Friday, Oct. 18, you have a chance to see a hometown guy, have a hometown show, at the Woodstock Town Hall Theatre when Troy Ramey comes back to town. You may have seen Troy on “The Voice” Season 12, back in 2017, when he turned all four chairs, picked Gwen Stefani as his coach, and advanced to the Top 12.
He played in Woodstock a few years back, at the Little Theater, but this will be his first performance at the big one. He lived in Woodstock from 5th through 9th grade and said, “I still have a lot of good friends there, and we keep in touch so I feel confident calling it a hometown show.”
Troy is touring in support of his debut full length album, “All I Had”. He’s been releasing singles throughout this past year. He said, “I’ve never been more proud of anything. It’s a big record but it can also be kind of intimate. All the songs work great for a small band arrangement. It’s tough to take a seven piece band on the road but I wanted to tour so badly so I built a show around playing these songs with an acoustic trio.”
Troy will be on acoustic guitar, Phil Coiro on drums and Colin Sapp on electric guitar, so it’s a semi-acoustic show.
Troy said, “Colin is one of the studio guys on my album. He’s a Berklee professor, and he’s had some big gigs with some big acts like The Backstreet Boys. He’s one of the best guitar players I’ve ever met.” When we spoke about Phil, Troy jokingly said, “He doesn’t deserve any praise. He’s a drummer, he’s used to being left behind.” Being serious Troy said, “Phil is one of the best musicians I’ve ever met, and had the pleasure of playing with. He’s played on Broadway, off Broadway. I linked up with him about ten years ago when I was just getting started, while living in New York. We’ve played hundreds of shows together. He was there for me when we were just playing for the bartender. He is one of the most tasteful drummers, consistent, talented, but easy to work with guys that I’ve had the pleasure of working with, and he’s my best friend.”
This show is being billed as, “Songs and Stories with Troy Ramey”. Troy said, “It will have that storyteller vibe but we’ll still have some fullness.” They’ll be playing the new record, along with some of his older songs and covers he likes to sing like “Tennessee Whiskey” by Chris Stapleton. His favorite original is “Woman”, which he made in 2019, as a surprise wedding gift to his wife (He released it in 2020). He said, “Being in the music business is difficult. There’s a lot of pressure on what kind of music to make, will it go viral? The music video is actually our wedding video. When I released it, I had high hopes for it because I was proud of it. Compared to other songs, and I’m lucky because I’ve had millions of streams on other songs, this was a flop, a complete dud. It got no attention, and I still think it’s one of my least streamed songs, but what happened is newlyweds were finding it on Facebook and asking me to perform it at their wedding. Even though it looks like a dud, it created an accidental wedding business. I’ve sang this at hundreds of weddings, I just got back from Greece, singing it at a couple’s wedding. It really changed my life, and gave me some confidence to be able to have a career be defined by what I want it to be defined by, rather than try and write a ‘hit’ song, whatever that means.”
Troy is fully independent, meaning he’s self-managed, self-booked, self-promoting. He does everything himself and said, “I needed to figure out if I wanted to make a record that I can pull off with 3 guys, or take advantage of the tools I have in the studio. That’s what I decided to do because I can always make a simpler version of this record, alternate versions, live versions, whatever. If you’re in the studio and have access to make something incredible, I felt the need to go that route.”
Troy is as real as one can be. He tells it like it is, and isn’t afraid to do so. The last time we spoke he was near the end of his 50 dates, post “The Voice” tour. He said, “It was a miserable failure, and scared the s— out of me. It took the wind out of my sails because I was just on national TV. I felt desperate, confused, and a little bit bitter. When I look back on it, I was inexperienced, I didn’t know how to take advantage of the exposure I just had so I focused on writing.” After he released “Woman” in 2020, to this past summer, he was playing weddings and private events. He added, “I’ve never played more music in my life but it was all under the radar so a bit of my ego was bruised. The gigs paid great but they’re thankless. You’re in the corner, at a Bat Mitzvah or your trio is in the corner of a cocktail party for a corporation. It was fine because I was performing and still doing what I love, in the way I want to do it. It gave me a few years to focus and figure out how I’m going to do it. For the longest time, I was waiting for someone to come along and tell me my music is great and here’s how we’re going to help you take the next step. After 7 years of me being on television, that call never came, so I knew I had to figure it out on my own.”
This Woodstock show will be his 9th this year, which isn’t a lot but he’s in what he’s calling a “Testing year”, figuring out what venues he can play, and which ones he can fill. He’s sold out five and Woodstock, which is his biggest venue this year, is nearly sold out. Next year he wants to do 6-8 shows a month. He said, “I can make a great living playing shows of this size, and be more successful than I ever thought I could be but it has nothing to do with fame, or how many people like my Instagram post. It’s just about figuring out a way to connect, and communicate with the people who already appreciate what I’m doing.”
It’s funny he said people think the CD is dead, I was one of those people. “It’s not. CD’s and vinyl are selling like hotcakes at these shows, and it’s given me a new hope and enthusiasm I desperately needed.” Being on stage is where Troy feels most comfortable. He ended with, “Before I found music I had this weird anxiety like what am I doing with my life? First time I got on the mic and started to sing, and figured out I could write a decent song, I didn’t want to be anywhere else.”
You can find Troy online, in most places under his name Troy Ramey: his website, Facebook, Spotify, YouTube, Bands in Town and Apple Music. For Instagram and Soundcloud, he’s under “iamtroymusic”. He said the best way to follow him is to go to his website and sign up for his email list.
