(R&B/Pop/Blues/Soul) David Ryan Harris - David Ryan Harris - 1997, MP3, 320 kbps

Born in Chicago. Raised in Atlanta. Live in Los Angeles.
I heard music, melodies and stories in my head as a child.
They never went away and I hope they never do.
After experimenting with drums, piano and other instruments in my teens I began my love/hate affair with the guitar.
So, there it is: I am a soul singer who plays guitar.
And sometimes: I am a guitarist who sings soulfully.
Drawn to the blues after hearing songs by Son House, Robert Johnson and others and growing up at a time when Prince, Parliament/Funkadelic, Stevie Wonder and other musicians were stretching the boundaries of popular music I began to understand that music could not and should not be limited by our often narrow views of what it should be.
Co-founded a band called Follow For Now in 1988 in the hopes of creating a sound that combined all the influences that had been shaping my musical vision:
Bad Brains meets Stevie Wonder and Public Enemy in Memphis.
While the band had a short life, it was my launching pad, as it allowed me to taste the fruits of such a strange mess of musical ingredients.
Signed to Chrysalis in 1990 and released “Follow For Now”
Signed to Brendan O’brien’s Columbia imprint in 1997, released a self-titled record and began to spread my wings as an artist, writer and producer.
Signed to Elektra in 2000, with a band called Brand New Immortals and released Tragic Show. Label folded. Band followed suit.
Self released “The Bittersweet” in 2007.
Since then I have had the pleasure of writing with, playing with and/or producing artists from Dave Matthews, Cassandra Wilson, Derek Trucks, Santana, Marc Broussard, Guy Sebastian and John Mayer.

On his first solo album (recorded for old pal Brendan O'Brien's imprint at Columbia Records), former Follow for Now frontman David Ryan Harris pursued a far different path than his former band, although with no drop-off in musical variety. Where Follow for Now's lone album crackled with a volatile mix of punk, funk, and ska, David Ryan Harris is a more restrained affair, showcasing the Atlanta musician's singer/songwriter leanings in several different settings. He certainly hasn't forgotten how to rock, as songs like "King Karma," with its piledriving, Hendrix-style riff prove. But Harris smoothly shifts gears to offer the folky R&B of "If I Had a Dime" and the swinging, Stevie Wonder-ful "Tricks Up My Sleeve," even managing to replicate a bit of R.E.M. jangle on the propulsive "Six Feet Off the Ground." If there's a weakness here, it's that -- save for that latter tune -- most of these songs are subtle constructions that need a few listens to sink in. That fact, combined with Harris' standard defiance of racial pigeonholing, probably combined to doom this album commercially, but it's a mature and thoughtful effort that history shows -- given the crop of guitar-strumming new soul pinups who appeared a few years after its release -- was simply ahead of its time.