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Mountain Man: The words imply endurance as rugged
as the Rockies and existence that is larger than life. The mountain
man’s way of life has captured the imagination of Bill Ramsel.
Ramsel has recorded what is the first studio tape of music from
the American mountain man and fur trading era in the early 1800’s.
The album, From Plains To Mountains, was released in late July,
he said. “I tried to reproduce what music sounded like back
then”, Ramsel said. On the album Ramsel, who has played the
guitar for 20 years is accompanied by Betty Vornbrock, an Austin
fiddler of national recognition, he said.
Ramsel is no stranger to historical music. For about ten years he
has performed cowboy trail driver songs around campfires and for
school children. Ramsel said he has had a life-long love of the
mountains and the mountain man’s way of life, but his fascination
became more real three years ago when he attended a “rendezvous”,
or gathering of men who uphold the mountain man tradition, in Central
Texas. Teepees, smoke drifting from their smoke flaps, covered the
rendezvous grounds, Ramsel said. “Seeing the teepees did it,”
he said. Ramsel was invited to the rendezvous by the director and
writer of an Austin television production called Tombstone Massacre,
in which Ramsel starred as the brother of Wyatt Earp. After attending
several such gatherings, Ramsel spent a year writing most of the
songs for what became his first album. |
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Austin American Statesmen |
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| “The epic portion of American history is being written
now. The values of the mountain man tradition are conveyed in
Bill Ramsel’s music. Listen and enjoy!”
-Peter Rowan
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“Bill Ramsel and I met at Michael Martin Murphey’s
WestFest in copper Mountain, Colorado. He’s one of the best,
most knowledgeable people I know. I really like what he’s
doing with hes music. Bill’s ballads give people an authentic
feel for the mountain man period… he’s as genuine
as they come.”
-Don Edwards,
Premier purveyor of cowboy balladry
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