A Night Of Stories, Songs & Brilliant Mumbling: In-The-Round w/ Matthew Ryan + Justin Jones + Luke Brindley + Laura Tsaggaris

Matthew Ryan's In the Dusk of Everything marks a distilled reclamation of his more primal Americana/Folk roots.  With the bluntness of punk and the evocative rhythm of poetry his lyricism shines amongst these twelve deceptively simple songs of perseverance and closure via a clarity that operates in layers amid a world of struggle, beauty and sublime epiphany. The timelessly modern and spare qualities of these songs move with an earthy cinema with Ryan’s vocals front and center, while the music ebbs and flows like stark scenery in a grainy but saturated film. 

Over the years Ryan has been celebrated for his poetic lyricism. But as his career has continued to progress it’s become increasingly clear that there’s a stubborn compass at play here as well. His work challenges listeners in so many ways, always cutting to the bone with a rare honesty that isn’t prone to offer easy answers. And sonically, his production choices have followed suit, it’s as if his voice and words offers the scene while the music offers the weather. But you never get the sense that these are acts of boredom, he seems to be constantly searching for something, trying to define the shape of his elusive muse. After 2000’s East Autumn Grin (A love letter to his mutual affection of The Replacements and The Waterboys), he moved into a space that might best be described as folktronica with 2003’s Regret Over the Wires and 2005’s Strays Don’t Sleep (a collaboration with Neilson Hubbard that contained the Ryan penned For Blue Skies, his closest thing to a “hit”). These records were intoxicating blends of genre with an emotionally complex interplay between slick beats, layered soundscapes and the gruff confessions of Ryan’s voice and lyrics. Later he followed with Dear Lover (a standout among his more experimental efforts) and its accompanying acoustic version where the songs were stripped down and presented in their bare form without the embellishments of big guitars, drum machines and dense atmospherics. That nakedness and vulnerability of Dear Lover (The Acoustic Version) is now revisited and improved upon with the analog 2 inch tape recording of the minimalist folk on In the Dusk of Everything.

In many ways, In the Dusk of Everything brings Matthew Ryan to a moment of fully realized vision.  He has returned to his creative origin by collaborating again with Producer David Ricketts, who was behind the board for his debut May Day. Ryan offers, “We were looking to create a very wide but honest music here. Sonically, I wanted to define a space between American Folk Music, Neil Young and say the ambient minimalism of Brian Eno and Arvo Part.” What Dusk is is a folky mood record that distills the universal story of two people seeking redemptive shelter amid the violence, beauty and uncertainty that life brings. Filmic and spare it moves with that always fascinating voice that just keeps imploring listeners to walk with him into ever stranger and more compellingly honest spaces. It’s not as brawling and bruising on In the Dusk of Everything as it was on May Day.   The air on this 2012 release is more sublime, but inevitably these songs bear witness to an artist that continues to evolve, search and deliver stories that become more articulate and focused with each passing year.

More Info/Advance Tickets: https://jamminjava.com/events/a-night-of-stories-songs-brilliant-and-mumbling-in-the-round