„shoot out at the ok chinese restaurant“
(Glitterhouse, 2000)
Ramsey
Midwood is a miracle and a mystery. There is almost no usable information
about him available, not even in the vast confines of the internet. From
the unsustainable rumour that he once played a character in “Chicago
Hope Hospital” – though at one time or another he obviously was an
actor in various B-movies, to his current location there is nothing to be
found about him seriously. Born in Arlington, grown up in Austin, Texas
and later moved to Chicago, Illinois, only find himself in Los Angeles,
California, he might be living in a hut in the swamps these days. Though
there are hints at various live appearances here and there. His only
record to date, this one, was released by German Americana focus point
Glitterhouse Records before it was licensed to an American label to be
released. Moreover, “Shootout at the ok chinese restaurant” soon
enough went into the budget section of Glitterhouse, were it can be picked
up for cheap, which is a pity. And a reason why I renamed this section to
“The best or at least unjustly overlooked records of all time”. I have
read about an upcoming EP on Vanguard records, but even on their website
there is no evidence to support this. I’d certainly hope there is,
because I like this record very much. It is one of the few, that I have no
problem to listen to at any time and any circumstance.
Let’s
start with the music, which sounds pretty old but fused up with moonshine,
swamp water and crazy honky tonk energy. After seeing William Elliott
Whitmore I hold myself from guessing anyone’s age, but the music on here
is quite timeless. A deep fried, southern form of blues that takes its
cues from Leadbelly to Tony Joe White and from Bob Dylan to BB King. The
first track “Dreary Life” is an a capella, rusty song about the
hardness of the cowboy life. Second track, “Chicago”, is the first
true highlight: have you ever heard about anyone able to start a deadly,
bluesy groove with only one chord played? Here it is. This is G major
straight through, with only some lose changes to C major in fitting areas,
which only happens twice. Other than that it is all twangy guitars,
grinding organ and violin and a steadfast, grooving rhythm section that
pins the track to the ground like a bird. The third song is the other true
highlight on here. If you don’t pop your head and raise your glass to
“Spinnin’ on this rock” you possibly should see a doctor, because
you might have no blood left in your veins. It is a steady, bluesy groove
bummer going G-C-D-G and nothing else, but it hits the groove spots like
Mike Tyson does on a waitress. Great stuff to learn to play guitar to,
too, especially if you want to learn about licks. There are about a
hundred of them on here, and playing along to these tracks, unless you
have a little spark of talent in you, you can do no wrong.
On the
other hand, the musicians playing along with Midwood on this record
aren’t completely talentless either. There is Rami Jaffee from the
Wallflowers, Don Heffington from The Jayhwaks and Hazeldine, and Randy
Weeks, who once penned a hitsingle for either Chrissie Hynde or Chrissie
Turlington or someone else all together. At the moment I can’t remember which. To thise day Midwood
still sleeps on Weeks’ couch at times, when he is in town and they do a
gig together. These and a bunch of other, with Midwood contributing some
guitar himself, pin down a saucy hillybilly twang that is grooving and
laid back at the same time. At times Midwood slurs and stretches the time
in his singing (see “Mohawk River”) but that adds a little extra salsa
to the barbecue. One reviewer had T Rex, Lucinda Williams and The Doors in
one sentence – now if that ain’t something. Even if it is leaving out
Hank Williams (senior, of course) and John Lee Hooker.
If you
ain’t getting smashed to this great stew, you might find yourself
listening to what Midwood is singing about and his words will take you the
rest of the way easil. You’ll find Castro asking his lover to shoot him,
various lovers that left, beautiful wives that were left to work on a farm
and lines like “I think I’ll go and eat a cow, and you don’t like it
you can kiss my ass, cause I drive a monster truck”. Refined imagery to
say the least. Before I’ll cite you my absolute favorite, I’ll give
you the enjoyment of Midwood’s own short biography in his own words
taken from a compilation on Glitterhouse records:
“Always
an admirer of Woody Guthrie’s heroic undertakings, I vowed to fight his
fight; I immediately broke this vow by chasing an actress to Hollywood,
many songs later I chased a stripper from Wisconsin to LA and realized
that I was a cowboy unconsciously herding woman of questionable virtue
into a corral in my head, where I could engage in long periods of self
loathing (hey, I know a guy exactly like this, ed.) This was when I
decided to start my own space program. The initial fund raising has been
difficult, but I’m certain once I get my driver’s licence things will
pick up.”
This
speaks of a special kind of humour and / or crazyness. Anyway, I wish
Midwood the best of luck. His song lyrics are even further out. During
„Spinning on a rock“ – a true classic if there ever was one – the
narrator, after being fired from his job at the dock, will set himself
down to shoot at his friends, but „I won’t shoot any of my good
friends in the head / I’d hate to see any of my friends dead / some of
them, I know they wouldn’t mind / if I shoot them in the shoulder or
shoot them in the spine“ after which he will „go to church / and feel
me up a nurse / and dream about the lady with the alligator purse.“ What
else do you expect from a song? Maybe that the narrator finds a liking for
mohair sweaters, because that’s a fashion to fit his form, and wins the
lottery, so they „give me to big bags of money / everybody knows my joke
was funny.“ It goes on and on like this, in a manner that makes the
storylines of Carl Hiassen look like regular tv show fare.
If
all of that don’t make you want to taste this fine musical gumbo, I
don’t know what else will. Ramsey Midwood offers a unique songwriting
vision, one that is just as off kilter as it is down to earth, he sings
while chewing a straw of corn or chewing tobacco, and he has collected a
great bunch of old groovers to support his incomparable stories and
lyrics.
