Glitterhouse Records
very good condition
Imagine J.J. Cale and Tony Joe White record a 45 rpm single and you play it at 33. Then you have Ramsay Midwood.
If I remember correctly I was on my way to Big Pink with Neal Casal and his manager Gary Waldman when the latter threw a cassette down the player's maw in Neal's Chevelle. Ramsay Midwood, who rode his bike across half of Los Angeles to deliver the tape, told Neal with amusement. I took the bait and we ended up releasing the album on my then label, Glitterhouse.
Already somehow uniquely swampy and groovy, the debut reminds me a little of the uniqueness of J.J. Cale. And a little bit of Tony Joe White. Maybe Chris Smither on half-speed. Out of print, of course. I can listen to this every day.
For years I've been trying to persuade Ramsay to let me release the album on vinyl. Doesn't work. He now works behind the bar (and often on stage) at Sam's Town Point, a bar on the outskirts of Austin, Texas.
„Originally released in 2000 on the German Glitterhouse label, Shoot Out at the OK Chinese Restaurant draws deep from two American wells. Traditional music nourishes these performances, but so does that part of American culture that produces idiosyncratic, somewhat twisted individualists. In a laconic drawl that recalls both Woody Guthrie and Levon Helm, Midwood projects an ageless, enigmatic quality; like Leon Redbone, he might be a prematurely rustic twentysomething, a crotchety yet poetic septuagenarian, or anything in between. Vivid images fill his lyrics and drift over shambling tracks marked by banjo plucks, beat-up old pianos, and other garage-sale relics. His songs offer romantic insights based on distant experience ("Feed My Monkey,"), bits of aphoristic wisdom fashioned as koans from a Dust Bowl Buddha ("Grass'll Grow"), reflections on redneck bravado ("Monster Truck,") and stream-of-consciousness ramblings that seem more wise than coherent ("Alligator's Lament.") Perhaps his most compelling lyric, "Spinnin' on a Rock," documents the murderous fantasy of a laid-off dockworker in couplets more reminiscent of a playground game. In one song, Midwood advises listeners to hear him out with the wry line, "Take a tip from a real smart feller." That's a suggestion worth listening to, given the broken-down brilliance of this debut.“ (Allmusic Guide 4 stars)
