Quotes/Reviews
Here are testimonials & references from people who have hired, booked or worked with Ryan Inglis over the past 4 years. To view their respective websites or find contact details click on the links within their titles (not available for references from private bookings)
If you have hired Ryan in the past and would like to add a reference please send it via the CONTACT section of the site. Thanks
TONY LOCK – One Umbrella Music
Having discovered Ryan and his music online, I have dragged him down to Devon for a number of gigs at various pubs in the area. I have yet to have a chance to get to see him myself, as I am always out gigging too, but on each occasion I get glowing feedback from the venues. One even went so far as to say Ryan was the best acoustic artist they’d ever had.
He is always asked back wherever he plays, which for me is as good a reference as any! In business terms, I don’t know anyone more professional in attitude – Ryan will go the extra mile, travel anywhere and play for a packet of nuts and a cuppa. Well, almost. Of course there is the music too – a huge repertoire, great versions of classic songs and his own tunes too. An all-round star!
JULIE DERRICK – Founder of FOOTPRINT Musicians Charity
“Ryan has worked as a key Footprint team member for the last four years. He was initially appointed as our gig Music Manager. His role was crucial to the success and professionalism of the gigs. He has an innate ability to pick the right performers for the gig to match audience and venue. His dedication to do this to a high standard and for only a small recompense (as we are a charitable organisation) led to him being additionally appointed as a Legal Trustee of the Charlie Derrick Music Bursary. This, thanks to Ryan’s dedication and determination is now in its 7th year. To date we have raised nearly £20,000 for young musicians in North Somerset who strive for musical excellence across any genre of music. Ryan himself is a consummate professional. This is matched only by his incredible musical talent. These two qualities have been the largest single contribution to the success of the Bursary”
MIKE PITT – Pittball Festival Organiser (Thorncombe)
“We have had the pleasure of being able to book Ryan for the last 4 years in a row for our event. It was quite plain to see that from an early stage Ryan had a wealth of experience and expertise in many areas and could easily be relied on to help organise one of our acoustic stages for both sound production and performer organisation. His exceptional punctuality and eye for details has always ensured our event has run very smoothly! It will be a pleasure to have him back in the future”
ANDY BRIDGMAN – Unwined (W-s-M)
“Ryan has been playing in our bar for the last four years on various occasions. He has performed not only as a solo artist but as part of a duo & also with various local bands. Ryan performs not only his own music but a wide range of covers & has a good following. We would without doubt recommend Ryan for any occasion”
JOHN SPENCER – Thunderfest Organiser/Promoter (Bristol)
“I’ve worked with Ryan several times over the last year, at parties, open mic nights and mini festivals, and have always been impressed with his professionalism. Ryan has a fantastic singing voice, which is accompanied by his beautiful technique on the guitar. It’s always a pleasure to work with Ryan, and I would definitely recommend him to other promoters for future projects”
John Spencer, Live Music Promoter, omniloader@live.co.uk
ROGER & KATE FOSTER – Private Booking (Bleadon)
“Having used the services of Ryan Inglis to provide the live entertainment for our party, I am pleased to provide the following testimony”
“My wife and I have enjoyed watching Ryan perform on several occasions is in my home town of Weston-super-Mare, where he is a very popular, well supported musician. We thought his solo acoustic sets would be perfect for our party, and he by far exceeded our expectations. His singing and guitar playing skills are outstanding, but what I particularly like is his ability on certain songs to drum the body of his guitar to provide a percussion beat that seems to add so much to his performance. He has a huge array of songs, with interesting covers from all genres, as well as his own material, and his song choices were perfect gauging the atmosphere at our party. He was also careful to get the volume levels just right, which can often be overlooked. All of this, along with his long sets, meant his performance went down extremely well with all of our guests and therefore provided a really memorable night for us”
“I can not recommend Ryan highly enough, from his communications prior to the night, to his superb long sets into the late hours, his contribution to our party’s success were immeasurable”
KERRY CARMICHAEL – The Royal Seven Stars (Totnes)
“We have Ryan Inglis play regularly at The Royal Seven Stars in one of our bars. He has become very popular with our customers and many enquire to the next time he will be performing, which is good for us!! We just hope when he goes onto bigger and better things he doesn’t forget about us!!!”
RICHARD ALLAM – Private Booking (W-s-M)
“Having seen Ryan play on several occasions I could think of no one better to play at my fathers wake. It must have been a very difficult gig to play as the audience were hardly attentive to start with but as time went on, you could tell that people were appreciating his outstanding talents. It is hard to believe that it is only Ryan playing and there are no backing tapes – all that percussion sound is from him!! A superb and very talented entertainer”
MARY BARNA – Private Booking (Bristol)
“The Ryan Inglis Band are a young, fresh, lively and talented band – they perform original material just as well as covers. They also cater for the needs and wishes of their audience. It is a pleasure to listen to and watch them play”
ELAINE BUCKLE – ‘Missbee Presents’ (London)
Ryan Inglis was a pleasure to work with. Not only was he punctual and well mannered but he delivered a real foot tapping, hand clapping and head nodding set. Which kick started our evening with the audience wanting more and setting the bar on a high standard for the other artists to follow. A gentleman with great musicality, I look forward to working with again.
STEVE JACKSON – The Claremont Vaults (W-s-M)
Whilst managing the Claremont Wine Vaults in Weston-super-Mare, I regularly booked Ryan Inglis to perform, as he was always a crowd favourite. He was a regular on our Sunday afternoon spots, performing a variety of new and old cover versions, putting his unique stamp on them. He would also include some of his original material in a number of acoustic sets, which were always well received. Ryan has also performed at a number of our private functions ranging from christenings, birthdays and wedding receptions, each time with great reviews. As a result, he was always on the top of our recommendation list. Not only is Ryan a great vocalist, but he is also an exceptionally talented guitarist. He has the ability to capture a room, both silencing them in awe, and having them singing along with him with ease. Ryan is a consummate professional that is not only technically brilliant, but is genuinely easy going and will please any crowd no matter how big or small, old or young.
Yours sincerely, Steve Jackson
Manager Claremont Wine Vaults 2004-2008
Quotes
“Having grown up with many of the songs as backdrops to an eventful youth, and progressive adulthood, its apt that songs such as ‘Feel Any Feeling’ are opening the album in the finest possible fashion. I’m not one to pigeon-hole and typecast, but fans of John Mayer, Howie Day, Josh Groban etc would find more than enough moments throughout the album to ask themselves “why is this boy unsigned exactly?” Steven Usher (Mooner)
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“A highly motivated and talented musician. I’m impressed by both the quality and quantity of his songs.Always seems to be evolving, trying something new, and it always seems to work too! A combination of infectious melodies and thought provoking lyrics.Surely, just a matter of time before he gets signed” – Dangerous Duck
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“I’ve been watching Ryan’s career with interest for the past 18 months or so via the internet. He is an wonderfully talented young man, hard working and comes across as very bright and extremely humble too. His music is beautifully crafted, with an artistic feel and edgy qualities which will stand him in good stead with the non comformative crowd further down the line. There’s a lot of acoustic artists around at the moment that are all a bit samey, but Ryan has an edge on all of them with the originality of his work and the beauty in his voice and lyrics… An unsigned gem, who with a bit of lady luck is destined for big things!!!!!!” – Stuart Bleazard
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“One of the truly finest collection of songs I have heard in a very long time. It’s the type of music that fills me with elation. The beautiful lyrics and intricate guitar sounds are nothing but perfection. This album is a triumph in my opinion” – Natalie Bush
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“Hailing from Weston, Ryan was described by other bands performing at the Railway Hotel’s Open Mic Night as the best pub singer they have seen and is tipped for a big future. He frequents venues in the South-West’s thriving acoustic scene and performs his songs with dexterity and charisma. Make sure you catch Ryan Inglis before he hits the big time” Rory Mckeown
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“His dedication to music is unwavering and has a knack for attention to detail which can be seen in his flawless & intricate guitar playing” Oli Johnson
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“…Up next was Ryan Inglis, singer and songwriter as well as a guitar teacher, with strong clear vocals and memorable lyrics, his was yet another entertaining performance, leaving no doubt that he is a talented musician. He started with ‘How Things Change’ one of his own songs from his acoustic album, followed by two more of his own mellow numbers, ‘My Weakness’ stood out due to the universal theme captured by the lyrics and his heartfelt rendition of it” – Maha Tauseef from Richard Huish College
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“Weston based singer-songwriter Ryan Inglis entertained with his exceptional and effortless guitar playing” – Kirsty MacLeod and Eleanor Sunderland from Richard Huish College.
Reviews
Ryan Inglis – ’7 Blank Tiles’
Review by Dave Urwin
http://www.live-music-scene.co.uk/cd-reviews-content.asp?id=84
I’ve made this point in other reviews but it rings just as true now as it did a few weeks ago and so here goes. It’s the unfortunate nature of the world that we live in that means every solo artist who writes songs, in the traditional sense of the word, will instantly be labelled as a ‘singer/songwriter.’ That name is muck nowadays, what with the abundance of overly polished and hence artificial sounding chaps such as James Blunt, James Morrison and a whole host of others whose names I’ve forgotten due to the blandness of their work. On the other side of the coin, there are some pretty wonderful singer/songwriters out there too – see Kimya Dawson, Graham Coxon (latest effort ‘The Spinning Top’), Joe Volk and Regina Spektor for starters. Now we come to Ryan Inglis who, after listening to this self-titled album, I would say is most definitely in a league above the former group but has not yet shown the level of uniqueness to be mentioned in the same breath as the latter few.
Much of the lyrical flavour here details the need to break free and become everything he wants to be, and ironically I got the impression over the course of the album that Inglis, for much of the time, was holding a little back. Two of the most captivating tracks were the jazzy instrumentals ’3D’ and ‘Mellow Rumours’, both of which I found genuinely beguiling. Here we clearly have a thoughtful and creative individual and his songs deal with themes of unfulfilled potential that many will relate to. ‘If I fall’ is quite simply a great song – the line ‘I see everyone else but me becoming who they want to be’ is one that I find myself speaking most days, and during the chorus a haunting, folky guitar motif takes things up another notch. ‘Look FWD’ is an upbeat and kind of funky way to end the album and earns Inglis further points for proving himself to be a technically proficient guitarist but not feeling the needs to constantly show off the fact.
Overall there’s much to like about this album and hopefully it hints at greater things to come. I was reminded of a Honduran guy I met on my travels – as I half-heartedly tapped away on a bongo he put his hand on my shoulder and said “I know you’ve got more than that. Come on, show me.” At times I felt that perhaps Ryan Inglis could have done with something similar, but that’s something that comes as confidence grows. In a world where James Blunt can sell however many million albums I wouldn’t blame Ryan for feeling a little hard done by.
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Ryan Inglis – ’7 Blank Tiles’
Review by Sy Phillips
http://www.therocksceneuk.co.uk/
(http://www.therocksceneuk.co.uk/page_1371259.html)
Ryan Inglis is a familiar name in the South West music scene, not only for his music and regularly playing around Avon and Somerset, but he is also known to me as an event organiser putting on regular open mic gigs around the county. Evidently, a big music lover.
So I give his own album a good listen, in fact, if I am to be honest, I have already over played the self-titled 14 track album since it dropped through my door just three days prior. The album is gripping and well produced. Ryan has a strong voice, but its got an edge about it. You hear an acoustic album and you need something to stand out and hit you in order to make you listen to it again, because with the lack of other instruments in acoustic music, you need something to grip you. Ryan’s voice is the magnet to this album, its husky, but at the same time he can hit the high notes, he has the kind of voice that could sound good in any genre.
I imagine Ryan takes his influences from chart favourites like Jason Mraz and John Mayer, his music is similar and his voice equally as soulful, its definitely music that would sell to people from all warps of life and to all ages. I’d personally enjoy his music the most at a summer festival on a sunny afternoon. The talent seeps from this guy, I am surprised he is unsigned, as hard as the industry is right now, I am still very surprised that somebody like Sony has not come knocking for Ryan yet.
The album itself I guess can be described as a ‘bundle of funky love songs’…easy to listen to and easy to sing along to. ‘Feel any feeling’ is my favourite song, its also the first song that I can see as a ‘top ten hit’
The songs sound very similar throughout the album and the lyrics do tend to stay love orientated as many of these acoustic artists do, I’d like to hear Ryan come out with some slightly darker opinionated lyrics, I think there could be another side to his style that I would like to see.
There are a couple of instrumental tracks on the album too just to show the extent of this man’s talent, he performs a beautiful Santana-like classical guitar song which is perfection to my ears.
Ryan has the techniques and skills to succeed, his ability to slap the guitar and tap the wooden base of it to use it as a beat is incredible, a technique that Newton Faulkner does so well.
As I mentioned before, this is an album that you pick up and cannot seem to put down and for me it has made me musically satisfied for the last three days, this album could be seen as an ideal soundtrack to your life, it covers many feelings and emotions.
‘Footprint’ is a clever song and I sense some hidden meanings behind the lyrics, its a faster song that really stands out on the album.
To sum it up I would go as far to say that this is a ‘musical masterpiece’. Ryan Inglis, definitely remember that name!
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Ryan Inglis – ’7 Blank Tiles’
Review by Jessica Hartley:
Having seen Ryan Inglis live a few times before, when I was handed his album cleverly titled “” and asked to write a review on it, I knew it would be good. With songs such as ‘Feel Any Feeling’ opening the album, it shows off Ryan’s ever increasing skill. He exerts a technique of not only playing and singing but also holding a ‘drum’ sound by using the body of his acoustic guitar throughout most of the song. I particularly enjoyed ‘For You’, ‘There’s A Scene’ and ‘Footprint’.
‘For You’ begins with a less than simple acoustic riff, going back to Ryan’s technique of keeping the ‘drum’ rhythm on the body of his guitar. The verses build up to a powerful chorus, all complimented by Ryan’s adaptable voice.
‘There’s A Scene’ offers a glimpse of the romantic side to Ryan. With a great resemblance to much of the indie music scene, this track makes you wonder why he isn’t in the charts with those bands.
With the quickly sung ‘Footprint’ it seems Ryan has a lot to say in this song, he gets his message across with his perfect array of vocals and guitar that parades his dedication and talent.
I think this album will bring Ryan many rewards and help him onto much better things. I look forward to hearing his second album, which I’m sure, will be released through a label.
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(Gotta take the rough with the smooth)
Ryan Inglis – ’7 Blank Tiles’
Review by Owain Paciuszko
Opening track (after the pointless 13 seconds of Intros) Feel Any Feeling marks Ryan Inglis as a purveyor of carefully strummed, guitar-body drummed, singer-songwriter material. It’s in the Jack Johnson or Newton Faulkner mold and is okay in a totally vanilla kind of way, which, from an initial aesthetic point of view, is a shame as the cover art of this LP is brilliant, imaginative and eye catching; whereas the music is reasonable, uninspired and drifts into the background.
For You is content to amble down the same path, forcing me to rack my brains for the names of more bland singer-songwriters who I don’t necessarily despise but I generally don’t give two hoots about. Some bass comes in on There’s A Scene, but everything else remains the same. And on and on it goes with very little happening and each song blurring into the other with the similar strokes, riffs, stops and starts of general singer-songwriter armed with an acoustic guitar territory and maybe this somehow connects with some people (chart history of other ‘artists’ suggests thus) but, for me, I need a bit more feeling – be it joy or anger or misery – and a touch more invention in both the arrangment and lyrics. Having someone singing ‘Would you forgive me?’ over and over with no sense of regret while a rather chirpy guitar twiddles in the background just doesn’t reach me on any level at all.
Perhaps this is a problem with having some degree of expectation from cover art? I was actually looking forward to playing this CD after a string of rather poor covers, and was a tad baffled by what I was hearing and thought to myself, maybe he’s building up slowly over the course of the album and that ideas will creep in here and there. But, nope, it’s the same thing ad nauseum and though this isn’t – not by a long shot – an absolutely awful record, it is totally bland.
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Ryan Inglis – ’7 Blank Tiles’
REVIEW FROM VENUE MAGAZINE 08/01/09
“Weston-super-Mare lad Inglis – who deservedly won a place in the national finals of last years Live & Unsigned competition – here presents his beautifully artworked debut. All very nice, but just one problem. Like so many young, male singer/songwriters with good hair, he sounds a smidge too keen to please his mother. The lyrics, see, are so full of chaste love, smiling girls, selfless acts and positivity that the few stabs at ‘tortured’ (‘Look FWD’, ‘If I Fall’) are hard to swallow. It’s as if he spent 23 hours of the day exercising his formidable vocals (sort of Mark King meets Paul Heaton) and brilliant guitar technique – strumming, slapping, fingerpicking, virtually flamenco in parts, viz the two Bill Frisell-alike instrumentals – then had just an hour left to put pen to paper. Nothing a reading week and a good thesaurus won’t fix. (Anna Britten) ***/*****”
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Watching Ryan on stage, you know he gives it his all. Whether well performed covers or the over increasing catalogue of his own work.
I predict an album anytime soon, a collection of heartfelt words and melodies. Unlike so many of the singer/songwriters surfing the airwaves, Ryan’s songs are poingnant, personal and sometimes painful but not laced with self depreciation. He will write a song, adjust and practice until he feels it is right. Prolific – yet also a perfectionist.
Ryan has risen over the last few years to be a pillar of the Weston-super-Mare music scene. Appearing here and there, hosting jam/acoustic nights, working in a talented acoustic trio ‘STRING THEORY’ playing in the new and refreshing rock covers band ‘FACE ON A PLATE’ and performing his own songs at various venues. If music is playing, Ryan will figure in the equation. He also teaches younger aspiring musicians.
It is said many artists are overly critical of their work and abilities and so it is with Ryan. Despite his obvious passion and ability he felt uncomfortable writing anything complimentary about himself, hence my volunteering for this blurb. I hope I give people the right idea (I forgot to mention he’s also a big hit with the ladies)
As the song goes ‘music was my first love and it will be my last’ I would ascribe this to Ryan. When an album appears buy it, download it, whatever. It will be one CD every music collection should have.
Phil Inight 14/08/2006