Ramsey, Andrea: Lineage

Margaret Walker's text leaps off the musical page as words crying to be sung. “My grandmothers were strong. They followed plows and bent to toil.” This was not frailty - this was determined womanhood. Ramsey's music is almost “bluesy”. Not bluesy in the commercial sense, but in the heart and gut sense. Percussion is added to enhance the primitive, organic framework around which the piece is constructed.