Yolando Ramsey, affectionately known as “Yoyo,” was born into the Jewell Dominion Sacred Steel Tradition in Toledo, Ohio. He was born to the union of Sumrow and Doris (Shaw) Ramsey March 3, 1959.

He began playing the Hawaiian guitar at the age of seven years old. Yoyo was about nine years of age when he began playing in actual church services. His influences were Lorenzo Harrison, Wayne White, Felton Williams Jr., and Mordecai Brownlee. Clifford L. Warren taught Yoyo his first two or three tunes on the steel guitar, and he caught on from there.

Around 1973, his parents split off from the Jewell Dominion church to follow Bishop Henry H. Brownlee, founder of the Soul City House of God International. Yoyo began to flourish as a gifted and innovative steel player as he traveled the country with Bishop Brownlee, setting up churches across the United States. Yolando Ramsey was inducted into the 2017 Sacred Steel Hall of Fame.