Carolina air. A Long Dream is full of brilliantly simple and honest lyrics – “Once in your life you’re meant to find true love,” “All I gotta do is get high and I’ll forget about you,” “These days I sit on cornerstones and count the time in quarter tones to ten.”
Ramsey’s best songs are the ones where he’s sitting solo, introspectively plucking at his fretboard and singing for only himself as on “A Long Dream,” “Please Stop Time,” and “When I Wake.” A Long Dream is the perfect album for the waning days of winter. Listen to it with a loved one, listen to it alone, listen because you’re lonely or because your life has never been better.
Check out the video for "A Long Dream" below:
