From a Late Night House Concert

Friday night, P and I had a fantastic experience: we saw one of my favorite musicians, Matthew Ryan, at a house concert. Friends of a friend host these concerts in their huge living room a few times a year. Usually the talent is local, but lately they seem to be bringing in bigger names. I have a couple of Matthew Ryan's albums, so I was THRILLED when we got the evite for this concert. I am just in love with Ryan's craggy voice.

Ryan is currently touring with Tim Easton, who opened the house concert. I had not heard Easton before; he is an amazing guitarist. He played solo and was relaxed and very witty and joked a lot between songs. We really enjoyed his music and decided to drop a few bucks on his new CD. After Easton played, there was a break of about a half hour and then Matthew Ryan played with his band. He was FANTASTIC. He played the songs from his new album (which in my opinion are much better live). After running through those, he played many of his older songs, including some of my favorites--"Sweetie," "Return to Me," "The Little Things"--but not, unfortunately, my very favorite, "Railroaded."

Towards the end, Ryan asked if anyone had requests, and he played a few songs that people called out. During his part of the evening, Tim Easton had asked people in the audience what their first concert was and had called out that question to Ryan and then expressed something like grudging admiration when Ryan said it was Bob Dylan. (Imagine your first concert being Bob Dylan! Instead of, say, Journey.) So when Ryan was taking requests, someone asked if he could play his (Ryan's) favorite Dylan song. And so after a few false starts, he played an absolutely stunning cover of “Mama, You Been On My Mind.” Superb. Ryan is kind of awkward, clearly not as comfortable on-stage as Tim Easton, but something about him is very endearing. What a pleasure hearing him live.