In March 2018, a video of then-11-year-old Mason Ramsey yodeling Hank Williams' "Lovesick Blues" in a Harrisburg, Ill. Walmart went viral. Ramsey transcended being a human meme quickly, appearing on The Ellen Degeneres Show, debuting on the Grand Ole Opry stage, signing with Big Loud and Atlantic Records and scoring a Top 5 country hit with Tyler Hubbard co-write "Famous" before the end of April. Public interest in Ramsey that spring led to a massive spike in streams for Williams' music, as well. Opportunities that followed for Ramsey ranged from a feature on Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus' "Old Town Road" remix to a 2020 Burger King commercial on which he yodels about cow farts and burps.
At age 16, Ramsey puts the pluses and minuses of sudden fame at such a young age in perspective with "All I Wanna Be," a song off his new Falls Into Place EP. It's about shedding expectations to be a glorified Williams tribute act and earning respect for the creative voice he's developed back home in Illinois.
"That song talks about how I was branded as the yodel kid and really just trying to get my message out that I didn't want to be known as that anymore," Ramsey told Wide Open Country. "I wanted to be Mason Ramsey, who I am."
The pandemic postponed Ramsey's next career move. Since then, he's entered high school, worked his first job as a Subway sandwich artist, held a fan contest to land him as a homecoming dance date, improved his jump shot on the basketball court, learned to drive, repaired his first truck and generally lived a typical teenage life.
"Over the time of COVID, one of the things that I got down very well was songwriting because I had been practicing and had a lot of ideas for what I wanted to write about," Ramsey explained.
Ramsey has lived with his paternal grandparents, Ernest and Frances Ramsey, in the tiny community of Golconda, Ill. ever since he was three weeks old. Missing them while he's away for tour or to promote his new music inspired EP closer "Reasons to Come Home."
'I was thinking about my grandparents a lot because they couldn't travel on the road with me most of the time I was busy because I had band members that had to go on the bus," Ramsey explained. "Over the time that I was very busy, I felt a little homesick. So whenever COVID happened, I had a few things to write about, and I went to a writing session and I put those things down on paper."
Ramsey's viral moment put him in a box; or as he puts it in "Who I Wanna Be," "they branded me like a patch on some Wrangler jeans." Yet a level of instant notoriety that's sought by untold numbers of TikTok users and singing competition series hopefuls wasn't a total curse. If anything, it established him right out the gate as a gifted vocalist with an affinity for the classics and a natural charisma that stopped shopper's buggies in their tracks— gifts he'd shared in public since age 4. Now, with a little distance from his initial fame and a lot more to say, Ramsey's prepared to share those talents on his own terms.
"I understand that people are going to call me the yodel kid or whatnot because that's obviously what I was known for, but I feel like as I keep writing songs and the older I get, they'll see me differently," he added.
