American popular country-western singer and songwriter; his first and only album, “The Willis Alan Ramsey Album” came out 12/05/1976, produced by Shelter records. He traveled from 1980-82 on tours.
Ramsey was raised in Dallas by his Georgia-native parents. He moved to Austin when he graduated from high school, tinkering with the guitar. In the late ’60s and early ’70s, Ramsey was a regular on the Texas coffeehouse folk circuit. He heard that Leon Russell and Gregg Allman were in town playing a festival and staying at the same Austin hotel, managing to get both artists to listen to his songs. Both Russell and the Allmans came up with recording offers and Ramsey opted to go with Russell and his Shelter label to get to Los Angeles.
In 1976, Ramsey cut his first and only record for Shelter. The self-titled debut sold modestly, but it made a powerful impact on the Texas music scene. Several major recording artists over the years have recorded Ramsey’s songs.
He worked a great deal in the ’70s, then had a falling out with one of the Shelter executives and sat out eight years of his record contract. By that time, it was 1980 and he had been all but forgotten. He bought some synthesizers and tried to make some music, but quickly found that there was no place for a shy, sensitive songwriter in the “urban cowboy” ’80s.
Since then, Ramsey has been writing and performing, but has not recorded anything. He sang on two Lyle Lovett records in the ’90s. Koch Records reissued “Willis Alan Ramsey” on CD, and the record has begun to find a fresh audience.
Ramsey lived in New York and Los Angeles, London and Scotland. He met and married singing songwriter Alison Rogers in the late ‘70s and started a family. They divorced in the ‘80s.
Link to Wikipedia biography