Published on 19, Jun 2023

The Rock and Roll Lifestyle of Country Star Uncle Ryano

Uncle Ryano is a name that’s synonymous with hard work, triumph, and innovation. He’s had his hands and feet in the music industry since the ‘90s and made his name under a number of prolific labels and publishers such as Hayes Street, Imprint Records, Edel America, and Capitol Records. When it comes to his works, he describes his style as “real American music” that makes people jump, dance, celebrate, and howl in harmony. His music has transcended borders and preferences to resonate with people of all ages from all walks of life.

His career began when he played with several bands from Oklahoma, Louisiana, and east Texas until 1993 when he moved to Nashville. Here in ‘95, he signed with Hayes St. Music and regularly co-wrote with Don Schlitz, one of the owners who is known for writing “The Gambler”, “Forever and Ever Amen”, “On the Other Hand”, “The Greatest”, and numerous other chart topping hits.

A year later, he left Hayes St. Music and signed with Imprint Records. His single “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind” was among the top five in the nation and maintained its position as the fourth most popular radio single in the country behind names such as Alan Jackson, John Anderson, and Wade Hayes. During this time, his single’s music video was a hit and was a CMT hotshot video for eight consecutive weeks.

Unfortunately, despite all of the success around him, Imprint Records shuttered just a few days after his single’s release. This came as an unexpected hit to Uncle Ryano. Now that the label was gone, his single was starting to lose traction, and this development made him look critically as to how this happened. He met with three other major labels after Imprint Record’s decline, one of which being Capitol Records. After a dispute between management at Capitol Records and a top-selling artist, all newly slotted acts were immediately frozen or released, and Uncle Ryano found himself destabilized once again.

Over the next few years, he continued to see an almost predictable pattern of success and downturn as he continued to write for other labels, and eventually, this caused him to pull away from a system he viewed as “badly broken.”

“Looking back, I don’t think that it was writing on the wall as it was full blown graffiti,” Uncle Ryano says, thinking back on that time. “I had a chance to work with many incredible and creative people, but the inner workings of the labels all suffered from the same pattern of behavior. These were systemic, intentional in a way, and when I caught onto that, I didn’t feel that I could work with these labels and keep my integrity—creative and personal—intact.”

Uncle Ryano was able to find a break in the clouds. In 2002, he won a SOCAN Song of the Year with Lisa Brokop for “I’d Like To See You Try” and was nominated for another in 2003 for “Whiskey and Wine”. However, his rise wasn’t without its share of hardships. CMT released a series that used his release “Cowboy Up” as a theme song. The song was a major hit in New England, and the Boston Redsox even used it as a rallying cry. 

But in the midst of gaining other accolades, his personal life began to take a toll as well. Within eighteen months, Uncle Ryano lost a number of family members, and this ultimately caused him to walk away from music. “I began to suffer many personal family losses,” says Uncle Ryano. “The grandfather who raised me passed so lovingly, and my mother had been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. I was no longer playing out or doing shows and was kind of in my own bubble.” 

He then spent the next three years focusing on family and self-discovery. As he overcame the pain and brought new joys into his life, he stepped into the music world again, but this time as a spectator. He, his wife, and daughter would go to support his friends when they headlined shows at local casinos. “My wife and daughter began asking me ‘Why don’t you write again?’ or saying ‘We wish you would play again,’ but I just didn’t have the desire to.”

And for a time, this was his reality. That was until 2021 when his luck finally started to change. Fall of that year brought Uncle Ryano a remarkable opportunity. Apparently, Billy Ray Cyrus was interested in a couple of his songs, and the two found a way to connect over the phone. The musical chemistry was instantaneous. Uncle Ryano felt invigorated to create again, and it was as if he caught his second, third, and fourth wind all at once.

“We began discussing alternate lines for one of the tunes,” Uncle Ryano recalls humorously, “and one of the lines that came out of the exchange was ‘twerkin’ with a twang.’ Within a day or so, it was written. That old part of my brain had reawakened and was arcing blue lightning!”

From that moment on, things truly fell into place for him. It felt like old times; it felt like something completely new. Old friends he hadn’t spoken to in years began to reach out to him, and the next thing he knew, he was working on the Voices In My Head album, on which is the title that inspired it all: “Twerkin’ With A Twang”. “We’re having a blast,” Uncle Ryano says with renewed energy. “DJ KO from Atlanta helped on ‘Twerkin with a Twang’, Ira played on ‘My Mama’s People’, Kim Keyes came in and rocked with her amazing background vocals, and away we go! And best of all, I'm taking every step with my family.”

Voices In My Head released April 23rd and is available on all streaming platforms. His next release, New West, is currently in the works and is set to release July 7th.