The Griffon News

St. Joseph resident Miles Ramsay, also known as The Alcoholic Freshman, is anything but a conventional performer.

The Alcoholic Freshman was contrived as Ramsay’s former band, Stereo 7, slowly began to disintegrate around him. In the year since his first show under The Alcoholic Freshman name, Ramsay has played 56 shows in cities ranging from Elwood, Kan. to St. Petersburg, Fla. He has recorded a Ska CD, “Sick of Depending on People” and maintains an inventory of t-shirts, buttons, patches and stickers. What makes him such a unique act? He does it all on his own.

If you were to listen to this St. Joseph resident’s CD without any knowledge of his performance, you would never know that all the music on that CD was produced by a single man – all the vocals and all of the instruments.

“I just recorded everything in my bedroom at my house,” Ramsay said.

For his live performances, Ramsay simply plugs in his iPod and sings along to the master recordings.

“The biggest challenge is having people take me serious,” he said. “Whenever you say ‘I’m going to run around and sing along to an iPod,’ people are going to go ‘Oh, sorry, we’re all full that day. We can’t help you.’ It’s always tough to break through that and actually get to the place to play and show them what you actually do.”

But playing off his iPod has not stopped Ramsay from earning the respect of fans and even allowing him to win a Battle of the Bands competition in Ogden, Utah.

“That show was awful.” Ramsay recalled. “They had a really good turnout. The kids were really cool, but they had this sound system, and it wasn’t a real sound system. It was a karaoke system.”

Despite the horrible acoustics produced from the mock PA system in a high school gymnasium, The Alcoholic Freshman walked away victorious.

Missouri Western sophomore Alysa Pike has attended several of Ramsay’s local shows.

“They’re fun; he runs around, makes people sing when they don’t know the words. He’s fun,” she said.

Ramsay uses the online resource MySpace to post tour dates and pictures and communicate with fans. He has a CD out, “Sick of Depending on People.”

“The people that have been supporting me since the beginning are very, very important to me,” Ramsay said. “It’s a huge deal to me.”

Pike said that MySpace is a big part of the St. Joseph music scene and that the demographics are changing some, too.

“There’s a lot younger kids that come now,” Pike said. “Right now there are a couple of bars that people can play at.”

But since most bars are 18-andover establishments, some youth are not allowed to attend.

“Right now there’s no stable venue, an all-ages venue, for the kids to come out to, so we throw shows in the basements of churches and in parks,” Ramsay said. “Overall the youth are very supportive if they have some place to support you at.”

In the near future Ramsay hopes to open another music venue similar to his previous attempt, The Dojo, which closed down several months ago. His next show will be on Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. in Leavenworth, Kan. At the Groundworks Coffee House.