India Ramey is in her “villain era” and loving it. With her sixth studio album, Villain Era, Ramey sets the tone for her next chapter in life, one where she’s been to hell and back, emerging unafraid of what’s next.
“What I’m mainly saying with that phrase is I’m prepared to be the villain in your story if that’s the story you want to tell because if you can’t respect my boundaries, I’ll gladly play that part.”
Ramey is about to hit the road again, this time joining honky-tonk legend Dale Watson for dates that will take them all the way to Canada. The tour will stop in Houston at the Heights Theater on Saturday, September 12.
“I think Dale’s musical style and mine are really complementary of one another,” says Ramey, stating she is his fan first and foremost. Both artists are continuously pushing to maintain the hardworking ethos and sounds of classic country music.
On Villain Era, Ramey takes the strength she found in her previous album Baptized by the Blaze and uses her voice to shed light on stories that are not all her own with guts, grit and grace.
Ramey has always been open about her past, surviving in a home riddled with domestic abuse later seeking out a law degree to help others just like her, only to realize she needed to make music.
“I think Baptized by the Blaze really was a concept album,” says Ramey of the deeply personal album describing her journey through healing from trauma and addiction. “It was intensely personal, that’s not to say Villain Era isn’t personal but it was sort of an emergence from where I was.”
In her title track, Ramey lays it down as both a warning to others and a mission statement to herself. The song serves as a testament to all of the hard work and self-reflection that brought her to where she is now.
“It’s a stronger, more uncompromising, more true to self version of me so that was a declaration of who I am now,” she says.
Through finding a deeper version of herself, Ramey was able to tap into the humor in stories from her life and not take herself as seriously as she did before. Where music before was her tool for survival, now she can sit with it in a different and more playful way.
“I always say humor is my favorite trauma response and our patron saint Dolly Parton never lost her sense of humor, she was always able to put a humorous spin on things. I think it helps us recover, it helps us keep perspective especially when you’re looking back on it and it’s done.”
Ramey even found laughter in the pain while singing “Crying in my Lingerie” , a tale about disappointment and divorce. “I remember the piece of lingerie I was wearing,” she says of the true story of desperately trying to reignite the flame of her relationship. “I remember looking forward to him coming home that day, the whole buildup and it was like a straight-up cold rejection.”
“That song is my commentary on patriarchy and misogyny and how a very mediocre, mid at best, guy can make an attractive and extraordinary woman feel like she’s not enough.”
Villain Era kicks off with “We Ride at Dawn” a song written by Ramey that feels as though it could be a Marty Robbins cover but is a call to arms for women everywhere.
“It is definitely a female rage song,” says Ramey. “I keep saying I can’t believe we still have to protest this shit because there are people in the world that want to take away all of the progress that women have made over the last 200 years and there are even women who want to surrender their right to vote because of this patriarchal propaganda.”
Hearing how Ramey blends feminism, humor and a little healthy anger is reminiscent of another pioneer in country music, Loretta Lynn. When discussing her unlikely 1975 hit “The Pill” Ramey shares admiration for Lynn.
“It enraged people and it got banned from country radio because they didn’t want her singing about a woman’s right to have sex without consequence, that shook everybody to their core and made them clutch their pearls. Loretta Lynn never gets classified as outlaw but she as outlaw as fuck.”
Ramey’s commitment to always honoring and protecting the roots of country show in “Ghost Town” where she sings her determination to bring awareness to the homogenization of Nashville’s Lower Broadway district.
“I care so much about the preservation of the country music legacy and legends that made this whole place a thing,” she says of her hometown of Nashville. “I wrote ‘Ghost Town’ as a protest song to call out the fact that the majority of the honky tonks–Robert’s Western World is always an exception right?-they don’t even play a lot of country music anymore.”
All in all it is empowering for anyone to feel the strength behind Villain Era and embrace the freedom to set boundaries, say no when needed and stand up for what is right. Ramey agrees, feeling the lightheartedness of no longer being a people pleaser, something she attributes to a response to trauma.
“It was really news to me four or five years ago when my therapist told me it was okay to say no to people, I honestly had no idea.”
For Villain Era, Ramey found strong support in her quest when she joined Copaco Records/Blue Élan and worked with two-time Grammy-nominated producer Eric Corne.
Ramey agrees that her new representation understood the assignment saying, “They did. You hear all these awful things about record labels and I’m just lucky that I have complete and total artistic freedom. This wouldn’t have been possible without them and my gratitude for them, there’s no end to that gratitude.”
India Ramey will perform in support of Dale Watson on Saturday, September 12, at 7 p.m. at the Heights Theater, 339 W 19, $46. For more information visit heightstheater.com
