A Long Dream About Swimming Across The Sea is a collection of songs that harbor in dreams and semi-states of reality. Often, these songs blur the lines between actual experience and those dreams which may be more vivid than real life. Tyler Ramsey hails from the mist-drenched mountains of Western North Carolina and composes lucid, ambient folk that reflects his surroundings. Fans of Seth Kauffman (another Asheville-based folk artist) or the Fleet Foxes will certainly appreciate this album.

Much like the Fleet Foxes' work, Ramsey’s songs feature carefully orchestrated folk music that drifts and twists in sometimes unexpected ways. What starts out as arpeggiated guitar may turn a corner into a boozy, rootsy bash. Grappling with loss, nostalgia and desire, Ramsey's forlorn, grainy voice fades in and out of warm strings and hushed guitars, like someone coming in and out of an abstract dream.

His vocal harmonies take a nod to Neil Young, as heard on No One Goes Out . This nostalgic piano track rolls along as he comments on changing towns and drunken memories. The album also contains striking renditions of covers by Ray Charles and Nico; Ramsey sings for all of us on Nico's These Days . He tastefully echoes the same insecurities that make that lamenting song timeless. Night Time seems to reinterpret the lyrics of Ray Charles's "Night and Day," bursting and swelling from a hushed introduction.

The acoustic guitar shapes the backbone of most of these songs. Ramsey blends it with skin-chilling warmth on When I Wake , which features a marriage of guitar, strings, organ and droning steel-pedal guitar. The crescendos of these instruments all rising in concert is nothing less than beautifully infectious. Throughout the album, Ramsey shows his strength not only as a lyricist, but also as an arranger, notably on instrumental tracks like Chinese New Year and Birdwings .

This album features folk music, but in the most modern sense. It's distinctly Appalachian, yet not too backwoods as to spook the cityfolk. A Long Dream About Swimming Across The Sea is hushed, yet captivating, alienated, yet accessible, and as the title suggests, distinctively dreamy. It’s best enjoyed at the end of a rainy day as the sun breaks through the clouds.

Additional Tracks:
A Long Dream
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