Aaron Ramsey, the newest, youngest and most deep-voiced member of Mountain Heart, is finishing up his second solo CD. His debut, self-titled album was released in 2006 when Aaron was 20 years old, and current plans are to have the new project out by July, 2010.

Ramsey will be handling the mandolin and much of the lead vocal duties, and tells us that the material is more straightahead bluegrass than what you hear from Mountain Heart.

“I suppose it’s a representation of me – what I like to hear and what I like to play; my style of bluegrass, and music in general.

My goal is to get everything to fit together into something people will like, and where they can appreciate the realness of the music. I’m making a point not to over-produce. Each player just does their own thing. That’s what I wanted -  to let their personality come out in each song.”

In addition to being a wicked mandolinist, Aaron is a talented singer, with a growly, deep baritone voice that made him the perfect replacement when Adam Steffey left Mountain Heart in 2007. Fans of the band may view Ramsey primarily as an instrumentalist, but the bulk of this new CD will show him as a vocalist.

“There is only one instrumental – just one I came up with, and it’s not all that fast. The songs that I have put this record have all been pitched for my vocal range, which is a baritone type lead.”

“There are some new original songs on the record, and some older ones as well.  A few are tunes I have co-written with my Dad (Mike Ramsey), and Dennis Goodwin.

I have been fortunate to have my friends and heroes be a part of this project. Jim Van Cleve, Barry Abernathy and Jason Moore of Mountain Heart, as well as Ron Block, Tim Stafford, Tony Rice, Colby Laney, Patton Wages, David Babb, Brian and Maggie Stephens, Randy Kohrs, Jeff Partin, Tim Crouch, Clay Hess, Josh Swift, and the list goes on…”

Aaron has been working on this project for over a year now, and says that he never had a deadline in mind, and just gets in the studio when he can to add more music. At this point, only a few mandolin overdubs and some guest harmony vocals remain to be done.

Mike Ramsey tells us that Aaron has talked to a few labels about this album, but expects that it will be privately released.

We hope to have a few audio samples to share on The Bluegrass Blog soon.