Mason Ramsey doesn't even remember why he was at Walmart on that fateful day in March 2018. And due to his family's lack of internet at home, he didn't even know his yodeling had made him an overnight sensation until calls from "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and the like began rolling in a week later.
But while his nasally, high-pitched yodels are what first brought him attention, it's his old-soul sensibility and silky voice that have proved he's anything but a fluke or one-trick pony. With his debut album, I'll See You In My Dreams, Ramsey shows that he's a true star in the making and a force to be reckoned with for years to come.
The album marks the latest chapter in the singer's journey to carve out a music career from his viral moment, which has gone on to make fans out of everyone from Lana Del Rey and Zach Bryan — who welcomed Ramsey on stage this past June at Boston's Fenway Park and last summer in Tulsa for a coveted guest role on "Revival," respectively — to Lil Nas X. The latter culminated in a star-studded performance of their "Old Town Road" remix together with Billy Ray Cyrus, BTS, Diplo, and Nas at the 2020 GRAMMYs, a moment that Ramsey still considers one of his biggest milestones to date.
"It's been a whirlwind of a ride for me, the past six years," Ramsey tells GRAMMY.com. "You know, some people would say it doesn't feel real sometimes, but how I keep myself in a balanced mind is, stay humble, stay grounded, and remember where you came from. And sometimes I'll go back home to keep me in that mindset."
That steadfast approach and passion for music was instilled in Ramsey by his grandparents, who raised him in the tiny Illinois town of Golconda. He heard his first Hank Williams cut as a toddler and was instantly hooked. "I started to pick up the words on certain songs like 'Your Cheatin' Heart' and 'I Saw The Light' before I could talk," Ramsey recalls.
By age 5, he was singing in front of paid audiences everywhere from local nursing homes to festivals to — you guessed it — grocery stores.
Those performances persisted for years until a video of Ramsey singing Williams' "Lovesick Blues" in an aisle at his hometown Walmart broke the internet in 2018, changing the youngster's trajectory forever — and leading those local gigs to cease due to strangers consistently recognizing him in public. "I could get kidnapped. Something bad could happen, you never know," Ramsey jokingly told Billboard in 2018.
But he certainly didn't stop performing. In fact, along with his appearances on "Ellen" and the GRAMMYs, he graced the stage at Coachella and Stagecoach festivals and performed at the Grand Ole Opry eight times within his first year of fame.
Despite the unexpected way his musical aspirations came to fruition, Ramsey, now 17, insists that his rapid rise to fame was never all that overwhelming.
"We didn't treat it any differently than we'd been doing before," Ramsey says of his approach to post-virality stardom. "I just thought of it as me always doing what I love to do… and performing and inspiring people to do what I do. We just looked at it as the next step in life for me."
After signing with Atlantic Records in April 2018 — becoming the youngest country singer to sign to a major label in almost two decades — the then-11-year-old delivered his first EP, Famous, three months later. Another EP, Twang, followed in 2019 and spawned another viral trend on TikTok with its title track, which Ramsey even played into that March, recording a reel of himself dancing to it — outside of a Walmart, of course.
He took a break from music in 2021 and 2022, taking the time to, well, simply be a teenager; he worked at his family's sandwich shop (which had its own viral moment), fixed up his 1968 Chevy K10, and attended prom. All the while, Ramsey honed "what I really wanted to say with my music," as he said in a statement upon announcing his 2023 EP, Falls Into Place, and engaged with his millions of followers online — the latter of which has become one of the main keys to his continued success in 2024.
While many of his fans first began following him for his music, it's Ramsey's playful and self-deprecating humor (like his response to his sandwich shop job: "don't knock the hustle y'all") that has kept them around and begging for more. And since the release of Falls Into Place — on which he co-wrote four of the five tracks — he's continuing to prove his prowess as a singer/songwriter, too.
Ramsey co-wrote all 14 tracks on I'll See You In My Dreams, crafting a timeless, bluesy country sound that feels like it was plucked straight out of the 1960s. Of course, he's still only 17, which is reflected in the album's lighthearted tales about the importance of family and navigating young love, like the rizz-fueled "Prettiest Girl At The Dance" ("I ain't the jealous type/ But seeing you tonight/ Makes me feel all kinds of ways").
"I wanted my songs to be more relatable, and being a writer on a song, and putting my words in it instead of singing songs that someone else has written for me [is the best way to do that]," Ramsey says. "I feel like I can relate to the songs more, and the audience can relate to me more."
Yet, his old-school influences — as well as a post-puberty tone — help Ramsey deliver such tunes with a maturity beyond his years. It makes appearances on numbers like the somber heartbreak ballad "Blue Over You" (the song that caught Lana Del Rey's attention) or the reassuring "Something You Can Hold" feel like they're being sung by a seasoned vet rather than someone who only recently became old enough to drive.
While the record also takes forays into Tejano territory ("The Woman From Havana"), jazz ("Lies, Lies, Lies"), gospel ("Joy") and rock 'n' roll ("Trouble Is"), it finds comfort most in the country sound that was so instrumental in setting Ramsey down his current path. And through it all, he reminds that wherever fame may take him, he's still the small-town boy from Golconda. "No matter how far they roam or where they go/ They always go back to the place they know," he assures on the waltzing "Cowboys Always Come Home"; on the crooner "Family Pictures," he sings, "Some are here and some long gone/ And some didn't stay for too long/ I'm carrying their memory in the pocket of my jeans/ So they'll always be close to me."
Equipped with a lot to say and a lifetime ahead of him to say it, Ramsey has big plans for how he'd like his music career to pan out. As he headlines his own tour of intimate venues around North America this fall — his second headlining trek of 2024 — he's already envisioning his own arena and stadium tours in the years to come. It's no doubt a lofty goal, but he's already defied expectations of viral fame, so who's to say it can't be done?
"I really love being in front of fans — or just people in general, especially other artists. There's just an energy spike I get from it," Ramsey says. "Being in front of a new audience and showing them what I can do, it means a lot."