Artist:   Bo Ramsey
Song:   "Where the Sun Never Goes Down"
Album: Stranger Blues
Label:   BRR Records
Year:    2006

Some people like to hide out, even when they’re in plain sight. Underneath a straw cowboy hat pulled low enough so there’s no way to tell if he even has eyeballs, Bo Ramsey stares into the void. He weighs little more than a large lizard, probably, and projects enough attitude to put up an Ipana shield all the way around him. It’s said that when he played guitar in Lucinda Williams’ band, he suggested to the singer she fire the bass player, knowing full-well it was her boyfriend at the time. Not the best career move ever made, and you better be good with those kinds of social graces. Luckily for Ramsey, he’s way better than good. In fact, he’s probably the best roots rocker out there right now, and only about 18 people know it, and 17 of them live in his hometown of Iowa City. Ramsey released Stranger Blues two years ago, and made sure you couldn’t find it to buy. He knows how much more valuable things are when you have to search for them, like his mile-long feeling for the blues on these songs. These are no recreations, either. His music comes from deep down in an inner cave, and by the time it sees daylight there is nothing left to do but blink in awe and wonder how in the hell he does it. “Where the Sun Never Goes Down,” a gospel song written by Willie Mae Williams, is about as final a comment as anyone has ever made. It holds the promise of an after-life eternity spent with lost loved ones who mean the most: your Lord, your mother, your father and your baby. That pretty much takes care of everyone that counts, right? Bo Ramsey’s guitar is a one-man shiver squad, playing notes sent from above, and his voice is imbued with a belief beyond question. The light is shining on this song all night long, just as it will when you listen.