David Ramirez and Dylan LeBlanc brought their co-headlining show to Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music on a rainy evening.
No one ever enjoys a Midwest winter, it will never happen. Whether it is snowing, negative figures, or as was the case on this evening, raining the heaviest rain you’ve ever encountered, you have to make an effort to venture out from your cozy and warm four walls. Live music is one such thing that Midwesterners will go to see regardless of the elements. What makes it even more worthwhile is when you get not one, but two headliners for the price of one! The Old Town School of Folk Music made for an intimate setting for the audience to experience all of the emotions that David Ramirez and Dylan LeBlanc evoked.
First up for the evening was Dylan LeBlanc. This cowboy hat-wearing musician originally hails from Shreveport, Louisiana. He has been steeped in music from a very young age, with his dad working as a staff writer and session musician at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals. In between each of his songs, LeBlanc would give funny anecdotes to set the scene for each of the tunes.
LeBlanc is a talented singer-songwriter with a knack for writing evocative songs that really draw you as the listener into them. It’s fair to say that his unique voice, aided in the live setting by a fantastic band, really took everyone in the room away from the dreary Chicago weather to a place that Dylan had created. He is equally as talented as a guitarist. When playing a solo, you could see each of the audience members get lost in the music. He’d play beautifully melodic riffs while making it look like the simplest thing on earth. Take a listen to the recurring acoustic riff throughout his song “Coyote” if you want to have an earworm for the rest of the week (trust us, it’ll be a very pleasant one to have).
In a venue such as this, it’s impossible to not be in the moment when watching a songwriter of the caliber of David Ramirez. His lyrics and music are so expertly penned and emotive that they draw in the listener entirely.Throughout the evening, you could viscerally sense either the pain or the love Ramirez was experiencing when he wrote these songs. This wasn’t someone just reciting lyrics for the hundredth time. This was someone living through each moment on the stage in front of you as if it had just happened. Fine examples of this were “The Music Man” and “I Wanna Live in Your Bedroom,” the latter truly making you feel as if you are sitting in David’s place on his girlfriend’s bed and hoping you could stay there forever.
David’s magnetic presence on stage held everyone’s attention throughout the show. As the audience sat in such close proximity to the stage, everyone gave Ramirez their full and undivided attention. The evening had a general laid-back feel to it, while the imagery used in his lyrics got the old cogs in the brain turning as you felt the joy and the pain in equal measures. Ramirez’s voice was the perfect instrument for the poetic imagery throughout the set.
Ramirez is set to release his sixth LP on March 21. All The Not So Gentle Reminders is said to be his most ambitious album to date. If “The Music Man” and “I Got People” are anything to go by, the rest of the album is sure to be a treat.
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