Celia Ramsay and Her Band Headline at Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse For CD Release, 1/16

Singer-songwriter Celia Ramsay, will headline at the Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse with her all-star band in January 2013 to release her newest CD, I’ll Just Lie About It.

Celia’s band includes local standouts Tony Marcus, Patrice Haan, Jeff Sanford and John Wiitala. The new album debuts Celia as a songwriter, and the album has a distinctly 1930’s jazz sensibility. Some of her songs are pure Blues while others are a humorous "Ella Fitzgerald meets Mark Graham" mix, creating an album that is nicely balanced between dark blue songs and upbeat, sometimes bawdy humor.

At the age of fifty-five, one might wonder where she’s been all this time. A self-taught musician with a keen ear, she feels her middle-age “blossoming” is right on schedule. "I'm a recent empty-nester, I’m self-employed, and now I have enough flexibility with time to be able to pour myself into this lovely, magical thing in my life--music. And I have a whole lotta life experience informing my song-writing.”

Celia has been singing since she was a little girl, and grew up with a personal passion for the ballads of Scotland; her first recording, released in 2011, was of traditional music. At the same time she was heavily influenced by popular music from the 1930s and 1940s. She's the first to point out that the jazz ballads from the mid-century and much older ballads from the British Isles have a lot in common. Both traditions lean heavily on songs about love, and its trials, tribulations and triumphs. Celia has performed at house concerts with Celtic finger-style guitarist, Steve Baughman and recorded and performed with Holdstock and MacLeod, famous for their sea chantey singing.

The January concert will include songs from the new CD, and spotlight music from all the band members. You will be able to hear “Lament”, featured in a recent YouTube Video, a droll, funny song about loss of libido. Such standards as “You Don’t Know What Love Is” will pay tribute to writers of the 1930s and “Don't” miss a chance to sing along with the original, “Bird Bordello”.

The release concert will be at 8PM on January 16, 2013 at Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse (2020 Addison Street, Berkeley). Tickets range from $20.50-$22.50. Visit www.thefreight.org or call 510-548-1761 for information. For tickets, visit www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetaildispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=3137424.

Photo Credit: Graham Ramsay