David Ramirez is the KUTX Artist of the Month. See more of his features here.
A lot of singer-songwriters are called “storytellers,” but for Austin’s David Ramirez, the description rings especially true. There are the tiny photographic details in “Shoeboxes,” hammered home by the refrain, “It kills me to remember / And it kills me to forget.” There are his heartbreaking (and hilarious) tales of the road which, if collected together, could make a hell of a novel.
It’s hard to imagine Ramirez sounding even more honest, but he set out to do just that on his new album Fables (out August 28). The title comes from his realization that he’s just as likely to move through life like the next guy, “exaggerating stories, faking a smile, or whatever. Just telling fables.” Right out of the gate, the album tries to debunk myths and put its ear to the ground. “They told me it was wine / But it was really just grape juice,” Ramirez sings on “Communion,” cutting the sacred with the profane. There’s a lot of humanity in that kind of unvarnished truth; we’re all guilty of the same divide. Or as Ramirez states later in the song, “Well, honey, you ask me where I came from / I’ve come from a lot of different places.” Download “Communion” below.
–Art Levy
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