Description
CD review by Rick Narbutas
Years in the production, One Person Queue is not an album to be taken lightly.
You can tell it was crafted, there is so much texture in the sound.
It took an army of musicians to make this, with the heavy artillery comprised of two ensembles of backup vocals.
It’s a cast of thousands, literally, if you include all the fans off the mailing list mentioned in the accompanying and copious cover notes.
American born Ryan is profuse in his thanks to collaborators.
Something with such a prolonged gestation no doubt required lots of cooperation and goodwill.
There are so many layers to the music and so many different artists involved that it would be impossible to take the band on the road.
Pity.
Not really the kinds of songs you can sing along to either, these are more complicated melodies.
In all ten tracks, the intricacy of the production is first class.
Co-producer and sound engineer, the optimistic and generous James Feldman, must have spent countless hours at the desk with Ryan working with the mix to get it just right.
Listen for the neat trick with Ryan on the bass harp buzzing round like a stereo blowfly in the background.
Ryan actually began his working life as an audio operator at a TV station in Perth.
Recorded and mixed at GI Records in Glen Iris, Victoria, mastered by Endsound Mastering and distributed through Sound Vault Records, many, many more were involved in this project, including producer, “the wife”, Tina Ryan.
This work is Ross Ryan proving that he is an artist capable of addressing many different genres.
He tries his hand at Gospel, Rockabilly, and does a decent mock-up of a Dylan style of song in Don’t Be Unkind, if you get what I mean.
His lyrics are well considered, almost too comprehensive.
Ryan covers what might be viewed as the usual topics, love and loss, betrayal, revenge and salvation.
Reading the words, I get the impression the music was written to fit the poetry of the lyrics.
Little doubt that Ryan is a wordsmith, even having written scripts for ABC comedy shows.
If you had a wish list of instruments you would want behind you in the recording studio, here is your dream come true, and the musicians behind the instruments are probably on that list too.
The ever present Broc O’Connor, co-writer, musician and close mate looms large in the credits, as does Peter Robertson on drums, and again, a host of contributors.
The new millennium saw Ryan support Carol King on her Australian tour, and also a collaboration with Mark Holden in Idol and Idle.
In 2003, the ABC’s Love Is In The Air programme described I Am Pegasus as a “National Anthem”.
Not a bad effort.
