Ryan Herrick “Cut Them Cards”
Americana Highways is hosting this premiere of Ryan Herrick’s song “Cut Them Cards” from his forthcoming album Blaze, which due to be released next year. The album was recorded, produced and mixed by John Abbey at Kingsize SoundLabs in Chicago. It was mastered by Justin Perkins at Mystery Room Mastering in Milwaukee.
“Cut Them Cards” is Ryan Herrick on vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, slide, electric Hawaiian Weissenborn and dulcimer; John Abbey on bass and backing vocals; and Gerald Dowd on drums, percussion and backing vocals.
Americana Highways had a chance to chat briefly with Ryan about the music. The premiere appears just beneath the interview.
Americana Highways: What was the core impetus for this song?
Ryan Herrick: The idea of being stuck with the cards one has been dealt felt like a poignant way to highlight the design of the political long-game and the collateral damages faced by the people of a government who could care less about its constituents.
AH: Your voice is absolutely gorgeous, who are your biggest influences?
RH: My largest influence vocally would have to be the late Chris Whitley, best known for his album Living with the Law (1991), which features his fantastic resonator guitar playing combined with a unique, contemporary alt-blues singing style. His work largely inspired me to incorporate my natural voice into my own guitar playing, which is where a lot of my passion originally stems from. Eddie Vedder was the first vocalist whom I heard growing up where I distinctly remember wishing to sing like him.
AH: Growing up did you always want to be a music artist?
RH: No, actually! I grew up gravitating towards visual art, and luckily, I had a very supportive family who encouraged me to pursue art and embrace being an artist. It wasn’t until my teenage years where I gravitated towards art in an auditory form. Rock music spoke to my emotions and largely still does. I always find ways to express creativity through more than just music, which I feel creates a sort of feedback loop that empowers more music to come out of me. I enjoy woodworking, creating spaces, landscaping, gardening, and working with dogs— and elements of all of these things fuel me as an artist and entrepreneur.
AH: What’s your favorite part of touring?
RH: As someone who values having a grounded home life just as much as enjoying life on the road as a wandering free-spirit, I am often pulled between the two dichotomies. Gigging in the Midwest region and back home in the New England region has been a nice middle ground between going hyper local and full blown nationwide touring as of late. All that said, what I love most about the road is the romance of traveling from town to town with the clothes on my back and my guitar, meeting interesting people from all different places and walks of life. The world is a lot smaller than you think and the road reminds you of that! I am still trying to figure out how I end up making stops at the same handful of rest stops and gas stations from Wisconsin to Massachusetts. Traveler’s Deja Vu, I guess!
AH: Is there something about Blaze that was a different recording experience than before?
RH: Blaze was a culmination of almost 10 years of gigging and recording. The thing about growth— spiritually, musically, and personally— is that you never quite “get there”. Getting there means in the sense of arriving to where you want to be. The process of unfolding is what recording means to me— it’s a snapshot of a moment, and with Blaze I feel as though I was able to open up and co-produce music more freely, confidently, honestly, and authentically than ever before. I am really excited to get this album out into the world. The recording process with John Abbey was the best of both worlds: tracking live and revisiting the performances with overdubs. We didn’t hold back, and you can hear like 4 or 5 slide guitars at the end of “Cut Them Cards” as an easy example!
AH: Do you have any favorite guitars you play?
RH: Absolutely. It largely depends on the needs of the song in a given moment— however, my Asher Electric Weissenborn is my most favorite “easel” to paint with. It’s a huge, dense hunk of mahogany with double humbuckers that can range from being ethereal and calming one second to in-your-face rock n’ roll the next. Lately, I have been a Tele guy when it comes to singing and playing. Telecasters can be quite versatile baseball bats when you play Americana music!
Thanks for chatting with us Ryan. Ryan uses wholly unique rhythm styles of syncopation that come from deep dives into the delta blues, alt blues and grunge tinged music foundations in this dark song about the stacked deck we are all playing with. There’s song dark truth in the ominous lines: “you made your bed, now lay in it.”
You can find more information here on his website: https://ryanherrick.com/
