It’s no real secret that I’m a big fan of “The Voice” on NBC. It matters not what the contestants look like because they are chosen by the coaches for their singing abilities, period. Having seen each and every season over the series’ run, it’s always neat when I can actually chat with someone I’ve seen perform in the competition. Back in July of last year, I interviewed Sarah Grace — a semi-finalist on that show — and this time around, I had the pleasure of receiving a phone call from Lisa Ramey, who was on Season 16 and made it to the Live Playoffs, she called from her home in New York City.

Ramey: Hi, Lucky, this is Lisa Ramey. How are you doing?

Q: Doing okay, but I’m not crazy about this new “normal,” truth be told — it’s weird.
Ramey: Yeah, it really is but you’ve got to do your best, right?

Q: Well, from what I’ve heard, you’re trying to brighten up the situation with some online performances.
Ramey: I am trying (laughter), for sure.

Q: Before we go any further, it’s full-discloser time — I’m a big fan of “The Voice” and have been watching it since it began. It blows “American Idol” out of the water.
Ramey: I agree, I’m really happy that I got to do that one.

Q: You were on Team John — it must’ve been something working with Mr. Legend.
Ramey: Yeah, it was amazing. I tell everyone that he is the sun and you wanted to stay close to him to catch rays.

Q: Now, I’ve also heard that you have an album that just came out called “Surrender,” is this your first CD?
Ramey: “Surrender” is my very first album, yes. I’ve released other things but they’ve just been EPs and random singles and things like that, but this is my first full-length album.

Q: As far as the live-streaming concerts go, you just did one recently, right?
Ramey: I did, on Facebook, yes.

Q: Do you have any other ones planned coming up?
Ramey: Very soon. I’m going to be doing one with “The Voice” — for their casting teams, which I obviously know really well (chuckle). They are using this time to get a lot of their other singers known — to keep them from being too nervous to like come back and do performances, and so they asked me to do one coming up — I’m really excited about that.

Q: Now, are you doing anything else with the Facebook live?
Ramey: I hope so. Everybody is kind of adjusting and figuring out their next move. I think right now is a really good time to have footage already saying, “I’ve already done it” and can go from here because there’s a lot of us who are not prepared to broadcast live for the whole world to see from our homes. There’s the lighting and the sound quality that comes with that but I’ve got a leg up and I’m prepared…I’m really excited that I’ve been doing some things kind of right off the bat.

Q: When you perform from home do you have backing tracks to accompany your lead vocals?
Ramey: Yeah, that’s how it works and seeing I was preparing for a live show — before the coronavirus broke — we had all of that in place. When we couldn’t do the concert we had planned we took my tracks and made them sound good when you’re streaming then through a computer. But, personally, I’d rather be playing with musicians … I like to get the energy from everybody on the stage and now it’s just me — and the tracks.

Q: I would imagine that it also must be hard not getting feedback from you’re online audience, in a live concert you can tell immediately how they feel and feed off their energy.
Ramey: Oh, it’s really weird. I mean, when you’re on stage and performing you are loaded with energy to give out to the audience, but when you’re in the room with one other person —who’s running the camera — and you finish the song and throw out all your energy and it bounces right back at you … there’s dead silence because you’re alone in the room and there’s no one to give it to. I know there’s a camera there and that people are watching buy you can’t feel that, you know?

Q: I do — I can empathize. Just out of curiosity, have you ever performed in Maine before?
Ramey: No, I never have, but I traveled through Maine on 95 to get to St. Andrews-by-the-Sea in New Brunswick for their benefit concert. But I’d love to come back to perform in Maine … and when all this COVID-19 is said and done, I’ll go anywhere, honey — anywhere!

Lucky Clark has spent over 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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