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After what seems an age Tyler Ramsey has released his next solo album, The Valley Wind. Seems he now has to have the, ‘guitarist from Band of Horses’ tag after his name now, but I did first catch his beautiful album A Dream About Swimming just before he joined BoH and started putting in his excellent workmanship into that band.

This new album is current being streamed in its entirely via AOL and is downloadable from the usual places as well as the release label Fat Possum, but not yet it seems in physical form in the UK (like the brilliant A A Bondy album)

From a few plays you quickly see how this album will snag  itself onto you and remain around. There feels more space on this one than the last, clear as shards of glass, with  a Neil Young quality to his voice now, the arrangements like American frontier sounds, a sparseness and directness that seems to fit with the rugged picture on the sleeve.

A thing of beauty and rawness, stripped right back from anything BoH might do, he manages to produce something decidedly his own and with a maturity and craftsmanship that shows he is no mere ‘band member’ with a solo side project -excellent stuff.