Back in 2017, David Ramirez released We’re Not Going Anywhere, a politically-charged album that musically, was equally bold and defiant. It was a Featured Album of the Month here on Folk Radio and reviewed here by Paul Kerr. Kerr noted that ‘it moves on from Ramirez’s rootsy sound adding swathes of guitar, shimmering keyboards and synths, an attempt, says Ramirez, to capture some of the sounds of his youth. “We went in with a pretty specific vision: lots of keyboards and some out-of-the-box guitar sounds. I took a lot of notes from the indie bands I’ve been listening to and from the bands I loved growing up in the ‘80s, like the Cars and Journey.” I thought,” Let’s just live in this spacey world for a while and see what comes out of it.”’
Today, he released his new single ‘My Love Is A Hurricane’, the title track of his new album out on Sweetworld/Thirty Tigers (17 July). Produced by Jason Burt (Leon Bridges, Sarah Jaffe), the album sees the Texas-based singer-songwriter turn his Americana sound into something far more expansive; his powerful voice and stark acoustics bolstered by the addition of pianos, synths and gospel/R&B influences. Listen to the title track below:
Where Ramirez’s well-received last album painted a picture of life in contemporary America through the lens of his own Mexican heritage, ‘My Love Is A Hurricane’ is an even more personal and introspective affair; a ten-track collection charting the tumultuous, unpredictable journey of falling in and out of love, written over the course of such a relationship. The album’s roots go back to the Summer of 2017, Ramirez had fallen in love with someone who, despite having only just met, felt incredibly familiar to him. “In past relationships, no matter how eager I was to feel loved and to give love, there had always been a hesitation to crawl out of my old life. I didn’t feel this,” he says. With that year’s ‘We’re Not Going Anywhere’ LP soon to be released and followed by a period of touring across Europe and the US, Ramirez began to pen his next album and hopeful odes to new love spilled out. Halfway through writing the album, however, the relationship that had inspired a new burst of creativity in him ended up falling apart.
Instead of scrapping the songs, the Texan singer-songwriter began to channel all of his thoughts into words and it was this reflection that led Ramirez to the album’s title-song, ‘My Love Is A Hurricane’. Out today, Ramirez says of the single: “I was born in August of 1983 just days after Hurricane Alicia had hit my hometown of Houston. As my relationship began ripping at the seams, I started to think of this storm as a precursor to my being born,” he confides: “Was there something in the universe that imprinted a characteristic of chaos in my blood during my last few days in the womb? Was I destined to wreak havoc everywhere I went?”
On Saturday, May 23, Ramirez will celebrate the record announcement with “All Request Live: A Celebration,” which will begin at 8pm CT via his YouTube and Facebook channels. Ramirez offers to fans, “At most shows, I shut down requests, but this Saturday all are welcome. Let’s be together again. I’ve missed you all terribly.”
Photo Credit: Phillip Harder