THE YEAR IS 1973; THE PLACE
is Williamsburg, Iowa. He steps out onto the
stage, straps on his guitar and is greeted by a
screaming crowd of … aunts, uncles, moms,
dads, cousins, friends and, of course, the bride
and groom. It’s a wedding dance. But at the
end of it all, he leaves with more money in
his pocket than he came with. This is Robert
Franklin “Bo” Ramsey’s first gig, and he isn’t
looking back.
Bo’s illustrious career has taken him around the
world and back again, sharing the stage with
such musical luminaries as Elvis Costello and Bo
Diddley, and producing records for and touring
with Greg Brown and Lucinda Williams, among
others. Over the years, Bo has cultivated a
sound like no other. A photo on the back cover
of his most recent CD, Fragile, says it all. It’s a
cleverly cropped photo of the sign on the local
Firestone tire store that reads simply, “tone.”
Born in 1951 in Burlington, Iowa, Bo grew up
listening to a wide variety of music. From the
Chess Records blues masters to the Rolling
Stones and the Beatles, Bo took the sounds he
heard, blended them and re-tooled them until
he had a sound that no other local player possessed. He worked with several bands during
the ’70s and ’80s, but took a hiatus from music
for a time during the ’80s to work a day job to
pay the bills and support his family. The hiatus
would be temporary. The ever-restless and
always active Bo Ramsey was continually looking
for a way to make his mark, and his living, doing
what he loved best; making music. Always the
visionary, Bo was driving one day and heard
a song on the radio by Greg Brown, another
native Iowan who’d made his mark in the music
scene. After listening to the song, Bo realized
that he could help take Greg’s music to the next
level. He contacted Greg, a meeting took place,
and a musical partnership was conceived that
continues to this day.
We met at the legendary Mill Restaurant in Iowa
City, Iowa, to talk guitars and amps, effects and
tone, and life on road.
Do you remember much about that first gig
all those years ago?
I do, yeah. I remember it was for a wedding, I
think in Williamsburg, Iowa. I was playing with
Patrick Hazel and Phil Ajioka. But, we got paid,
and that was my first actual job.
Who were your guitar heroes growing up?
Somebody you heard on a record that made
you think, “I want to do that.”
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Yeah, I remember the first thing I actually
attempted to play on the guitar and that was
“Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash, and
Luther Perkins was the guitar player for Johnny
at that time, so it was that Luther Perkins thing
that caught my ear. And George Harrison … the
Beatles were a big deal back then and I experienced that whole thing.
George was a great slide player; there are
bits of that in your slide playing.
Yeah, absolutely. He was just a great guitar
player and a great slide guitar player. And
then I remember first hearing Albert King, you
know, his guitar, and he had such a clear and
strong voice.
What does your rig consist of these days?
Well, it depends on the gig, and if I’m playing
with another songwriter. Right now I’m touring with Greg Brown and Pieta Brown, so if I’m
doing a driving tour, I’ll look at the dates and
take an appropriate amp for the dates on the
tour. That’s usually a Fender Deluxe, one 12"
speaker. And then if I’m flying, I’ll get backline
provided by the venue. I usually request a
Fender Deluxe or something similar, but backline is kind of a crapshoot.
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What do you do differently in the studio ver-
sus live? Do you have a stable of amps that
you pull out for different types of songs or
sounds you’re trying to achieve?
I do. I have a couple amps that I use in the
studio. One is a Tweed Fender Deluxe, a TV
front, early ’50s. It’s probably my main record-
ing amp. It’s on a lot of records, that one. And
then my wife, Pieta, has a silverfaced Fender
Deluxe Reverb that’s been blackfaced, you
know, modified back to blackface specs, and
I’ve used that amp a lot in the studio, it’s a great
amp. I have a really old National amp that you
see a lot of lap steel players use, they used to
come in the set with the lap steel with the 6V6
tubes. I also have an old TV front Fender Pro
with one 15" speaker and 6L6 tubes that I’ll use
sometimes, too.
You like the old Fenders.
I think Leo Fender nailed it right out of the
gate. I remember seeing the Rolling Stones get
inducted to the Hall of Fame and Keith Richards
saying thanks to Leo Fender, I mean, that
speaks volumes right there. It’s unbelievable
how good that stuff is right out of the gate. I’ve
been shopping for a new amp to take out on
the road. I mean the old stuff, you really have to
baby them, that’s what I’m taking out now and
you can’t beat the sound of them. Like I said,
I have a string of old amps. I’m also the proud
owner of a 1960 Fender Bassman with four
ten-inch speakers, so I have a nice collection of
Fender amplifiers.
What do you think of Fender’s custom shop
recreations of the old amps?
I was talking with Sid McGuiness, he’s the guitar
player for David Letterman, and I’ve done that
show a couple of times. He and I have become
good friends. Sid and I have done some hanging out, and right when Fender reissued that
Tweed Twin, he called me up and told me to
just take it out of the box and plug it in. It’s all
there. I haven’t played through one, but Sid
gave me a high recommendation.
A lot of those boutique amp companies claim
to be as good as or better than the old amps
they try to emulate. How do you feel about
that?
I’ve been looking at Victoria; they do some nice
work. I’m intrigued by this new amp they’re
working on called a Regal, and I want to try and
get my hands on one of those. I’ve also been
looking at Savage amps out of the Twin Cities,
and I had a Carr amplifier. Those guys are doing
good work, and there’s another one called
Swart, it’s the guy’s name, Michael Swart …
pretty interesting-looking stuff, I just discovered
them. Matchless amps are pretty good. I mean,
they aren’t Fenders, and they don’t pretend to
be, but they’ve established themselves in their
own right, they just make a good amp, but I’m
not sure which way I’m going to go. I’d like to
get something new that you can take out and
be reliable and not worry about breaking down
in the middle of a set, or getting stolen.
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