Western North Carolina singer-songwriter Tyler Ramsey and Carl Broemel, lead guitarist of My Morning Jacket, will release the collaborative album “Celestun” on January 15. The two friends met back in 2012, when Ramsey was a member of indie roots-rockers Band of Horses, and the group toured with MMJ.
After that, Ramsey and Broemel often discussed making an album together, but they didn’t put the ball in motion until the pandemic, when they both found themselves with time to toss song ideas back and forth. They finally finished those early sketches last year during sessions at Broemel’s home in Nashville.
The resulting record has a cozy, homespun vibe, taking inspiration from finger-picking folk heroes like Michael Hedges, John Fahey, and Leo Kottke. The album has nine tracks, one of which is a Neil Young cover (“Sail Away”), and there’s also a guest spot from the angel-voiced duo the Secret Sisters on a tune called “Flying Things.” The title track, which you can hear below, is a tranquil acoustic instrumental that showcases the nimble fret interplay between Ramsey and Broemel.
“We just mesh together in a way that I can’t even really explain,” Ramsey said in a statement. “I feel like there’s some magical connection between our two things, it just makes me smile and satisfies some itch as far as things that I would like to hear on the music that I write. I think he feels the same way about what I do. When I put a part to one of his songs, we both have this feeling like that was exactly what was missing.”
The duo will support the album on a winter tour in January and February that includes some regional dates: February 24 at Jammin Java in Vienna, Va., February 26 at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, N.C., and February 27 and 28 at the Grey Eagle in Asheville, N.C.
