Willis Alan Ramsey
By Paul T. Mueller
Cult-favorite singer-songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey had a rocky outing on June 17 at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck in Houston.
Ramsey’s set got off to an unexpected start, with an unannounced opening set by Ramsey’s wife, Alison Rogers. After only one song, a morose musing on love and loss, Ramsey hollered “Time out!” from his barstool at the back of the room, and then spent the next 15 minutes conferring, or arguing, with the guy running the sound board. Rogers finally resumed her set and got in one more song before another long break. And so it went.
When Ramsey finally took the stage, he started out with yet more fiddling with equipment and arguing with the soundman. He managed to get through a few songs before interrupting himself again – mostly bluesy folk performed in a laconic style, accompanied by guitar and harmonica.
Five or six songs of what eventually turned out to be a 14-song set were from his semi-legendary debut (and so far, only) album, 1974’s Willis Alan Ramsey. These included “Wishbone,” “The Ballad of Spider John,” “Angel Eyes” and “Northeast Texas Women,” among others. Unfortunately, they were interspersed with long, rambling stories, lots of tuning and “breaks” taken for no apparent reason.
Ramsey started losing his audience about halfway through, as a considerable part of the crowd headed for the door during a particularly testy exchange with the soundman. Some unpleasant comments about local favorite Lyle Lovett, with whom he wrote “North Dakota,” did little to endear him to those who remained.
Three and a half hours in, the audience was down to 20 or so diehards, plus a few noisy patrons at the bar. Ramsey asked them to quiet down, but that had little effect other than prompting one particularly vocal heckler to urge him to just play and finish the show. By this point he had given up on his equipment and was singing and playing without amplification. Ironically the two or three songs he did this way were among the better performances of the evening.