Whether it has been 7 or 5 years in the making, I’m not quite sure. What I do know is that the long-awaited solo album I’ve been writing for and working on (or in reality, not really working on) for more than half a decade is actually moving forward.

 

 

So, what have I been up to since then? I’ve written about 26 songs that have enjoyed some serious playing time around my Oakland music venue of choice: my living room. This past summer I recorded a lengthy demo of all of these songs pulling together whatever instruments I could in order to illustrate the other sounds I heard in the songs besides guitar and vocal. The result was a home-kitchen tinkering project featuring an all-Ryan band with vocals, guitar, keyboards (1992 Casio from my grandma), glockenspiel, harmonica, hand claps and, of course, a water glass. I’m not sure how much water it was, but I prefer to play Turkish water glasses from Ikea.

 

I gave the demo to Boone Spooner in late October and we’ve been working with each other to narrow down the choice of songs. I added in a small demo from some recordings I made from my Seattle apartment in 2003 and also included some songs from the King Nine sessions in Walnut Creek (also 2003). The candidates are shaping up like this:

 

To My Son/Daughter, Horatio Alger (pt. 1)

Oakland

Weathervane

Just to Meet You

The Biggest House I’ve Ever Seen

Oh Boy, Ani

Time Never Knocks

I’m Too Young To Feel Like Me

Trouble

Nobody Stopping You

To My Son/Daughter, Horatio Alger (pt. 2)

Friday

Hold My Head Up

Headlights

 

We’ll narrow that list down depending on what sounds good and what doesn’t. The album will probably be named what I’ve been thinking it would be named for about 6 years now: To My Son/Daughter, Horatio Alger.

 

Onward and upward! Wish me luck.

 

R