CSP Records
Signs Massachusetts-Based Singer Janet Ryan and Will Release Her New CD, Mama
Soul, on April 16
DALLAS, TX – Texas-based CSP Records has announced the
signing of soul/blues singer Janet Ryan and will release her label debut CD,
Mama Soul, on April 16. Ryan will kick off her tour in support of
the new album with a special show on April 18 at Theodore’s Booze, Blues and BBQ
in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Mama Soul showcases Janet Ryan’s powerfully
soulful voice on a “baker’s dozen” 13 tracks of mostly original material, along
with her unique take on the Sippie Wallace blues chestnut, “Women Be Wise.” The
majority of the new CD was recorded at Audio Dallas Recording Studio in Garland,
Texas, and produced by Jimmy Rogers and Paul Osborn; with two songs recorded at
The Tone Zone in Holyoke, Massachusetts and produced by Ryan. The sessions
feature Ryan supported by her long-time backing group, The Straight Up Band, as
well as by members of the former Dallas-based outfit, Crosscut.
“The tracks on Mama Soul are an interesting
marriage of many songs that we’ve road-tested and have become
live-show favorites, such as “Take Your Shoes Off” and “Tired of Talking,” along
with a batch of new tunes that I was really excited to record,” says Ryan about
the sessions.
Janet Ryan’s amazing voice has its beginnings in New England,
where she grew up and at age 16 was actually a member of a choir group that
backed up immortal jazz giant Duke Ellington at one of the “sacred concerts” he
performed in Connecticut during his later years. She moved to Chicago at 19 to
go to school, but soon discovered all the wonderful blues clubs and lounges on
the north side of the Windy City and really got her “education” singing in
various bands around town. Over the years there, her “teachers” included people
like Koko Taylor, Magic Slim and Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows, in classrooms
such as Biddy Mulligan’s, Kingston Mines and other legendary blues joints in the
city.
Janet moved back east in 1989 to be closer to her family and
lived in several New England states before finally settling in Western
Massachusetts near Springfield. As she began to tour again in the northeast, her
reputation as a powerfully soulful singer and crowd-pleasing performer grew with
shows in venues throughout New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and her home state.
Several festival performances helped fuel the fire, as audiences raved about
Ryan and The Straight Up Band’s high energy blues shows.
Ryan’s voice blends the wailing sound of the blues with the
deeply soulful internalized grit of rhythm and blues to form a potent
combination. Her influences include everyone from Etta James, Aretha Franklin
and Janis Joplin, to Otis Redding, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. She’s performed
with the likes of John Hammond, Guitar Shorty, James Cotton, Solomon Burke
Johnny Winter, Dickey Betts and The Blind Boys of Alabama, to name but a
few.
Although live performing is still a viable love of hers, in
recent years Janet has transmitted her passion by instructing children about the
joys of music, becoming a music teacher at two elementary schools in her area
and also becoming a director of vocal music studies at a local school.
While she continued to perform locally, Janet was not
pursuing a recording deal when an out-of-the-blue encounter through a
performance in a film documentary caught the ears of Jimmy and Connie Rogers,
owners of CSP Records in Texas, who heard her sing a snippet of a song she had
written. As a result Janet Ryan flew down to Dallas in August of 2012 and began
recording the sessions that would become Mama Soul.
“I had just about given up on the music business,” remembers
Ryan, “when this opportunity came out of nowhere that seemed like a sign that I
still had more songs to sing. It’s been the biggest surprise of my
life.”
Fans of blues and soul music are in for a very pleasant
surprise of their own when they hear the music on Mama
Soul.
