Musician plays autobiographical songs at festival
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Ryan Ross at Soundwave Music Festival
Soundwave Music Festival
GBNF Denim at Soundwave Music Festival
YOUNGSTOWN - Local musician Ryan Ross has been playing guitar for nine years, but Sunday's performance was only his fifth area performance.
The solo guitarist describes his music as a "Youngstown street sound."
"You know, honest. Dirty. How we live here," Ross says.
The 28-year-old Brookfield native performed solo Sunday as part of the Soundwave Music Festival at The B&O Station.
Ross says he's never really been a part of a band or performed much in the Mahoning Valley, but performed more in school and Los Angeles.
It's that trip to California that's inspired his music.
"The California experience was a necessary opening step. Once I got past the failure of it, I learned how to use that to get where I am now," he says.
Inspired by the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Keith Urban, Tom Petty and Rob Thomas, Ross says he wants to highlight the Youngstown sound.
"I love Youngstown. This is my town," he says. "I'm trying to be the guy that gets out there and shows people how it is here."
He also wishes, he says, that other area musicians would have the same fortune.
During Sunday's set, Ross played songs he's recording for his first album, "Last House on the Block," which he's recording at Dragonfly Studio in Boardman.
The set included a song called "Weekend Rockstar," which he dedicated "to those musicians who play other people's music and walk around like they wrote it." One lyric says those people are "a dime a dozen in this town."
He also performed Springsteen's "Thunder Road," as a tribute to his mother and a song about his high school friends, many of whom were in attendance Sunday.
His music, Ross says, is written for a band, though he performed it solo, on an acoustic guitar, Sunday. The musicians working with Ross on "Last House on the Block" include Bill Nelson on Drums, Jim Markato on bass and Todd Maki as producer and keyboardist. The Houseband's Mike Baranski is also helping with songwriting.
But the music is more than its parts. It's autobiographical for Ross.
"They're story songs...they're all real, they're all true," he says, noting some names have been changed.
Soundwave Music Festival was put on by GBNF Denim, 93.3-FM's The Homegrown Show and Rust Belt Brewing Co..
GBNF creator Kelly Bowell says she started putting the festival together about two months ago "to give people in Youngstown something to do."
Bowell says she works with a lot of musicians doing custom denim deconstruction, alteration and discoloration. She also has a line of custom belts, bracelets and other accessories. GBNF's graphic designer is Frequent Season member Jared Farrell.
The purpose of Soundwave, Bowell says, is to draw attention to local artists.
"I promote them, they promote me," she says of the 10 bands performing Sunday.
A deeper meaning in the day, though, was to promote awareness of scleroderma.
Bowell says she lost her father to the disease which she says, literally translated, meaning hardening of the skin or "the body becomes stone." According to the Scleroderma Foundation, about 300,000 Americans have scleroderma.
Bowell says her father died of the disease and is the person for which, "Gone But Not Forgotten" is named for. She says the logo of GBNF is based on a tattoo her father had.
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Comments
if ross loves youngstown so much, why is he recording his album in boardman? we have several recording studios.
i wish the B&O would step up their promotion ... i didnt hear a word about this festival. i was right by there at the Oktoberfest and had no idea it was even going on. no flyers downtown, none on campus. thats a pretty big stage setup, and for a fest with no promotion and telling from the photos, apparently no attendance. and why would the B&O want to draw a crowd away from the Oktoberfest, where it also had a tent? it seems like a good cause, but executed pretty badly. better luck next time.
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