Customer Reviews

This is Ryan Shaw

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I miss Otis Redding. I miss Wilson Pickett. I miss Sam Cooke. I miss Jackie Wilson and Bobby Womack and Marvin Gaye and the music Stevie Wonder made in the `70s.

And it's not because I'm old.

It's because these guys were gods.

They made music that stopped the room. Unforgettable melodies. Lyrics that got down to the nitty-gritty of love. And voices that broke --- or healed --- your heart.

I ask you: When was the last time you felt anything like that?

Well, now you can.

Ryan Shaw was born in Georgia in 1980. His family was Pentecostal; the church rocked with gospel, and he was in the choir that induced the Spirit. After college, he performed in black musicals, then joined a group that recycled the early days of Motown. He saw the power of mixing gospel with rock and soul, he got discovered, and here he is --- the hottest thing on my iPod and a total throwback.

I'm not kidding. Here's late `50s R&B dance music. And here's a channeling of Stevie Wonder in his prime. And here's a Bobby Womack song ("Lookin' for a Love") that you know because J. Geils knocked it off.

On and on it goes. Nothing sounds new --- even the new songs. And none of it has cheap production gimmicks to freshen it up. The entire CD is just a crisp band and a singer who only knows one trick: to sing each song as if it's his last.

"So many people are searching for something that's true, something that's real," Ryan Shaw says. He's talking about much bigger things, of course. But he could very well be describing the longing for the kind of old-fashioned CD that is his soul-satisfying, five-star debut.

These days it's common to see singers do cover albums of Soul and R&B classics. They usually do a pretty good job, like Seal just did on his "Soul" album, or Human Nature on their 3 Motown tribute albums. But every now and then, comes along somebody who was born to sing soul and R&B music. Ryan Shaw really impressed me with his vocals and his adequacy to this kind of music. This is not entirely a cover album, but better yet, an album that offers new songs with that classic soul flavor. Definately, a must have!

O.k, so everyone is going to label this retro soul and they would be right. Like Amy Winehouse(and me and you), this young cat is obsessed with the classic soul sound of the mid sixties to early seventies and he has beautifully and accurately recreated it here but unlike Miss Winehouse, who is somehow current as well as retro, Mr. Shaw is kind of stuck in a time warp. This is not really a negative, it's just a truthful observation. He recreates an era the way say The Stray Cats recreated rockabilly but didn't really add anything to it but their music was no less enjoyable as a result. Does Ryan's version of I Found A Love top Wilson Pickett's? Not really, but it's still beautiful to listen to.Between Bobby Womack and J. Geils, I've heard Lookin' For A Love a 1,000 times at least, but Ryan's version is so fresh and energetic(as is the whole album) and I can't stop playing it. His original songs sound like classic soul songs and are excellent. I'm not sure why real soul music died in the first place, but artists like this do my heart good by showing me there is hope that real singing and passion just might make a comeback. I mean how did we ever go from Respect and Mr. Big Stuff and slow dancing to Dark End Of The Street and Slip Away to I'm Gonna Kill You And Skeet on Your face? People, please embrace this album and the positivity and true talent that it represents. In the name of James Brown and all things holy, embrace this man's talent and commitment to the music that we need to heal us as a people.

Ryan Shaw has been called by some.."a young Stevie Wonder" but he is much more then that. Having spent more then 32 years in radio and TV I feel Ryan Shaw is the best male soul and R and B performer to come along since the early days of people like Al Green, Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke.Shaw often works as an opening act for another performer but in a recent appearence in Tampa where he was to open for James Hunter they split the four hour bill in half. It was an outside venue and the night time temperature was in the low to middle 30's and not one person left. Most came to see Hunter . Some had never heard of Shaw but at the end of his nearly two hours on stage they wanted more. Ditto for Hunter's performance who is one Shaw's fans. "This Is Ryan Shaw" covers the spectrum of soul and R and B and his take on "I Am Your Man" is truely one of the best renditions ever given that song I give the cd 5 big stars.

This CD may be the best music you have purchased in a number of years. Ryan Shaw sings like no other singer in the business today. He is oringinal and very talented. I purchased this CD about 6 months ago and I am still listening to it every week. I sing along, I dance to it, and I tell everyone I know about it. I saw him live at Summerfest in Milwaukee and this guy is the real thing. Amy Winehouse seems to be the Queen of bringing back the real R & B. Well, I am here to tell you that Ryan Shaw is the King. There is not a lot of great music out there these days, but this CD is great from the first song to the last. Take a chance, you will not be let down.

You'll swear that you're listening to a recording artist from a past era, a really good artist. Ryan Shaw is very talented, versatile and possesses a lot of energy. And when you're listening to this CD, you can absolutely feel his energy, it is contagious. I highly recommend this offering to all music fans who want to be inspired.

Let's be clear: Ryan Shaw and the other musicians on this album seem competent enough, but this material simply doesn't have the warm sweetness or cool cleverness that would whoo typical urban R&B listeners into buying it. I am also confident that it wouldn't inspire too many purchases by soul lovers from my parent's generation either. This album is retro, but not cool retro like the Brand New Heavies; this album is retro in a way that almost makes you thankful that we've moved on.

Ryan Shaw gives us an album that occasionally reminds you of some of the greats, but the production is uncharacteristically thin and there aren't any great hooks. Overall this album isn't likely to provoke repeated listenings by anyone other than those who pine for the return of mid 50's through late 60's soul and R&B music and even then I think it could get boring rather quickly.

Most of the positive reviews of this album that I have found seem to come from middle-aged persons whose listening habits typically revolve around artists such as the Beatles and Eric Clapton. With that said, I think the aforementioned issues may not detract from his fan base the way they would with a more comtemporarily styled R&B artist such as Maxwell or Usher. In fact it's likely to gain him a similar following to artists such Lionel Richie (post-Commodores) or even Tina Turner.

In a nutshell, it is entirely possible that I am just not "seeing the vision", but I believe my tastes are sophisticated enough to tell when I hear an album that still needs work or maybe just an artist that needs another go 'round to tighten things up vocally and instrumentally. I wish Ryan Shaw all the best because I like the concept of what he is trying to do, but this album will not warrant a place my collection anytime soon.

I bought this one on a whim. I wanted to pump up my collection with a sampling of young, new up and coming artists who understand where modern pop and good ol' R.& R. came from. Ryan can sing and with a good control of his range. A few cuts reminded me very much of Jackie Wilson. They made me harken back to the time that I was there at the Latin Casino then operating in Cherry Hill, N.J., now gone. Jackie was on stage in a Dick Clark R & R revival presentation. He goes for the absolute high note in "Higher and Higher", levitates vertically and falls to the floor felled by a stroke. Never to be heard again. When Ryan tries he can re-create Jackie's electric effect. About half of the tracks were overproduced. I'll keep a cut or two on my Ipod.

All the ingredients are here - a very good singer, a lean Memphis Soul-type band, a retro attitude - but this effort falls quite a bit short. Missing is the grit of, say, an Anthony Hamilton. The material, even the handful of originals feels a bit stale (a cover of "Do the 45." Really?) A sweet "Working on a building of love" is an exception; I'd watch for Shaw's next effort, though.