You think you’ve got what it takes to stand at The Strand? The ninety-nine-year-old theater — the pride of Shreveport, Louisiana — is widely recognized as one of the grandest and most storied music venues in the American South. To tread these glorious boards, it isn’t enough to be accomplished. You’ve also got to be a true original. The Strand has always opened its doors to performers who catalyze, reinterpret, and recombine the main threads of American music. Thus, when director John Chambers catches Ryan “Uncle Ryano” Reynolds under the lights of his hometown’s most legendary venue, there’s no dissonance at all. He’s right where he belongs.
Uncle Ryano is too modest, too genial, and too shrewd to say he epitomizes Shreveport’s music. The California-born, Texas grown, Louisianan singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist is a traditionalist at heart but a prankster by impulse, and he’s for years been delighting audiences with his unique combination of backwoods country, swamp blues, Dixie soul, and raw, unvarnished rock and roll. As an accomplished Nashville songwriter in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, he has written songs for movies, TV shows, rodeo anthems and even the rallying cry for the Boston Red Sox. He also wrote a SOCAN song of the Year “I’d Like to See You Try” in 2002, and penned the Military Tribute Song “Best of Us” for the Patriot Guard.
“Run Wide Open,” his gut-busting new single — and teaser for full-length New West, is an amalgam of bluegrass and funk, graced with a melody and hook catchy enough for pop radio. It’s also a statement of purpose from a hardworking artist and a forceful reminder that a little sweat never hurts anybody. Uncle Ryano invests every syllable with meaning. Fans never have to guess at his motivation: he’s telling his listeners that whatever they happen to be doing, they ought to be giving it all they’ve got.
Uncle Ryano has plenty to say and an optimistic message to deliver, but he never takes himself too seriously. This is a performer who greeted the 2023 holiday season with a song about a kung-fu turkey getting even with a farmer. He’s got attitude and muscle, and he’s not afraid to throw them both around. In the “Run Wide Open” clip, the singer is a powerful, charismatic presence, onstage at The Strand, dancing in place, beating his chest, growling into an old-fashioned microphone, and throwing a long shadow across the hall. He’s alone in the theater for the video, but don’t be fooled: he’s got his whole city behind him.
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