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| Harris
and Ryden Biography |
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"Well,
I've stood in the doorway of this wanderlust,
Settled down at the crossroad where it's bank or bust…"
--"This Hard Town" |
 The
music of Stephen Harris & Chris Ryden draws
a melodic line nearly the length of the Great
Divide, from the craggy peaks of the Grand Tetons
to the rolling, green Texas Hill Country. Lots
of miles and lots of stories and lots of territory…And
all of it is encapsulated on RUN (Two Mule Records),
the aptly-titled second album from the increasingly
popular duo.
Although they attended the same high school
in San Antonio, Stephen's and Chris' paths did
not cross until after they made parallel sojourns
to cowboy on ranches up in the wilds of northwestern
Wyoming. A tangled skein of circumstance (or
fate, if you believe in that sort of thing)
brought the two together on a rambling roadtrip
to Texas. Discovering a shared love of music-and
a newly-minted affection for Austin-the two
embarked on a musical partnership which has
seen a wildly diverse range of shows- from sharing
the stage with Lyle Lovett to performing at
the ambassador's party at the U.S. embassy in
the Dominican Republic. And, oh yeah, an awful
lot of beer joints, too.
Here To Jackson, their debut album of two years
ago, was a portrait of two singer-songwriters
in transition. "We went into the studio
about four months after putting a band together,"
said Harris. "This was like five months
from the time when we were just two guys on
barstools, playing acoustic guitars" adds
Ryden.
The album established a benchmark for H&R
("Their harmonies break the mold [and]
their music transports you from Wyoming to Texas
within a few notes and leaves you wishing you
were swapping stories around a campfire,"
said one observer). But they soon surpassed
that recording as a live act. Which makes RUN,
in a way, the first full-fledged Harris &
Ryden album. "It seems to us like there
is a big change from the last album to this
one, in the overall sound," observed Ryden.
"But it's a logical progression."
And Harris adds with a smile, "We have
no one to blame but ourselves."
That's not precisely true. RUN was produced
by Merel Bregante, whose landmark work with
Loggins & Messina gave him a few platinum-selling
insights about coaxing the best from a duo of
talented songwriters and musicians. And the
band H&R has assembled makes good use of
some of Austin's most talented young pickers.
The bakers-dozen songs on RUN (including the
inaugural single, "This Hard Town")
flow naturally between Western-flavored rockers,
ballads and story songs that evoke classic high-lonesome
images. Though Ryden cites influences from Mark
Knopfler and Springsteen to Marty Robbins, and
Harris' loyalties hew close to classic Texas
storytellers like Guy Clark and Ray Wylie Hubbard,
their collaborative work owes unclassifiable
and original debts to folk, rock, country, and
the fertile regional gumbo that is "Texas
music."
"(It's) kind of like contemporary country
meets Western or rough-and-tumble Texas music
with polished edges, combined with top-shelf
songwriting," wrote John Goodspeed of the
San Antonio Express-News.
We couldn't have said it better ourselves.
FOR
MORE INFORMATION: Milam & Co., 512-472-3444
or marsha@milamandcompany.com
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