Kid Ramos

David "Kid" Ramos is a blues guitarist born January 13, 1959, in Fullerton, CA (Fullerton is also the birthplace of the Fender Stratocaster guitar). Guitar Player magazine calls Ramos "a guy whose guitar style sounds like a cross between Freddie King, Guitar Slim, Jimmie Vaughan, and T. Bone Walker." Ramos caught the blues bug in his early teens, when his found a copy of B.B. King's "Live At The Regal" in his brother's record collection. His career as a professional musician began in 1980 when he landed a job with James Harman. The Harman band at the time featured a dual lead guitar, allowing Ramos to work with the late Hollywood Fats. Ramos played with Harman until 1988. Kid subsequently worked with Rod Piazza before leaving the music business as the demands of family life took their toll. He resumed his musical career in the mid-1990s, working sporadically with Lynwood Slim and Roomful Of Blues and releasing his first album, 1995's "Two Hands, One Heart", before taking over guitar duties for the Fabulous Thunderbirds - the band, ironically, that first inspired him to pursue a career in blues. His 1999 solo release, the self-titled "Kid Ramos" garnered three W.C. Handy nominations, while his 2000 release "West Coast House Party" picked up two more. Note that last.fm has the "Kid Ramos" album filed under "Greasy Kid Stuff." --------- If David "Kid" Ramos had gone into the family business with his mother and step-father, he might be a professional opera singer today; to the eternal thanks of blues fans around the world, Kid decided to march to a different drummer (who was probably playing a swinging shuffle), and became one of the most exciting, powerful blues guitarists in the business. After first picking up the guitar at age 8, he began playing professionally in his teens. Just a few years later Kid was recruited by the seasoned blues road warrior James "Icepick" Harman, in whose band he shared guitar duties, traded licks, and mastered his craft alongside the late, great guitarist Hollywood Fats for the better part of the 1980s. After taking a few years off from the road to devote to his family, Kid came back with a vengeance in the early '90s, and has only gathered momentum since; after a lengthy stint as the lead guitarist with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, he launched his own solo career, releasing four highly acclaimed CDs to date. Meanwhile, he's continued to work with the cream of the crop of West Coast blues talent on both recordings and on stage, and is a natural fit into the deep and wide talent pool of The Mannish Boys. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.