Amy Ryan Band – Brighter and Brighter
Self-produced CD
11 songs – 45 minutes
A New Hampshire native now based out of upstate New York, vocalist Amy Ryan made her debut with the self-released album Shimmy and Shake in 2022, spending three months on the Roots Music Report’s soul-blues charts. And she follows it up with this set, which adds a little Delta and blues-rock to the mix, too.
Formed in 2014, she and her band quickly established a strong following in the Albany region. They subsequently represented the Capital Region Blues Network (CRBN) in the 2016 International Blues Challenge after winning the local competition. Amy and her British-born guitarist, Richard Green, share the mic here. They also repeated the BMA accomplishment in the solo-duo category, teaming as the group 2 Blue. As a full band, they’ve been nominated for blues band of the year in CRBN’s Thomas Edison Music Awards on four occasions.
This all-original set was produced and engineered by Frank Kennedy and features Ed Stein on keys. Mark McKay handles drums on eight of the 11 cuts, yielding to Finn Green on the others. Dave Imbarrato handles bass on seven tracks, sharing duties with James Alanson Kirk. And special guests include guitarist Mark Tolstrup, sax players Chris Ferrone and Kris Jensen, trumpeter Jeff Stevens and trombonist/horn arranger Peter McEachern.
A Delta blues, “Hold That Train,” opens the action with Tolstrup’s slide in call-and-response with Ryan’s window-rattling soprano before the sound softens, the pace slows and Ferrone’s horn kick in for the soulful “Won’t You Tell Me,” which finds Amy questioning her man about why he’s not loving her the way he should. Green’s solo hits a sweet spot in the midst of the torment.
The funk kicks up big time with “I Got Eyes” as the full horn section drives the action as Amy wonders how soon her lover’s going to bid her goodbye before Green’s guitar takes center stage on “Hold My Heart,” in which Ryan proclaims that she needs her guy’s good lovin’, but also needs to protect herself, too. Unfortunately, his response isn’t what she expected because the number that follows is a driving shuffle, “Outta My Life.” She’s simply tired of his excuses and notes: “It’s time to put you down.” But Amy realizes she’s broken all of the rules the relationship, too, something she reveals in “Digging Myself Out of a Hole,” a silky smooth, soulful ballad in which she describes herself as striving to better herself one step at a time.
The languorous, soul-infused title track, “Brighter and Brighter,” finds Amy farther along in her recovery, something that progresses through the final four songs in this one — “How Dumb Do You Think I Am,” “Take It or Leave It” – with Green on vocals, “You Don’t Get To” and “Love Is a Fool’s Game.”
There’s a lot to like in this one, and you certainly want to wish that Ryan wins out at romance in the end. Amy’s got a sweet set of pipes. That said, her in-your-face vocal intensity throughout somewhat diminishes the effectiveness of the set. The ballads are fine. But if there had been more of a difference between them and the tunes that come at you at high volume, everything would have stood out.
