Ramsie Shick Reviews_CCM

"... I am hearing voices. No, they're not imaginary. But they are imaginative. And they have captured my imagination this month. The name Ramsie Shick is almost enough to capture my imagination, but wait 'til you hear her voice...and you will. I won't mince words. Hearing Ramsie's indie CD Personally There was one of the most exciting experiences I've ever had in my 25+ years of involvement with Christian music. This girl's the real deal. A child of parents who made life commitments to the ministry when she was a toddler, Ramsie saw it all and began to write poetry, music, and art about it all. Attending NYU, she got a good taste of the art world and the fast lane, and made a prodigal's return, completely surrendering her talents to God. And her talents are prodigious. Ramsie's voice is a force of nature, capabale of touching tenderness and wild, unruly abandon. In another's hands it could be Joan Osborne, Patti Smith, or Melissa Etheridge, but this is something all on her own. Her lyrics look like the ramblings of a stream of consciousness preacher/poet - and maybe they are - but coupled with the music of her mind, the touch of her fingers on her guitar, and her muscular, competent band, they are transformed into living, breathing pieces of art and ministry. And speaking of art, Ramsie is an accomplished visual artist, responsible for the design, layout and illustrations found on the CD's striking booklet. Those who have seen her live, in a church or a bar, have told me she never sings a song the same way twice...and I believe it. Ramsie is listening, smelling something on a fresh wind, and pledging to share it with us, and for this, I am most grateful. "

....."An unforgettable voice, a great sense of melody, and an uncanny ability to write lyrics so densely packed with words they could almost be considered prose. Yet her phrasing is so good it never sounds like she is in a hurry. Pop, rock, and folk are merely a backdrop for her artful and passionate delivery. Once you hear her, you won't forget her."

"When we reviewed her last album a year or so ago, we knew good things were in store for her. Sure enough, she's caused quite a stir with her passionate, rousing and intense acoustic-based rock. There's plenty of electric guitar fills on this album, but it's the electricity in her voice that sets this artist apart. Imagine Grace Slick, Melissa Etheridge, and Alanis Morissette with their fingers stuck in a light socket. Here's a full-length 8-song live set (Live at The Door) that capture's Ramsie in her raw best. Catch this artist now if you want to be in the 'I'm cool, because I liked her before she was huge' crowd..."

ALTERNATE ROUTE
Local singer/songwriter follows her muse first to Dallas, then to Nashville

Artists meet their muses in all sorts of unusual places, but few have heard their calling while home, ill in bed.

"When I was 13, I was sick for a while, so I was learning guitar from my mom to keep from being so bored," reports local singer, guitarist, and songwriter Ramsie Shick. "I had made these tapes of myself, and my mom heard them and was like 'Who's this?' That's when I realized I was a musician."

It was a rather offhand way of divining a destiny, but Ms. Shick - who has three albums out on a local label - hasn't ever really taken the direct route. Growing up at various places around the country with her minister parents, Ms. Shick always planned to be an illustrator. But after a foray into the New York art world didn't turn out so well, she moved to Dallas in 1994.

"When I came down here, it was just for a visit," says Ms. Shick over a cup of tomato soup. "I didn't realize that I wasn't going back home."

Stay she did, however, and she continued to work on her music. A mutual acquaintance passed a three-song tape of hers to local music fixture Russell Hobbs, known for his part in establishing the Theatre Gallery during Dallas' proto-Deep Ellum hey-day.

At the time, Mr. Hobbs was pretty burned out on the music business. "But when I heard her tape, it was like visiting another world," he says. "She inspired me to get back into music."

The result was Crucible Artists, which has put out three of Ms. Shick's albums: 1997's Personally There, Live at The Door (1998) and last year's Sinner's Serenade (1999).

Those discs reveal Ms. Shick as an emotional poet with a strong voice reminiscent of Grace Slick or Melissa Etheridge, able to grip the lyrics to a song and shake them with the intensity of a pit bull.

Don't mistake passion for certainty, however. "People talk about having a personal relationship with God," she says, "I don't know what that means but I'm trying to capture some semblance of it through my music. When people started reacting to [the music], I thought that there might be something to it."

Others apparently think so, too: Ms Shick has lately been flying back and forth to Nashville to work with Squint Records, the hip label known for helping acts like Sixpence None the Richer achieve secular success without sacrificing spiritual credibility. So far she's come up with 25 songs to choose from.

"I'm trying to broaden my concepts without losing what I have," she explains. "I want to produce something that would build on the soul, no matter who you are."

As would be expected, certainty and doubt go hand-in-hand. "I don't know exactly what to do with it, " she says of her gift, "but it comes from God, that's for sure." - Matt Weitz, Dallas Morning News, December 23, 2000.


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