Hurricane's a blowin'. Oh well, that's life in Florida. Hopefully it will miss everything and everyone and peter out in the Atlantic. Peter out Ernesto... no way a hispanic hurricane will peter out. No way... hopefully. Katrina showed us the other side of that coin. In other news... I finished the first installment of "Butch Ryan's Video Diary: The Making of a CD". I edited the footage last week. It shows how drum tracks are "put down". Hopefully someone will enjoy it. I'm waiting for it to go from vhs to dvd and then get "put up" on the website. Hopefully, very soon. (I'm so hopeful these days.) And finally, I was thinkin'. You ever notice how Irish songs sound just like pirate songs? Guess lots of the pirates were Irish. They all talk of women and drinking. Makes sense the Irish outlook would seem similar to "the pirates life for me" thing. I mean every song is about " a beautiful lass and a bottle of wiskey". "Oh, I feel for Fanny McFee/ The wiskey I'm drinkin' makes me pee." Can't you just 'ear it in yer 'ead? C'mon now, Jimmy, can't you 'ear it?
The "green glen" is replaced by "the blue ocean" and vice versa. Aye. Just random, hopeful thoughts. Take care. Later, Butch

The first studio session felt great. I've worked there so many times before. It was like putting on an old favorite pair of jeans. It felt so right, so comfortable. I'm really pleased with the batch of songs, and that's the bottom line. The proof is always in the pudding. If I didn't believe in the material it wouldn't matter how good the studio felt, the overall experience would suffer greatly. Not the case here, thank God. And Woody was unbelievable. (Woody is my drummer and very good long time friend Jeff Wood.) He played like a banchee, 10 tunes down in 5 hours. His hands were actually bleeding. Seems a blister from the last gig popped. He never once bitched, just kept going, really trying to give me and the tunes his best. And he did. He's such a good guy and musician. A true pleasure to have around, another reason for the great experience that was last Friday night. I decided to have footage shot of the whole thing and maybe put out a video diary from time to time on the website showing what goes into the making of a CD (yeah, I shot the bloody hands). I'll keep you posted. Take care. Later, Butch

Seems like old times yet different. I'm back to the studio this week to start a new CD for the first time in almost 3 years. I'll be back at the same studio with the same engineer I've worked with the past 3 CD's. This time though, I won't be totally solo as twice before or with a full band as twice before, but rather a combo of the two. It won't be just me or me and 3 others (is the number 3 my deal today or what? Can I play the lotto Pick One?). Anyway, I'll use all the guys I do live for various songs, plus a few others I think would do the parts well on particular songs. Will it work? Who knows. If not, I'll scratch the idea and either do it solo or pick 3 (there it is again) guys to play all the tunes. No biggie. Time to try something new. I should end up with six or seven total musicians playing on this CD. It's going to be interesting to me to see if Butch Ryan songs sound like Butch Ryan songs regardless of who is playing the music behind the lyrics. If not, not. No biggie, no pressure. Just let the music play. Let see what happens. Take care. Later, Butch

I've taken on many "different" projects over the years: playing an obscure U2 song at the alter during a Methodist/Japanese wedding (bridal party in white face and kimonos), jingle for a sports store, Santa Claus, intro music for a radio show, a Christmas CD, etc., etc. I've written music for someone else's lyrics ("Mona Lisa Marie"), lyrics for someone else's music. My thinking has always been that the challenge of giving the person hiring me what they want would make me a stronger performer and writer. The most recent was very interesting: a dark comedic acoustic tune for an independent film. The character in the song is a "nice" guy who kills people. He's a serial killer who wants his victims to hang on until he's ready to kill them. He wants them to be good sports. Sick stuff but a challenge. Also, funny in a dark way. I was given the title and told to roll. "Don't Die On Me" wrote itself. It came to me so quickly. Five to ten minutes tops. I find myself drawing on my days as an English major in college more and more. I realize now I was given the use of many tools to work with. All those sleepy days of lectures, sleepless nights of writing, and years of making sense of it all have come in handy. Who would've thunk it. Stay in school kids. Take care. Later, Butch

Hello everyone! I know it's been quite a long time. I'm slowly getting back to being a busy musician again... slowly. Gigs are pilling up, and I'm actually starting to work in the recording studio on a new CD later this month. I've also written (and will record this week) an acoustic song for a short independent film out of NYU. It's being filmed here in Tampa. I've got a bit part as well. And even cooler than actually being in the film (bit part plus music video for the acoustic tune under the closing credits), "Worn" from WISHING ON THE STARS might be the song for the opening of the film. I'll keep you posted. As for this blog, an old friend stopped by a recent show and said he missed the blog. I was like, "it got to be too much, the daily thing." He gave me a great suggestion: it doesn't have to be every week day. Maybe once a week. That sounded good and approachable. I know I've probably lost many many readers since I've been off for sooooooo long but today's a start. I'll go at least once a week, if I've got somethin' to say then twice or more. Till then, thanks for reading, and I hope those of you who still check the blog after all this time will find the upcoming blogs interesting and worth the ride. Thanks for stickin' with me. Take care. Later, Butch