Ryan Reardon & The Levee Breakers - Walking In Golden Sunshine

Styles : Harmonica Blues

Released : 2000

Lable : Sundown Records

01 - Walking In Golden Sunshine

02 - What A Fool

03 - You're Gone

04 - Gimmie Back My Coat

05 - Hale County Road #50

06 - Keep What I've Got

07 - Set You Straight
08 - Senor Blues
09 - Head Cleanin' Blues

10 - Nothin' Serious

11 - What's The Matter

Ryan Reardon, born in 1971 in Dallas, TX, was smitten by the blues bug in his college years. His experiences listening to blues, R&B, and rock go back even further than that. Ryan Reardon was constantly surrounded by music while growing up in Dallas and Colorado. His parents brought Reardon and his siblings up on the music of Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, and the Beatles. In junior high he was charmed by the Fabulous Thunderbirds, thus began his interest in blues and '50s and '60s R&B, especially Ray Charles. Ryan Reardon lead a fairly normal adolescence with an emphasis on sports, but music always remained in the background. He joined a church choir at an early age and hung with musicians all through his high school years. Ryan Reardon went to Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, and his interest in music increased. After two years of playing college football, he was ready for something different. He took up the harmonica and bought a few records by Junior Wells and Jimmy Reed. He graduated in four years with a B.S. in Biology, took a job in Memphis, started an acoustic duo, and began hanging out at the Blues City Cafe's Tuesday night jams. Armed with a paycheck and plenty of free time, Ryan Reardon started building his record collection and practicing the harmonica in earnest. At the Blues City Cafe jam he was awestruck by Pat "the Reverend" Ramsey and befriended by Billy Gibson. Billy Gibson, then 26, was the up-and-coming harmonica player in town; he had his chops together and was more than willing to share some of his knowledge with Reardon. During that first year out of college, with the help of Billy Gibson, Reardon got his chops together enough to front the Blues City Cafe's House Band and do some singing. Reardon and Billy Gibson are still very good friends and exchange ideas regularly. Billy Gibson produced Ryan Reardon's debut CD, So Long, Baby.

When Ryan Reardon left Memphis for Tuscaloosa, AL, in 1995, he had the confidence and desire to start his own band. Reardon formed the Levee Breakers with guitarist Rob Robertson in June, 1996. The Levee Breakers went from a local upstart to a regional success in the matter of only two years. The rapid rise of the band was due exclusively to Reardon's and Robertson's hard work, their ability to communicate ideas easily, and Reardon's relentless drive to book the band. A confessed control freak, Reardon's vision was to create a band that had a feel similar to an ensemble, with a very distinct sound, original tunes, and a full tonal quality better than anything found in clubs. Ryan Reardon and guitarist Rob Robertson built the band on a formula-based on the Fabulous Thunderbirds' four-piece chassis. Reardon and Robertson wanted vocals, harmonica, and economic guitar playing on top of a swinging rhythm section consisting of electric bass and sparse drums, with Eric Simmons on bass and Matt Kimbrell on the drums, which is exactly what they have.

Since 1996, the band has developed into a well-rehearsed ensemble that generates an energetic and danceable batch of blues. Reardon has essentially grown up in front of his audiences and his band. He was once the precocious kid who played six times a month and hung out at any decent blues show in Alabama. Reardon is now a bandleader who has gigs 15 times or more a month. He leads three very important lives at once. First and foremost is his life as a performer and artist. Behind the scenes, however, he is an active bandleader who has recruited some of the finest players in the southeast area. Finally, but not the least important, he is a consummate professional who pursues gigs and delivers a well-rehearsed class act to the clients that book the band. As a performer and artist, Reardon's ears are wide open and he has many influences; there are several that stand out and are worthy of mention. Vocally, Reardon loves Jimmy Rogers and Slim Harpo; their relaxed delivery within the midst of a churning band gives their blues more tension than many of their contemporaries. On the harmonica, Reardon returns to three masters for solace and substance, they are Junior Wells, Slim Harpo, and Sonny Boy Williamson II. There is also plenty of James Harman in Reardon's playing. For songwriting ideas, Reardon listens to all kinds of players: once again, Junior Wells and James Harman, but also Mose Allison and Lyle Lovett. Reardon likes writers who are verbal but not always literal, writers who are articulate, and who can really turn a phrase. Reardon believes he has a different bandleading style than many of his harmonica-playing contemporaries. Most harmonica players tend to lean on instrumental prowess and get the band to follow underneath their playing. Reardon concentrates more on crafting a band that is fundamentally solid and sounds interesting. Once that's accomplished, he uses the harmonica to spice up the sound.

Ryan Reardon and the Levee Breakers' original and cover songs span the entire range of the blues genre. They lean heavily on shuffles, but there is plenty of soul-influenced material along with jazz-blues reminiscent of Jimmy Smith and Charles Brown. Reardon is always looking for new ways to expand on blues idioms, as long as the arrangements are swinging and the playing tasteful and tight. Reardon proclaims Junior Wells' 1965 album Hoodoo Man Blues is the center of his musical universe; the album is funky, cool, and very intense without being loud and noisy. As Reardon heads into multiple years as a bandleader, he is continually growing. His ears are getting better every day, he is taking music theory, he woodsheds when time permits, and he is still pushing his band into the next level of club and festival work. Walkin' in Golden Sunshine, Ryan Reardon and the Levee Breakers' sophomore effort released in April 2000, was another entertaining look into the blues realm which Reardon loves to explore and exhibit. In 2001, Ryan Reardon and the Levee Breakers could be found gigging throughout the southeast and raising money for future releases.