A Conversation with Bo Ramsey (continued)

PM: To me, you're one of the pre-eminent examples of what I call "spook guitar," that kind of spooky ambient guitar. It's one of my favorite kinds of guitar playing. Would you share something about what could also be called your ambient approach to the guitar, tonally speaking--where you're coming from about tone or how you go at it, especially when you're, say, accompanying Pieta or Greg, or when you're in that role, but also when you play your own music.

BR: Well, it's all in the song. And I guess maybe I try and just get at--I just really try to hear the song and play the song. And if the song speaks to me in a certain way or something, I will just try to express that through the guitar, because I play in different tunings and stuff. I'll hear it and think, okay, I think I'll try this avenue to get to the heart of the song, or just to tap into what the song is trying to express. Or I'll maybe sometimes think of it in colors, like trying to just add a color that I can see in the picture of the song. Like some of these really good songwriters, with the images, they put forth images that a lot of times contain colors that I'll see and then try to provide, or get at through the guitar.

PM: Right. Are there any, or even many, living guitar players whose playing you enjoy, or learn something from?

BR: Oh, God, yes. It's just such a long list. I mean, there's a guy that plays on my blues record, a guy named Joe Price--in fact, there are guys on that record that we both go way back with. The rhythm section, Steve Hayes and Rico Cicalo, and Joe Price, me and those guys all go way back--they were all in the very first band I was in. It was called Mother Blues, back in the 70s.

PM: Wow.

BR: We all go so far back, we don't even have to talk to each other.

PM: [laughs]

BR: I mean, these guys know just what to do. And that's why I had them play on my record, because they have such a deep knowledge of that music. And we grew up playing that music together 30 years ago.  So Rico and Steve Hayes and Joe Price, those guys are all on that record. And they represent my musical roots. Joe is an amazing artist himself, a great guitar player. He plays on two songs on that record. He plays the little kind of chords on "Little Geneva." And then he plays the slide guitar--me and him both play slide guitar on "Unseeing Eye," the Sonny Boy Williams track.

PM: Oh, they're two of my favorite cuts on that record.

BR: That's me and Joe Price and Rico and Steve. Both of those cuts--

PM: Is Joe playing the kind of really fuzzy, swingy chords on "Little Geneva"--

BR: That's Joe Price, yeah.

PM: Man, that's so hip what he's doing there.

BR: Yeah, I brought him in and played that track for him. I go, "You hear anything on that, Joe?" He goes, "I hear one thing." I said, "Okay, go do it." And that's what he did.

PM: [laughs] It was so good.

BR: And it worked. And then he plays--it's him and me playing slide guitar on "Unseeing Eye." He's answering the vocal, and then I take the solos.

PM: Ah.

BR: But he's a great artist, Joe Price. He's a rare bird, man.

PM: And is he cutting his own records, too?

BR: Yeah, he is, absolutely. You can find his records--he's got some records on Trailer Records. And he's got a website. God, I can't remember the address of it, but his name is Joe Price.

PM: I'll be looking him up. [www.joepriceblues.com]

BR: He's off the radar, man, but he is a prize.

PM: So much of the good stuff is just way off the radar. You just got to go looking for it.

BR: Yeah. Joe is amazing. And he's been a constant source of inspiration to me from day one through today.    continue

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