In only a handful of years, alt-country/folk has grown from being a neat little sub-genre to a major success in its own right. Thus, while the more established acts either try new things or repeat themselves, there is a growing stable of new up-and-comers. Even as Band of Horses gets more polish (QRO album review) and Bon Iver goes for the big-time (QRO album review), Horses guitarist Tyler Ramsey comes in nicely on the latest gust with his sophomore release, The Valley Wind.
Like Ramsey’s debut, A Long Dream About Swimming Across the Sea (QRO review), Wind isn’t wildly diverse, and you might feel like you’ve heard this kind of material before. However, Ramsey does alt-country/folk well – after sub-minute instrumental opener “Raven Shadow”, he presents a strong slice of twang-loss in the title track. If the sweet sadness and harmonies of such tracks as “Time Is a Changing Line” or “Angel Band” sound familiar, that’s only because the style has so boomed – you can’t really blame Ramsey and his echoes for sounding akin to the similar-aged Bon Iver on “When It’s Done”.
Ramsey closes The Valley Wind with “All Night”, which features some bigger distortion effects behind his alt-folk, and that hopefully points to more sonic experimentation by the artist. In today’s packed alt-country/folk scene, one needs more than ever to stand out, even on top of the solid footing of The Valley Wind.
