Artist description Straight Up! blends the wailing voice of singer/songwriter Janet Ryan, a recent arrival from southern Fairfield County, Connecticut, by way of Chicago, Illinois, with the talents of Holyoke, Massachusetts, blues guitarist/singer Ray Chaput. The feel of the music is blues, and it's combined with a unique soulful sound that takes the music to another level.

Music Style Blues rock

Musical Influences You can feel the influence of Etta James and Janis Joplin, the blues of Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, and the soul of Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin.

Similar Artists Bonnie Riatt, Albert Collins

Artist History Janet Ryan has become a recognizable name in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts in the past year. Most recently, she was voted best female vocalist by the Valley Advocate newspapers; (and her band Straight Up! was voted best blues band.) She held a CD release party for her new CD "Wrapped Up In Blue" with a full house at Theodores' in Springfield, MA; played the Taste of Northampton, MA; the Iron Horse Music Hall; the Pioneer Valley Blues Festival; the Splendor in the Grass Festival at the Pines Theatre in Northampton; and was a finalist in the WRSI singer songwriter competition. Since the release of her first CD "Passion and Fire" she and her band Straight Up! have exploded into the local club scene, and continue to blow the audiences away with their high energy rocking blue

Group Members Janet Ryan, Singer/songwriter and piano ®ay ©haput, Guitar and vocal Joe Elliot, Hammond Organ and Piano Dennis Libido, Bass, vocal and eccentric guitar Billy Klock, Drummer/percussionist and timekeeper

Instruments Guitar, Hammond Organ, Piano, Bass, Percussion

Albums Passion and Fire, Wrapped Up In Blue

Press Reviews Thursday, August 22, 2002 -- Janet Ryan, "Wrapped Up in Blue" There's something misleading about the name of Janet Ryan's blues band, Straight Up! The sound of its new CD, "Wrapped Up in Blue," is confident and full, but Ryan and her musicians don't always follow straight lines in the 10 tracks of this bracing disc. They meander and search. That's the roundabout way the blues truck should deliver its bittersweet cargo. Ryan, who lives in Conway and writes most of the band's material, is an imaginative composer (she also teaches voice and piano at the Springfield Community Music School and at her home) who, in this outing, shows an ability to combine the patterned, stripped-down throb of the blues with variations that make songs fresh. She lives in Conway, but this singer is at home in the roadhouse. Ryan narrates these tales, like "Love Has Left The Building" and "Appreciate Me," with a big and resourceful voice. The disc closes with the slower "Uphill Climb." Her confidence lifts these recordings. I thought of how Bonnie Raitt's voice nearly rusts through with pain in the great album she released 30 years ago, "Give It Up." That 1972 record has a family connection to Ryan's, for it also features work by Joel Zoss, who plays acoustic guitar in "All My Kisses" on the new CD. "Wrapped up in Blue" is a top-notch work that showcases five sterling musicians. The men who play alongside Ryan aren't there only to surround her vocals, as seems the case in some blues recordings. "Life Is a River," the third track, shows the band's unity and its members' equality. The slower "Appreciate Me" opens with raw and gripping guitar by Ray Chaput that is both straight ahead, in the spirit of this ensemble, and kaleidoscopic in its feedback and effects. Chaput, again and again in this CD, makes this feel authentic. At one point in the song, his guitar break seems to split into three pieces and form its own orchestration. Right when a live crowd would be pounding out applause for his work, Ryan's voice floods in with feeling and appreciation. "All My Kisses," which features Zoss, settles the fuss raised in the more pleading "Appreciate Me." Shifts in tone deliver good surprises. That sort of control matters, for a blues album is less about ideas and stories and more about groove and setting - and about how tightly a band can rally. Ryan's ensemble has it all down cold. "Wrapped Up in Blue" also contains fine work by Joe Elliott on keyboards and organ, Dennis LeBeau on bass and Billy Klock on drums. I was taken by the bright beauty of Elliott's performance on the organ. Joe Meo adds terrific sax and flute. When listeners settle down into the creases of these songs, they'll start to hear things not immediately apparent. One of the best songs, "The Lust," delivers a good story by taking a journey. The band gets there the tried and true way - they drive. Donnie Moorhouse, Springfield, MA, Union News newspapers Janet Ryan, Wrapped up in Blue Janet Ryan is talking about her new release "Wrapped Up In Blue," which she debuted for local blues fans at Theodores' on Worthington Street in Springfield Saturday night. Ryan and her band Straight Up have made a mark on the local blues scene over the last year and a half and are poised to turn that mark into an indelible stamp with this new release. "I think I feel wrapped up in the blues most of the time," said Ryan, referring to the title of the disc. Straight Up includes Holyoke native Ray Chaput on guitar who also engineered and produced the disc with Ryan. The band is rounded out by Billy Klock on drums, Joe Elliott on B3 organ, and Dennis Lebeau on bass

Location Holyoke, MA - USA

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