Scott Ryan: Tree Man EP

photo: Laurel Daily

Scott Ryan is on the fence. On the one hand he is just another singer-songwriter who is in touch with his feelings, but his more interesting songs are hugely inspired by the Talking Heads. This unevenness is evident on the 5 tracks of his Tree Man EP. Three of them are acoustic, adequate songs, and two of them are upbeat and quirky - especially Houndstooth Coat that contains more than a few Life During Wartime references. Color Me In is a New Wave stomper with a powerful acoustic rhythm guitar mixed with Tom Verlaine electric guitar lines. The best acoustic song is Tree Man with an old school West Coast melody and swooshes of laptop noodling.

He should listen to Jim White and Pere Ubu if he should decide to go further down the road of adventurous singer-songwritership.

Scott Ryan: vocals, guitars, keyboards, mandolin, bass, drums, programming
Caleb Ingersoll: drums, vocals, guitar
Brandon Shaw: Bass
Jeremy Berk: guitar, banjo, keyboards, vocals
Peter Dyer: keyboards
Robert C.E. Delong: drums, synthesizers, sequencing

The Tree Man EP is a released through Oliver Queen Music. Buy it from the band's CDBaby.

Tracks:

1. Tree Man
2. Color Me In
3. Vanishing
4. Houndstooth Coat
5. Crow's Feet

Live dates:

• 10/20 The Lounge Theater, ’Consuming the Arts’ Performance, Hollywood, CA
• 11/21 Gypsy Den (w/ Karli Fairbanks), Santa Ana, CA

» scottryanmusic.com
» myspace.com/scottryan