Artist: Kid Ramos
Album: Old School
Label: Rip Cat
Release Date: 03.16.2018
Seventeen years is a long time between albums, but with life comes priorities. Southern California blues guitar stylist Kid Ramos spent the period since the last of his four solo albums—2001’s Greasy Kid Stuff—raising his two sons. He also beat the hell out of the rare cancer he was diagnosed with in 2012. Ramos made a name for himself in 1980 as the 21 year-old guitar hotshot in notorious harp player James Harman’s Blues Band. He took another family break from 1986 until ’93, when he joined The Fabulous Thunderbirds for a ten year stint. With Old School, the man with the huge arms is back big-time, with his tough, sweet tone.
The intent was to make a blues album in the way that the title suggests. The results range from well-intended to excellent. Kid Ramos plays guitar with a firm pull of the strings. But the soulfulness that escapes calls up the days of his youth, and the styles of his inspirations, beautifully. In “Kid’s Jump,” he salutes B.B. King with richness all around, and “Wes Side” stands out for the smoky mood and the Kid Ramos-cool spin on Wes Montgomery. Several times the album rocks 1950s-style, such as with the unusual and inspired take on the immortal “Mona Lisa.” Ramos features his 17-year-old son Johnny twice on vocals, a gracious gesture, but his performances—especially of Magic Sam’s “All Your Love”—sound a bit thin. The dichotomy between the younger “Kid” and Mr. Johnny Tucker on the rollicking blues “You Never Call My Name,” for instance, is striking (Tucker’s new album was recently reviewed with raves on this site). The same can be said for when the incomparable Kim Wilson steps up to sing T-Bone Walker’s sparkling “High Society” at the close.
As produced live to two track by Big John Atkinson in just two days, and featuring such A-List players as drummer Marty Dodson and keys player Bob Welch, Old School is one highly enjoyable set of guitar-driven, real-deal blues.
—Tom Clarke
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