Mike Ramsey

Deeply rooted in the Appalachians and the mountain traditions found here, I call Mulberry Gap in Hancock County, Tennessee home. I take great pride in being the seventh generation to farm part of the original land settled after the Revolutionary War. As with my firm family foundation, I also draw from a heritage of mountain music. I have grown up listening to my dad, mom, uncles and aunts all gathering in to pick and sing with that tight brother-sister harmony that cannot be beat. Music has always been an intricate part of my life.

A broken leg at the age of 8 provided the opportunity for me to teach myself several songs on my dad’s guitar. A few years later, when I was around the age of 16, my dad took me to an Old Time Fiddler's Convention in Jonesville, Virginia. While we were there, I met a young Scruggs-style banjo player, and he and I hit it off well and we soon began to play regularly with my uncle and aunt. With Uncle John on guitar, Aunt Mona on bass, and Jeff playing banjo, we needed a mandolin player, so Jeff loaned me the family mandolin and there began my life long affair with the "pickin-est little instrument in the world".

Again, I am self-taught and that is still a work in progress, I have learned from everyone I have played with, and since I also sing, I have a great respect for the melody of a song and play the mandolin the same way. As far as my singing goes, I just sing by feel.

A couple of years after high school, I got a phone call that opened the door for me to play bluegrass music with Stoney Point, a band out of Knoxville, Tennessee. I continued to play with Stoney Point for the next 10 years, and during this time I met and married my wife, Jodee Harrell and also made acquaintance with Stuart Wyrick.

Though farming and music have taken up a large part of my life, for the past 15 years from Monday through Friday you can find me working for Powell Valley Electric Co-op as an underground lineman-crew leader. When hunting season opens and schedules permit, you CAN'T find me. I'll be in the woods on the trail of a deer or turkey. I also spend a lot of time riding my mule Jack; and we enjoy trail riding and keeping a check on the livestock and fences at home. Sundays and Wednesdays, Jodee and I enjoy time in worship and praise with fellow members of Pine Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Speedwell, Tennessee.

I feel the Lord has blessed me so much. God has provided me with a loving, supportive soul mate in my wife, without her beside me; I know I could not be in this ministry. She makes sure that I get where I am supposed to be, I show up in clean clothes, and sees to it that my grammar is right in a new song. I particularly appreciate my family, especially my Uncle John and Aunt Mona Ramsey, who have always been there and helped me to see things in me I didn't think possible. I thank God for these blessings and more, most of all I thank Him for His love, mercy and salvation by and through our Savior Jesus Christ. You know me, when I get started bragging on my Lord, I cannot stop. I get excited when I think about talent, plus the opportunity He has given me to praise Him through song and with strings. I have enjoyed sharing with you and look forward to meeting each of you to shake and howdy with awhile. May God bless each of you. ~ Mike Ramsey

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Stuart Wyrick / Tom Brantley / Doug Johnson / Gary Kidwell