In her latest victory, Lisa Ramey drives home with a track that’s as daring as it is unexpectedly beautiful with “Certainly Lord.” The powerhouse-voiced singer demonstrates her remarkable skill at synthesizing vulnerability and ferocity, resulting in a genre-defying single that sounds both holy and wild and completely of her own making. “Certainly Lord” is not your usual soul song or even your typical rock song or gospel moment. It’s all of that and more, and Ramey wears every shift in sound like a crown.
Longing notes draw listeners into a dreamy landscape, where her voice floats with a kind of heavenly ache. There’s a softness in those first few seconds of the opening track that feels sacred, like a prayer being whispered just before the storm. Hear Ramey flip the song into something bigger, louder, and more irresistibly commanding by way of stomping guitar riffs that surge through your speakers like lightning. Her voice, so malleable, is willing to meet the grit behind this with unchallengable conviction. It is in these passages that the real power of “Certainly Lord.” How it bounces from ethereal to explosive while never losing its emotional center.
She doesn’t sing to be heard so much as felt. Whether she’s singing over a spooky chord or belting against a wall of guitars, there’s a sense that every note comes from somewhere deeper, somewhere spiritual, somewhere lived. “Certainly Lord,” respects the old while creating something utterly new. And at the heart of it all, there is Lisa Ramey, standing firm and singing truth in the sort of voice you can’t avoid. In a music scene awash with predictable turns and safe bets, Ramey takes us the scenic route that dips, climbs, and jolts the soul awake. “Certainly Lord” is a statement.