Music Nation is a Music Video Competition for Independent Artists

Real ROCK from the Country!!! Let's Kickit Ya'll !! Ryan “Ryano” Reynolds Like a freight train running full steam a head out of the depths of the Deep South comes the hurling Ryano, swinging his guitar like a horn—by the people: for the people. Ryan “Ryano” Reynolds finds his roots deep in the heart of Texas where his mother was a runner up in the Miss Texas Pageant and his father on the mound pitching for the California Angels on the day that he was born. He was an early bird about 2 months already weighing 7.9 lbs. Ryan loves to recall his Daddy’s tale of the Angel’s scoreboard flashing his weight and measurements in bright lights right in the middle of his Angel’s game. He was named after his father’s friend, Nolan Ryan, and his family’s roots are as far back from the Boston Tea Party through the Alamo right on up to the Civil War. As a little boy, Ryano recalls his first early memory of music when he talks about how proud he was of his mamma in her beautiful choir robe watching her from the pews of the old church his family attended as she walked in front of the congregation. What ever she sang she would “Rock the halls of Heaven”. She was his inspiration then and the reason he came back to music today. Then, at 10 years old, he heard Lacey J. Dalton sing “16th Avenue”; he was hooked. Little did he know then that the song was about Nashville’s Music Row. His destiny was set. Growing up blue collar on the family ranch, Ryano’s grandfather was both a rancher and a fire chief. Living was hard but it made a person appreciate life. Growing up, he did a little boxing and had a walk on offer to play college football for the University of Nebraska as a defensive end. His other passion was “Bull Doggin” ( rodeo steer wrestling) in high school. But looking back on his childhood, the seed of music has always been planted throughout his life—it’s something he felt he was just simply meant to do. The Opry circuit in East Texas knew well of Ryan Reynolds when he was 17 and by the age of 19, he had a full-fledged traveling band that played all of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and parts of Oklahoma. It wasn’t long until he had done all he could do there that he starting hearing the call of Nashville. In 1993, he moved not far from Music Row and took a job as a " rod buster" on a bridge crew. Ryano spent about a year getting settled around Nashville then slowly started networking and co-writing on the country music scene. January of 1995 was Ryano’s bench mark of one year to get things started in his music career and 6 months later he landed his first publishing deal with Don Shlitz who had such hits a “The Gambler”, “Forever & Ever Amen” and “River and the Highway”. The two struck up an appreciation for each other and started to co write together. One year later he had his first cut by Rich McCready “ Most Likely to Succeed" on Magnatone Records. Since that time, he has co-written with such greats as Harlan Howard; Melba Montgomery; Billy Yates; Charlie Daniels; Vern Gosden; LeeAnne Womack; Bigg Kenny (of Bigg & Rich); Tim Mensy; Jamie Ohara; Lisa Brokop; Kerry Kurt Phillips; Ira Dean (of Trick Pony) Brian Dean Maher; Aimee Mayo; Bob Regan; Bill Luther; Josh Kear; Dean Sams (of Lone Star) and the list goes on. Ryano received his first record deal in 1996 to which he made an album he was truly proud of on Imprint Records. Imprint released the single “Do I ever Cross Your Mind” during the Monday Night feature of Indie Artist releases hoping to get added on to the play list. It came to no surprise to anyone at Imprint that the single (out of thousands of hopefuls) came in third right behind Alan Jackson and John Anderson across the nation. The video of the release began its 8 week run as the "Hotshot" video for 8 weeks on CMT, however, 6 days after the single was released and in spite of what Ryano had achieved, the label folded and closed its doors. The single was pulled from the stations, though many continued to play it anyway. The video continued to play on CMT but without a record deal, the ratings played out. Ryano went from there to Rising Tide but before he could go all the way there, the label was reabsorbed by MCA and shelved all the new projects. So Ryano did what he does best. He started playing live! Ryano scheduled two showcases in Nashville and he remembers looking out in the audience to see about 8 record label presidents all sitting in the same room. In the music business, you NEVER see that many presidents sitting in a room altogether unless it’s an award show. Ryano says he’s never seen a sight like that before nor has he since. After the showcase, Capitol Records stepped up to the plate and the process of getting a new deal was underway. But as tragedy would have it, it was during the time that Garth Brooks had his infamous “tantrum” and Ryano became yet, another casualty along with Deanna Carter and Julie Reeves. Virgin Records followed him 8 months later, but by that time, Ryano had enough of what he calls “the monkeys running the zoo” and turned down the offer to meet. Through all of this, he had a string of cuts with “Cowboy Up”, the official Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Album on Edel America Records; “Scrap piece of Paper” by Paul Brandt on Warner Brothers “I'd Like to see you Try”( SOCAN Song of the year 2002) by Lisa Brokop an Indie Artist ; “Whiskey & Wine” by Lisa Brokop ( Also nominated in 2003), Gill Grand with “Run”. The last three cuts made it to the Top 10 in Canada and the CMT Canada announced that “Run” was nominated for Video of the Year and “Whisky & Wine” for Song of the Year for 2002. By that time, however, Ryano was totally turned off by the reception he received in Nashville so he took a job where no one would recognize him and he went to work in a produce warehouse . He didn’t even watch the CMT Awards Show that year. During the years of 2001 and 2002, Ryano no longer played at any venue and had not even picked up a guitar in over a year. This was the time he had begun to loose the old ones in his family. He had 9 funerals to go to in 2 years time and he would say under his breath “I’m sorry for the time I lost with you.” The final straw came for him when his Mother, who had inspired him to sing, was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. He no longer dreamt about music or wrote a lick. He only focused on the little time left with the ones he loved. Then in October of 2003 he received a very strange phone call that changed everything. The voice on the message said her name was Megan Kaiser with the Boston Red Sox and she was looking for Ryano. As it turned out, his song “Cowboy Up” had become the rally song for the team and The City of Boston. To Ryano’s surprise, she was wondering if he could come up to Boston to make a personal appearance to sing that song at Fenway Park and to his chagrined, he replied he didn’t do that sort of thing anymore. Later on that day, he had talked to his dad over the phone who, tried to encourage his son to go yet with every encouragement, he was met with every obstacle under the sun from Ryano. Finally, his dad told him that the night his song “Whiskey & Wine” was up for the CMT award, his Mother got out of bed in her jammies and sat in front of the TV to watch the show. It was then that Ryano realized how important music was in his family. His dad continued to tell him that even though she had just come from a chemo treatment and was extremely ill, at that very moment when his song was being sung by Lisa Brokop, Ryano’s Momma wasn’t sick anymore, she glowed. Ryano hauled ass to make one final phone call and Megan Kaiser sent 4 plane tickets. Ryano & his family (with momma) were headed up to Boston so that Ryano’s Momma could watch her baby son walk out on that pitcher’s mound and to see him sing in front of 45,000 screaming fans. His Mother had been given a 15% chance of making it through the next two years but we are happy to report however, she is still with him today. That’s when Ryano fell in love with music, all over again, and began to understand the healing power his music had in his personal life. The following season he wrote and produced an entire arena rock album called "The Sound Of Fenway". The Boston Sox sold it online and at the park during games. Ryano even put a band together and spent all his time writing for the project. The band called "Abel Kane" sprang out from 2004 until spring of 2008. They tracked 18 songs and traveled from Boston to Phoenix playing festivals, fairs and bike rallies. After a major disagreement between band members, Abel Kane disbanded which left Ryano to make some hard decisions pertaining to his music career. Now, more than ever, Ryano stands alone perpetuating his love for people and his music. He vows never to let the “music biz” get between him and the people he loves and those he loves to play for. He wants to give folks a choice in music: one that sets the standard for high energy and poetically real live shows. Ryano is writing music that hard working people, no matter what side of life they reside from, can relate to. He’s back-hills country laced with an edgy rock sound. His music is what he is: a person who has loved, lost and found himself again in the journey called life. In every face that looks up at him from the crowd, he sees himself and as he is looking back, he hopes they see some of themselves in him. He openly displays the real person he is and the influence music has made in his life. This time, the music is truly by the people, for the people!