Nashville-based outlaw country siren, India Ramey, has unleashed her powerful new album, Baptized By The Blaze, via Mule Kick Records. “Ramey presents us with a series of dichotomies on Baptized by the Blaze: the angel and the sinner, the lone rider and the longing for companionship, the life of the party and the lonely philosopher, the triumphant hero and the tender seeker,” said No Depression in their review. “We all live somewhere in between those spaces at some point, and Ramey gifts us with the bravery to accept ourselves at all these points.”
Written entirely by Ramey and produced by Luke Wooten (The SteelDrivers, Jim Lauderdale, Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley), Baptized By The Blaze presents the sharpest version yet of Ramey’s unique sound. It’s a cinematic mix of spaghetti western landscapes, Americana-noire arrangements, and classic country influences, all glued together by a frontwoman who’s never sounded prouder of her honky-tonk roots. Joining her are a murderer’s row of all-star instrumentalists — including Tommy Hardin, Alison Prestwood, Scotty Sanders, and James Mitchell, all of whom recorded their parts in a single day — who lace the songs with Telecaster chicken-pickin’, woozy pedal steel, and Appalachian attitude. Potent and punchy, Baptized By The Blaze is every bit as fiery as its title suggests.
After the release of her acclaimed 2020 LP, Shallow Graves, trouble was stirring back at home. Ramey had been taking Klonopin for 12 years, relying on daily doses of the tranquilizer to manage a panic disorder that stemmed from the trauma she experienced during her childhood. “I’d been running from my trauma my entire life,” admits Ramey. “I even tried to heal my trauma by working as a domestic violence prosecutor. That didn’t work, and Klonopin became my way of numbing it out.” Reeling from the dark tolls of the drug, Ramey checked herself into a rehab facility one day after the release show for Shallow Graves. While on this journey of healing and self-reckoning, she cast the full spectrum of those emotions into new songs. The result is Baptized By The Blaze, Ramey’s chronicle of her walk through hell and deliverance from the flames.
Ramey has released several music videos; for “Ain’t My First Rodeo,” a song about energy vampires, Ramey tapped into her love of Classic and B-Horror, and threw a monsters’ ball in a honky tonk. In the Robert Rodriguez-meets-Quentin Tarantino-style video for the album’s title track, Ramey sings of the death of her old self and a rebirth into fearlessness, and in “The Mountain,” her vulnerability is on display as she sings of standing strong amidst life’s avalanches. For the tongue-in-cheek “Down For The Count,” which Ramey calls “a breakup song that raises a middle finger to the patriarchy and all the Judge Judys out there who try to tell women how to act,” the video is a playful romp through a bowling alley.
On an album that pays homage to the outlaws and honky-tonk angels who came before her, Baptized By The Blaze is still unmistakably the work of India Ramey. She’s always written about pain and trauma, but here, she exorcises those inner demons without apology, turning her personal story into a universal message of liberation and self-empowerment.
Baptized By The Blaze is available digitally HERE, and on CD and vinyl HERE. Ramey is an official showcase artist at this year’s AmericanaFest, and has also announced new tour dates, including a performance spot on the 2025 Outlaw Country Cruise. Be sure to follow her at the links below for the latest news and updates.
link for “available digitally” – https://orcd.co/irbbtba
link for “CD and vinyl” – https://www.indiaramey.com/category/all-products
TOUR DATES
8/30 – WMOT Finally Friday@ 3rd & Lindsley – Nashville, TN
9/17-9/21 – AMERICANAFEST 2024 – Nashville, TN [OFFICIAL SHOWCASING ARTIST]
9/26 – The Lonesome Rose – San Antonio, TX
9/27 – Texas Music Cafe – Waco, TX
9/28 – The Continental Club – Austin, TX
9/29 – Double Wide – Dallas, TX
10/2 – The Continental Club – Houston, TX
10/17 – Abilene Bar and Lounge – Rochester, NY
10/18 – Skinny Dennis – Brooklyn, NY
10/20 – Horseshoe Tavern – Toronto, ON
11/6 – Mortimer’s Bar – Minneapolis, MN
11/7 – Judson & Moore – Chicago, IL
11/9 – Duke’s Indy – Indianapolis, IN
11/16 – The Whirling Tiger – Louisville, KY
2/22-2/28 – 2025 Outlaw Country Cruise – Miami, FL
CONNECT WITH INDIA RAMEY
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