David Ramirez

If you live in Austin and you weren't at South by Southwest last week, you're wrong.
Myself included.

I was out of town for the week visiting family, which was great, but I am sad to have missed out on so many great shows this year.

One artist that I was particularly bummed to have missed was David Ramirez.
Here's a video of last year's show:

Ramirez, like everyone else featured on this blog, lives in Austin and plays here quite a bit, but I've never actually been able to make it to one of his shows. A good word to describe his music is soulful, and from what I've seen from videos, I feel like he is best enjoyed live - as most "soulful" folk artists probably are. In fact, I know he likes to perform intimate shows inside people houses, and he does so pretty often. Watch his videos on YouTube and you'll see what I mean. You can follow him on Twitter to stay updated and potentially catch one of them.

According to his website, Ramirez has been writing and performing for over 10 years and grew up in Houston, but these days he calls Austin home - aside from being on the road, that is. It's here where he wrote and recorded his latest release, Strangetown EP. ("Strangetown," of course, is alluding to Austin.)

I'll never forget when I first heard a Ramirez song. I was 16, and my friends and I had travelled to a lake house for a long weekend in this big, dirty old van. The van was gross. Probably a van ride I'd rather just forget about altogether. But I remember that van ride well because of Ramirez. My friends and I were all crammed into the van; a bunch of worn-out, sun-burnt teenagers on an early Sunday morning headed home. Most of my friends were out cold. I sat toward the back, attempting to sleep, when I heard a song I had never heard before flooding through the crummy old speakers. I enjoyed the rest of that van ride thoroughly because of the music that accompanied it. Sometimes when I listen to Ramirez I feel a certain nostalgia for that weekend.

Anyway, at the time I had no idea who I was listening to, so I scribbled some of his lyrics down on a piece of paper and looked them up when I got home to see if I could find the artist behind them. I searched and searched and found nothing, probably because Ramirez was just getting started with music at the time. Years later (yes, years) I found the scrap of paper with the lyrics and knew exactly what they were from. I once again felt determined to find the artist. I Googled them and finally found Ramirez! What a joyous day it was.

Here is another favorite song by Ramirez:

And another:

I'll stop now, but you should check out Wandering Man (if you like Ryan Bingham, you will like this song.) And maybe check out Stick Around as well. Or maybe just go ahead and check out all of his music. That might be good.