Steve Ramsey

Steve Ramsey lives in Nevada City, California where he has pursued a career in public radio with community radio station KVMR-FM. In addition to stints as General Manager and Program Director, he has hosted programs titled variously The Rhythm of the Balkans, Sunday Morning Worldwide, The Hawaiian Show, and The Rhythm Method. Somewhere in there he began collecting some 250 Hawaiian shirts and the music to go with them. He also launched the successful monthly live broadcast called NightLIVE! (now in its 11th year) and produced oodles of concerts including Richard Thompson, Three Mustaphas Three, Youssou n¹Dour, Los Lobos, the Les Miserables Brass Band, Ledward Kaapana, Greg Brown, John Hammond, Adrian Legg, Cake, and others. He has written many a review for the program notes of the station. He also served as Program Director for KHSU-FM in Arcata, California and as the Business Manager of the East European Folklife Center. Finally, to jump into the 21st century, he spent a brief time as a professional Internet music editor. Steve has been through a number of phases in music appreciation, from rock n roll to jazz to Balkan music to Hawaiian to the current rage, Greek. He worked in the retail end of the recording industry when it was still involved with vinyl and collected avidly in a wide range of listening interests. He has also been a practicing musician in many of these genres as well. After the obligatory rock n roll and country western guitar player phase in his early twenties, he joined the Radost Folk Ensemble, an Eastern European dance and music troupe in Seattle, and played tambura with them from 1977 to 1984. He was music director for a European tour of the group. He has played in eclectic Middle Eastern groups since 1984 and is currently composing, performing and recording original music in the Greek rebetika style on the bouzouki, tzouras and baglama. ~ Steve Ramsey

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