For some, the songs they write rattle and shake the cages of listeners’ minds. For others, it’s about the bubble gum fun of life Yet, for another section of artists, it’s about touch and feel. Like a dream landing in some wistful mind.
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Pacific Northwest-based songwriter and performer Lydia Ramsey is of that sort. Her work is delicate but deft. Skillful, yet understanding of where silence is just as important as heft.
Ramsey’s latest single, which is out today (Aug. 26), “Come Home With Me,” was born out of a need for more.
“‘Come Home With Me’ was written in 2020 during the lockdown,” she tells American Songwriter. “When I longed for unrestricted adventures I’d gone on in the past, with loved ones I was at the time not able to be close to. It’s about missing those people and places dearest to you.”
The song resembles the sound of your heart pining for more. It’s her superpower.
“I hope people feel a sense of joy from this song,” she says, “thinking about how fortunate we are to have community in our lives and people to share the ups and downs of the human experience with.”
In this way, there is interpretation to her music. Both mentally, physically, and spiritually. Subconsciously, effortless adoration pours into a glass of hope for more.
Ramsey says the line she loves most in the tune is: I’ll take you over bridges you’ve been dreaming about.
Why?
“This line reminds me of my time spent in New York walking across the Brooklyn Bridge with a companion, unknown adventures awaiting us,” Ramsey offers. “To me, it represents the passages into the unknown we all face, and how if we can bring a buddy with us on the journey, it makes all the difference in the world.”
For Ramsey, songwriting has always begun with the music first, with instruments.
“For me,” she says, “songwriting has always started with the instruments. Playing piano from an early age, then guitar and other string instruments like mandolin and banjo, help put me in a state where my mind could be calm and meditative enough to explore and articulate emotions and experiences that could otherwise be difficult to put into words. The first songs I wrote would oftentimes be about nature, colors, and the feelings of love and freedom those things brought to me. But the music almost always came first. Music, then lyrics, and it’s still that way.”
Ramsey will release her next solo LP, Like A Dream, on which “Come Home With Me” appears, on September 23. And she will host a release show in Seattle’s famed theater, The Triple Door. There, she will showcase the musical touch she’s mastered after so many years of refinement.
“I write about the experiences I have or see in others, that are confusing, joyful, epic, or painful to process without the lens of music to help interpret them,” Ramsey says. “I love writing arrangements with warm, comforting soundscapes, lush harmonies that paint a visual picture in your head as you listen.”
Photo courtesy Lydia Ramsey
