While I’ve been listening to him for a couple years now, this week I’ve really been getting acquainted with the work of Texas bred singer/songwriter David Ramirez over the last couple of weeks. As I’ve been reading more about him, it is clear that the reasons I enjoy him are pretty widely shared by his fan base. He writes and sings about real life. Plain and simple. Each and every one of us who has lived any part of life can relate intimately to his lyrics. I’ve found many comments online about his work, but the one I keep going back to is an article published last week by Vivian Nunez, “I want the love that’s found in ‘Bad Days’ . While this specific article goes a bit deeper into the love that Ramirez discusses in “The Bad Days” it clearly illustrates the connection that a listener has to his music.
When I was thinking about writing this post, it became really difficult to choose just a few songs to feature. It changed about every day or so as I was thinking of this. So I am go with those that I am feeling today.
As referenced above, “The Bad Days”, is a song about real life love. This isn’t a fairytale love that exists in pop songs and movies:
“There are gonna be days when the love is so thin
The days are a game that we just can’t win
There are gonna be days you might want to be free
There are gonna be days that you hate me
But hold on strong
Don’t let go
We’ll carry on I know we can find a way
Cause you’re still my girl in the bad days”
These words hit me every single time I listen to this song. This is the real love. I’ve been fortunate to see this type of love in both my parents and grandparents. It’s not easy. But the good days outweigh the bad days. I think this is why Ramirez speaks to me. He sings songs about real life.
In a similar vein, “Shoeboxes” describes finding items from a past love. There is no doubt in my mind that Ramirez has experienced this situation in order to have written these types of lyrics:
“So I suppose you’ll be in every song I sing
If not written in my words, you’ll be hidden in these strings
Cuz how could I ever forget my first love
My first woman, first truth, first child from above
But why do I hang onto your pictures
Why have I not just thrown out that dress
Cuz it kills me to see you, but it kills me not to
It kills me to remember, oh and it kills me to forget”
I am sure there are hundreds of thousands of people who can relate to this, but listening to this song it is like he wrote it just for me as it speaks directly to experiences I’ve also had. Ramirez writes songs that are not just his…they are also the songs of the listener.
The song “An Introduction” has the same autobiographical stance, but is different both topically and musically from the previous two songs. In this song, Ramirez is found having a spiritual crisis, which is something I would believe most of us can relate to.
“My biggest fear in the world
Is introducing myself in the grave
After all my years living free
I don’t have much to say
Oh the longer I live the more I know I’m gonna die
And the more questions I have the less I want to try
Time was winning so many times I stopped keeping score
Tell me where to find the Lord”
I’ve never been one to listen to to music and not listen to the lyrics. So perhaps that is where my mind has been it over the last couple weeks that Ramirez has been on constant rotation.
