Aloha from Saratoga

A man in Saratoga is following his dream

Story and photos by Tats Kasama

He is dressed in a jumpsuit with elaborate embroideries, and sings in his shows, “Hunka, hunka burning love.” Who is he? 29-year-old Joe Ramsey.

A young truck driver named Elvis Aaron Presley, from Memphis, Tennessee, became a rock star in the 1950s. “It's just a coincidence,” Ramsey says about his being a truck driver, which is the real Presley's former occupation. Fifty years after Presley, Ramsey of Saratoga Springs, New York, is aiming to be a star known to the world for singing Presley's tunes and wearing a lavish jumpsuit in front of the audience.

Ramsey mostly performs in shows around Saratoga and sometimes goes far from there to places such as Wisconsin and Montreal to sing in festivals in tribute to Presley.

Lake George, near Saratoga Springs, has an annual festival called Lake George Elvis Festival. In 2005, Ramsey won second place in the amateur division competition of the festival, and the next year won the amateur championship in 2006. This year, the professional division was divided into two categories depending on Presley's performance features: 1950s/1960s, and 1970s. Ramsey moved up to the professional division and took the third place in the division of the professional 1970s, the so-called “jumpsuit era.”

“I was very, very shy. In school, I wouldn't get in front of people, or in front of acrowd, and I was very quiet.”

Though Ramsey has performed in many shows in the past few years, he was not the kind of person who was likely to do so when he was younger. “I was very, very shy,” he says. “In school, I wouldn't get in front of people, or in front of a crowd, and I was very quiet.” Having been shy in his childhood, no classmates expected he would be on stage and do the shows, according to him. “I didn't even expect that,” he adds.

Though he now enjoys performing, “I get a little nervous before the show,” Ramsey says. “That's why he drinks some beer,” adds Walt Stevens, Ramsey's business partner, with glee.

Ramsey was born in Saratoga on March 27, 1978. Through his father's influence, Ramsey began to like Presley when he was three years old. “My father used to play the 33 (rpm) records,” he says. “That started my attachment to music. The first song I have ever heard, if I remember right, was ‘C.C. Rider' from the last concert that he did.”

Though he was exposed to Presley's music early, it took a while for it to change Ramsey's life. He sang some karaoke songs on stage at Lake George Elvis Festival in 2004, when he was 26. It was not a competition, but just for fun, and he had not yet gotten into impersonating. “I had a cheap, fake imitation jumpsuit on,” he recalls. Terry Collins, who is in charge of the tribute artists for the festival, found Ramsey there. “He heard me singing on the stage, walked over to the stage and said, ‘Hey, you've got unbelievable talent!'” Ramsey competed in the festival in the following year. “In the 2005 Lake George Elvis Festival, people started realizing how good I was, and I realized how much I wanted to be involved."

“People started realizing how good I was, and I realized how much I wanted to be involved."

Stevens describes Ramsey's room as “nothing but Elvis.” Though there are millions of Presley fans around the world, not many of them own jumpsuits, which have become Ramsey's necessary gear. “I like the period from the 1968's ‘Comeback Special' and beyond that jumpsuit era until the last concert before he died (in 1977),” he says.

Ramsey cannot pick his most favorite concert or song to listen to because every song and performance was great, he says. “But the song I enjoy the most when performing is ‘How Great Thou Art (gospel song released in 1967).' That's my song!”

Though not many people may think his face really looks like real Presley's, his singing voice is virtually identical to Presley's. He recorded 20 of Elvis' songs on a CD named “Memories of Elvis” last year. “Close your eyes and listen to his songs, and you'll see Elvis,” says Stevens. Ramsey says vocals is one of the things he cares most about when performing. And because of his pursuit, he knows what actions make him look like the real Presley. “Don't overdo it,” he says. Many impersonators seem to emphasize Presley's characteristic actions, but for Ramsey, those performers are not emphasizing, but overdoing. “It doesn't look natural.”

One night in November 2007, Ramsey was singing in front of about a hundred people at a dinner party. The show was a fundraiser for Saratoga Challengers, and he has often had charity concerts like this. Stevens admires Ramsey's attitude to do whatever he can for people in need. “This gentleman (Ramsey) takes his time out [for them],” Stevens says, “He does everything.” He is sincerely loved and supported by his family and the local community. Many in the Saratoga Challengers seem to know him well. They talk to Ramsey like friends, asking him, “Hi Joe, will you sing a gospel today?” A lady in the audience says with a smile, “I have known him since he was a little boy.”

After his first set, in which Ramsey re-created Presley's earlier years wearing a black shirt and pants and a red scarf, Ramsey said the second set would be his specialty. Stevens emphasized, “He blows everybody away.” When Ramsey, in a black jumpsuit with jewels spangled of course, showed up with “C.C. Rider” for the second set, as Presley used to do, the audience went wild.

His wife, Angela, keeps busily moving around, making sure Ramsey is ready, preparing the guitar, greeting people, and so on. His three-year-old daughter brings some flower necklaces to him, and he gives the leis to some ladies in the audience as Presley used to do. His wife and daughter are not only his family, but also Ramsey's biggest fans. “Joe is a great husband, a great father, and a great performer,” says Angela, who is the manager of his fan club.

Ramsey concludes his message in his fan club flier with “Please ‘Come Follow That Dream With Me,'” which also comes from the title of the film starring Presley “Follow That Dream.” He wants to follow what Presley achieved. “I'd like to be big, and I'd like to be known all over the world,” he says. “Even if I do not make it all over the world, at least all over the country.”

What is your favorite song?