RyanHood Debut at Annual Summer Street Performer’s Festival in Boston’s Quincy Market
Writer/Producer Bill Flanagan
of MTV/VH1 wrote a superb novel four years ago called A & R. Somewhere in the
narrative one of the primary characters conveys the cyclical nature of musical
trends, his point being that past musical styles are usually modernized and
presented again, but by young artists.
The way he puts it, “The public doesn’t want some old white-haired guy
with a mustache who looks like he escaped from the farmer’s market. They can get this kind of music from the old
artists they love or they can get it from good-looking young acts.” It sounds awful, but in fact may be the
horrible truth.
Ryan Green initially
described RyanHood’s music to AUI as “Simon & Garfunkel
meets Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds.”
S & G = last generation; M & R = new generation. Ryan Green and Cameron Hood, known
collectively as RyanHood, vocalize harmonically in the S & G style, but
play instrumentally more like M & R. It’s an updated take on a musical style still
very appealing to middle-aged listeners, but Ryan and Cameron present it in an
electrified fashion that makes it fashionable for the youngest of listeners as
well.
RyanHood made their debut
this Memorial Day Weekend at the summer-long Street Performer’s Festival at the
Faneuil Hall/Quincy Marketplace. Despite
what I previously wrote about the Marketplace, it is a major attraction in
The daunting task for the
performers is to entice passers-by to stop and pay attention to them. This can be an overwhelming chore for the
musical performers, who must compete with various magicians, jugglers, and
acrobatic acts that are very popular and well established in this series. Typically it is they who draw the largest and
most enthusiastic crowds.
Musical performers can’t
compete effectively unless their music is very good, accessible, and relevant
to as many onlookers as possible.
Uniqueness in itself isn’t adequate; many of the musical performers are
outright eccentric, and come off as oddities which make them interesting to hear
and watch for a short period of time but usually fail to keep people’s
attention for too long. In addition,
musical performers MUST interact with the crowd between musical selections in a
manner comparable to the magicians, jugglers, and acrobat barkers, who
integrate sharp and quick impromptu comedic wit in their act. Most of the performers are seasoned pros,
having performed in the series for several years.
I’m happy to report that Ryan
and Cameron were phenomenally successful in drawing crowds AND retaining
them. The attraction began immediately
upon beginning their sets. They’re good
looking; they dress well; their act is more visually alluring than the mostly
solo musical performers because they are an ensemble; and Cameron Hood’s
interaction with the crowds rivals even the most seasoned professional
performers.
The appeal of RyanHood’s
music cuts across gender and age. Many
observed that they sing as well as they play; a couple of young guys from
Syracuse didn’t sound particularly nice about it when they pointed this out to
Ryan and Cameron, but they were sincere—merely talking in their natural
brogue. Women appeared to like the
harmonies; men seemed to enjoy both players’ guitar technique and the muscular
aspects of RyanHood’s musical presentation.
Older men appreciated RyanHood’s folk element; other’s perceived diverse
factors inherent in the music.
For lack of a more concise
phrase, I have described what Ryan and Cameron do as “fusion folk.” What is being fused into the mix is in the
ears of the listener. One middle-aged male
told me that he loved Ryan’s playing; to him it had bluegrass rudiments, and he
said that he absolutely loved the soundtrack to Oh Brother Where Art Thou and thought it was great that a young
person played this wonderful music.
Another college-aged male told me that he thought Ryan played in the
great jazz tradition. These two
observations were made in regards to the same song being performed!
Younger listeners were
equally enthralled with RyanHood. An
enthusiastic 15-year old female told me that she thought RyanHood was
“funky.” I think this was an excellent
observation! I’ll revise my description
of their music to “funked-up fusion folk.” College-aged females love them too (check out
a very recent post by AUI’s resident sweetheart,
Tamra W.). Kids enjoyed watching and
listening to them and many toddlers danced tirelessly to their music throughout
the weekend.
Ryan and Cameron’s music
grabs your attention immediately, and is presented with vigor. Their sets begin with the short and effective
“Oh No,” whose lyrics are very appropriate for a show starter; the harmonies
define them as singers in addition to players.
They then segue into a new song, the musically brawny “Separate” (which
you can hear on their Web site). This
tune typically draws the crowd’s attention.
They then transition to their ultimate showstopper, another new song
called “Welcome to My Head.” Cameron
introduces the song with an effective anecdote about how they wrote the song
(you’ll have to see them for yourselves for the specifics), and how Ryan’s
mind-boggling and startling intro was crafted.
Ryan’s astounding guitar work on this song doesn’t let up for even a
nanosecond and it simply astonishes everyone in RyanHood’s proximity. In fact, on Memorial Day RyanHood were assigned
a less-than-desirable location, being directly adjacent to one of the
Marketplace’s most popular attractions—a juggling act. RyanHood had to contend with loud and
enthusiastic cheers from a very large audience directed towards the
juggler. This same juggler interrupted
the middle of his own act, ran right up to Ryan and demanded that RyanHood turn
down their volume (they’re an acoustic act, folks!). The juggler looked magnanimously silly in the
process—complete with clown pants and beret—as to be surreal, and RyanHood’s
crowd found it entertaining. The
always-clever Cameron transformed the situation into great extemporaneous
comedy for his crowd, which is what I think seriously concerned the juggler in
the first place—the notion that even a scintilla of HIS crowd were being
siphoned to RyanHood.
The remainder of the set
includes many of their excellent compositions from their Sad and Happiness
CD, in addition to some clever integration of cover tunes, such as a unique
take on The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence,” which grabs the attention of the
baby-boomers, who still apishly slave anything Beatles.
One woman I spoke
to books special events for the United Way in Florida and told me she would
hire Ryan and Cameron in a heartbeat should they ever tour her state. Another fellow told me he had connections to
92.5 The River, which is one of the
I would confidently declare
Ryan and Cameron’s Street Performer’s Festival debut a resounding success. I realize that I’m very biased, but this
opinion is being submitted to all at AUI from a professional observer. And I know what I’m talking about.