Northern Groove

What do Ryan Hennessey, Mike Strandberg, and Steve Ryan have in common?

Well... quite a lot actually.

But most importantly they have a deep-seated love for Egan's Pub and playing songs that the whole room "gets". They are the ultimate house party band who won't stop playing until they get kicked out - even that may not stop them.

Most people 'round these parts know that these three guys are all amazing musicians in their own right but as Ryan put it "I'm so excited to be a part of this show, because even though we love to entertain the crowd, I'm going to be entertained by the guys I'm playing with! It's like, 'shit man, you're blowing my mind!'"

So if you want to see the best house party in a pub, come to Egan's Pub on Friday, December 2 at 8pm for the Three Amigos or Musketeers or whatever they're calling themselves... Ryan Hennessey, Mike Strandberg (who obviously missed out on being in the photo), and Steve Ryan.

"It's campfire season!"

It's a glorious Sunday afternoon. The sun is hot for the first time this year. Steve Ryan, a popular and respected fixture on the local music scene, has that faraway look in his eye. "Campfires are best when there is live music. I wanted to be able to bring a guitar to the beach and the campfire. I wanted to be part of that." He is musing about growing up on PEI and what drew him to music.

"I started taking lessons in grade 6. The guy who was giving me the lessons didn't know how to read music, so he would listen to a song, figure out how to play it, and then show me. All in an hour. He taught me how to do it myself." Back then, Steve's musical inspiration came from ACDC and Black Sabbath. He couldn't play them the way he liked on his first guitar, a second-hand acoustic, so he got the $100 guitar and amp package from his local music shop.

"I loved the versatility of an acoustic," he says. His acoustic guitar is a monument to his love of campfires. "It's been left in the rain a couple of times. It’s been dropped," says Steve, “but that only gives it character.”

Steve played in the jazz band at school, but that meant taking the music theory course. "I was so far behind in music theory that they put me alone in a small room where I played guitar. There was a book of 7582 chords and I played them all." The experience left Steve with a thorough knowledge of his fret board, and the jazz band introduced him to the joys of 9th's and diminished chords.

He started playing in rock bands in junior high and continued through high school. His brother Andrew, two years younger, was learning drums while Steve was learning guitar. When Steve moved from rhythm guitar to learning to play lead, Andrew picked up rhythm guitar. They began writing songs together. Steve still plays some of those songs. "Lighter Thief", a song about his brother, will be familiar to anyone who has heard Steve perform his originals.

Those who celebrated the declaration of Fort St John as Music Capital of Northern BC at Egan's in August 2009 will remember the web link-up between Egan's and a basement in PEI. Steve is so plugged into the local music scene, he participated virtually while on a visit back to the Island. Steve and Andrew played four songs. It was a crazy experience for Steve.

"It was four hours later in PEI, so when we started to play at 10 pm in BC, it was 2 am in PEI!"

It was a pretty strange gig because the video feed only went one way -- from PEI to Egan's.

"We didn't have any feedback from Egan's, so we would play a song and..." Steve makes an expression of looking around like he is lost. There was no way of hearing the enthusiastic response from the people at Egan's. "It was the day after I arrived in PEI. We spent most of our time on the technical stuff...getting the right camera, figuring out how to do it." But it is one of many Fort St John musical experiences he'll never forget.

Steve's association with Egan's goes back almost to his arrival in FSJ in May 2005. "When I got my new job, I didn't even know where Fort St John was." He got out the books and began looking, starting down near Vancouver and moving out in wider and wider circles until he found it.

When he arrived at the airport, there was a guy getting into a cab. The guy offered to share it. Steve said he would wait for the next. The guy getting into the cab said "I bet it'll be the same cab." Fifteen minutes later, the same cab returned and took Steve as its passenger. He remembers wondering just how big the town was if it only had one taxi.

He spent his first year out at camp, surveying. Not much time for music. After a year in the bush, he was moved to an office job. That's when he had time to start exploring the local music scene. A scene that was pretty much defined by open mic at Egan's.

Steve's first few visits to open mic were just to listen. He had never played and sung by himself. "In bands, I was singing harmony. I didn't even know the words to an entire song, only the choruses." He decided to learn four songs and nervously got on stage. Then he would learn another four songs for the next open mic because he didn't want to repeat himself. But it was a learning process in other ways. He found that some songs worked at home but didn't work at Egan's. "At home, I would sing low and softly. On stage I was more comfortable singing higher, maybe because I was used to doing high harmonies."

One evening, a guy showed up with a mandolin. Steve went up to him and introduced himself and asked if the guy knew any Steve Earle, one of Steve's adult influences. Before long he was on stage with the Ramblers: Nick Baccante, Mike Odowichuk, and Todd Koponyas. He also found a shared music heritage of the Northern Pikes with Ryan Hennessey, The Man of Open Mic.

Ryan Hennessey remembers a quiet, unassuming guy in a baseball cap, pulled so low you couldn't see his eyes, getting up on stage and playing Dave Matthew's "So Much to Say". "He was no 3 chord wonder," says Ryan. "'So Much to Say' is the most in-your-face piece of music, and as quiet as he appeared, he let his fingers do the talking."

Ryan sat up and took notice, and, according to Mr Open Mic, Steve was the first regular to develop a fan following.

Ryan says he heard a story about the other Ryan's first trip back to PEI after he had begun playing at Egan's. Steve was at a party in a barn. A band had finished playing, and everyone went outside. Steve got up on stage, plugged into the PA and started playing and singing. The people outside heard it and didn't know what it was. "They thought it could be a recording," says Ryan H. So they went into the barn and saw Steve, who was known to them as a lead guitarist and harmony singer. There he was playing and singing complete songs. When they asked him "What's that?," Steve replied, "This is what I do in Fort St John."

Exactly.

When I asked Ryan H. about the shared passion for the Northern Pikes, Ryan said, "I think Steve shares a passion for honest music. He takes a lot of pride in his playing. He pushes and challenges himself, playing really complex music."

Ryan tells another story about Steve on stage at open mic. Ryan was watching Steve play with a friend. The friend stood there, mesmerized. "Look at his fucking fingers!" was all he could say.

To sum up, Ryan said, "Steve is a musician's musician. He's a musician first, then a performer. He's a music lover, wise beyond his years when it comes to music. I just wish he'd cut his hair!"

For Mayfest 2009, Steve got the opportunity to open for Nine Mile at Egan's with Jennifer Morrisette accompanying him on djembe for a show of originals. Videos of that show are available on youtube. [http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=steve+ryan+mayfest&;aq=f] He is grateful for the opportunity to open for musicians coming through town because it gives him the chance to showcase his songs and finish up those that are not quite ready.

"If I have a chorus and a verse, it gives me the motivation to add a couple of verses to play it as a song."

Last year, when he was asked to do a Strawberry Jam at the Lido, he decided it was time to play with a band. He invited Mitch Guindon and Johnny Stone to join him. That was another experience he is proud of.

What you hear in other musicians as they speak about Steve is the tremendous respect they have for him, both as a musician and as a human being. Mitch Guindon was pleased Northern Groove was going to be writing about his friend.

"Steve and I have some great communication when we play together," says Mitch."We often discuss what part of the song is coming next, while we are in the midst of playing it. It's like this: Steve will turn to me and say 'Do you remember how the bridge goes? I'm pretty sure something different is going to happen right away but I don't know what it's going to be...' and then all of a sudden we will both know exactly what to do and he will turn back around to the mic and start singing. It's magic when that stuff happens."

And when a musician says magic happens, there isn't any higher praise.

When I asked Mitch if he could tell me more about Steve Ryan the person, he added this: "All I can say is that I have been sworn to secrecy on my limited knowledge of Steve's life before he came to Fort St John."

Another of Steve's fans is Dayna Manning. She asked Steve to play guitar and sing harmonies with her in April when she performed at the Cultural Centre.

"Steve Ryan is the Tom Petty of the Fort St John music scene," says Dayna. "Everything he does is tasteful, laid back and of the utmost quality. His songs make waves and stick in your head. His guitar parts are the glimmer on the star. All in all, he's kind of like a sprinkle of magic fairy dust. Musically speaking."

"That was the first time I played on the Cultural Centre stage," says Steve. "I’ve never had my own riser before!" He says playing Dayna's show was an amazing experience with an amazing group of musicians. "All you had to do was say what key a song was in, and it sounded as if everyone had been playing together for years." He was bowled over by the skills of Dave Tolley, both on the drum kit and cajon, as well as Dave's role in shaping the music.

When I asked about his well-known love of Tom Petty's music, another major influence in his own writing, he turned to me and said "Everybody loves Tom Petty!"

As for the future, Steve would like to get his originals recorded. When I asked if he had any definite plans, he said that he was still finding the right voice for his songs. When he plays them live, he works with them, polishing them, changing their tempo at times, letting them evolve and gel in their own time. When he is comfortable with that, he'll track down the right people for each track.

"There is so much talent here," he says, and you can tell that he wants to bring in as many people as he can. Including his brother. "I'd love to get Andrew up here to do a show. There’s something special when you have played with someone that long, especially when he is your brother!"

He'd also like to do another show with a full band. This time, the Barracudas.

And a career in music? "I'm not forcing anything. I just like playing and listening to music. There are so many great songs, and learning to play them and to perform them live gives you a new connection to them.”

"We have this opportunity to play because people show up to open mic. There are the performers, but there are also a lot of people who just come to hear the music. Without that support, it wouldn't last too long. That's huge."

Steve counts himself among the listeners as well as the performers.

"Some nights I don't bring my guitar. I just want some beer, some wings, and to listen to the music."

When Egan's closed briefly at the beginning of 2010, Steve hosted the travelling open mics that toured Casey's and Jackfish Dundee's. He wanted to do anything he could to ensure the open mic tradition would continue.

That pretty well sums up Steve Ryan. Quiet, unassuming, talented, well-respected, and happy to be part of the music scene in Fort St John, playing whatever role he can.

If you don't catch him at Egan's, or on the golf course, you might find him some summer's evening with his guitar by a campfire.

Local Singer/Songwriter and Juno nominated artist Dayna Manning is planning a very special show this Saturday evening at the North Peace Cultural Centre. Dayna was one of the talented local artists featured at NPCC’s Spotlight 2010, and NPCC is please to present her as a local featured artist in 2011. This is going to be a very up-close and personal show, showcasing some of FSJ’s finest talent.

Dayna will be performing two 35 minute sets of entirely original work, featuring all local musicians. Since re-locating to Fort St. John from Stratford, Ontario in 2005, Dayna has been please to see the arrival of many other fantastic musicians form throughout  Canada, and become aquainted with all of the talented local artists. This Saturday night, Dayna’s band will consist of Gidd Hampton (Comox/FSJ) on  lap steel & guitar, his wife Bettyanne Hampton (Comox/FSJ) on accordion, Joscelyn Hannaford (FSJ) on the violin and the always impeccable Steve Ryan (PEI/FSJ) and Dave Tolley (Kitchener/FSJ) on guitars/vox and drums respectively. 

Dayna Manning has three records out to date that feature the likes of Sean Ono-Lennon, Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and many other world class musicians. She has toured Canada extensively with acts like Joe Cocker, Burton Cummings, Lilith Fair and even Radiohead. She is a respected songwriter, guitar player and singer, and has called Fort St. John home for the past six years. She is the singing voice of our local radio station Moose FM and has produced music commercially, including television ads for NASCAR and Save the Children. You can listen to Dayna’s work at her website heartist.ca

Dayna Manning with Local Musicians

North Peace Cultural Centre
, Fort St. John
Saturday April 16th, 2011
7:30 pm

Tickets $32.00 Child $20.00  
Tix Available at  at the Cultural Centre, Whole Wheat & Honey or online here –  https://tickets.npcc.bc.ca
Photo Attached by @kylewith

Saturday June 5th, Jackfish Dundee's Pub is hosting it's first "Jammin at Jacks" on the patio at the lake! This event will take place every second Saturday for the entire summer! Musicians will take to the stage at 2:00 p.m. weather permitting.

What better way to welcome summer than listening to talented local artists and musicians play on stage...
Everyone is welcome. The stage will be set up on the lawn just off the patio. Russell Eggleston will be managing sound, and the amazingly talented Steve Ryan will be hosting the show.

All entertainers will receive a complimentary beverage ticket and 1/2 price on any appetizer. Jackfish is hoping to have as many entertainers as possible come out and join in the festivities!  Sun, fun and music with cool beverages and a fanstastic menu!

If you have any questions please contact Trynna at JFD'S 250-785-3233.

Steve Ryan is performing this Friday, April 16th, at Egan's Pub with guest drummer / percussionist Mitch Guindon. Steve is no stranger to Egan's ... in fact, in my opinion, Egan's wouldn't be the same without him! In addition to being a fantastic musician, Steve is a huge supporter of the local music scene in Fort St. John ... most notably during the Fort St. John Music Capital Celebration at Egan's, Steve performed via webcam just to ensure he was able to be a part.

Steve will be playing some original music along with some well chosen covers. The show starts around 9pm and will go until... well, until the show's over. If you have a moment, be sure to stop in and enjoy some of Steve's tunes...

What can happen in 5 years? Well...lots actually: Toddlers develop cognitive and motor skills at an exponential rate; economies recess and recover (and recess again); salmon leave the river where they were spawned and then return to complete their life cycle; 2 winter Olympiads; Microsoft gives the world 3 more versions of Windows...

In Fort St. John, however, the passing of 5 years also means Egan’s Open Mic has evolved from a quiet Sunday night jam that featured a handful of performers into a Wednesday night beacon for local musical talent. 5 years of friendships forged, collaborations, artists honing their craft, and a wonderful event for the music-lovin’ people in Fort St. John to be together. 5 years of falling in love with performances from our friends and peers such as house favourite Steve Ryan, Lindsay Pratt (you’ve come along way baby!), Nick Baccante, Jason Butler, Mike Odowichuk, Johnny Stone and Johnny G. And now it seems we’re watching the changing of the guard as artists like Ryan Sebastiano, Adam Kirschner, Lee Taylor, Henry See and Mat Savard become more familiar. Jeez...we might have to add a second night. Anyway you look at it, there is a vast amount of talent in this town and Egan’s stage has seen it all.

As Open Mic on Tour descends on Egan’s on April 21, it will mark the 5th anniversary for this ‘granddaddy’ of musical events in our city. The music is gonna start early (I promise) and go late...cause I’m guessing the list of stage-takers will be long and distinguished. This night is a huge deal to me. I’ve had the absolute honour of spending the majority of my Wednesdays with tons of incredible people, both on and off the stage. So come on out and let’s have a beer, share some stories and enjoy the music!
 

As part of Open Mic's grand tour of the city it will be stopping at Jackfish Dundee's this Wednesday, March 10.

As Jackfish Dundee's is out of town, for the Open Mic night they are offering a shuttle to anyone who may need that sort of service. I thought I would post the scoop about it to clear up any confusion.

The shuttle holds 6 people and will make 3 runs from FSJ to Jackfish Dundee's. 

Pick-up point: Co-op Mall Parking Lot

Pick-up times: 7:00pm, 7:45pm, and 8:30pm

To make sure everyone has a safe ride home the shuttle will also offer rides back into town.

The night will be hosted by Open Mic veteran Steve Ryan, and as per usual will get rolling around 8:00pm-ish MST (Musician-Standard-Time). So bring your instruments down, get your name on the list, and let's play some music!

Stay tuned to Northern Groove if you're interested in Open Mic's other March tour stops.

Earlier this week we posed the question: "Where will FSJ's Open Mic go?".

We have an answer to that question! Well at least for the next two weeks ...

Since hearing news of the closure of FSJ's original Open Mic home, Egan's Pub, the music community has expressed overwhelming interest in keeping this event alive and kicking.

With that said, the Open Mic we know and love will be happening on February 17 and February 24 at two different local venues.

Wednesday, Feb 17 - Casey's Pub

Wednesday, Feb 24 - Jackfish Dundee's (Jackfish Dundee's will be offering a shuttle for the night, as the pub is located in Charlie Lake)

Both nights will be hosted by Open Mic veteran Steve Ryan, and as per usual the night will get rolling around 8:30pm. So bring your instruments down, get your name on the list, and let's play some music!

Fort St. John's Steve Ryan is making the trip down to Dawson Creek on Friday, January 22 and Saturday January 23 to help The Suspicious rock the grand re-opening of Fynnigan's Pub (12121-8th St).

Steve Ryan is a music staple in Fort St. John and the East Coast transplant has performed more times and with more people than I can count. 

He has opened for Nine Mile and Rob Szabo.  He has shared shows with fellow FSJ music veteran Ryan Hennessey.  He performed at MayFest 2009 and at the FSJ Music Capital Celebration via webcam. He is a loyal member of the Egan's Open Mic community and recently Egan's Pub has asked him to lend his expansive repetoire to their trivia nights, where he performs the music section live.

Steve is one talented and versatile musician and he always gets the crowd going no matter if he's playing one of his fantastic originals, a song from his giant collection of classic covers, or jamming with a group.

So get your dancing shoes on Dawson Creekers and Peace Region roadtrippers - Steve Ryan and The Suspicious are sure to give them something to boogie down to!

Hey Dawson Creekers and Peace Region road trippers, Fynnigan's Pub (12121-8th St, Dawson Creek) is re-opening and to help celebrate they've lined up 2 nights of rock!  Next Friday, January 22, and Saturday, January 23, Dawson Creek's hometown rockers, The Suspicious, and Fort St. John's Steve Ryan are set to give your dancing shoes something to boogie down to.

The origins of the band The Suspicious are rather shady and veiled in secrecy.  According to music folklore, many years ago it was written by a series of prophets that a performance group of a suspicious nature would come to be. It was said they would put forth great efforts in music and create a loyal following. The prophecy foretold that the members of this band would vary over the years from three to six members, but in the year MMX they would prove glorious with a three piece band.

Previously thought to be purely musical myth, it's quickly becoming clear that The Suspicious is the band the prophecy spoke of.  From their name to their loyal following to their current 3-piece evolution (featuring bassist Tyson Mowat, lead guitarist Adam Perrin, and Anytown's drummer Mitch Guindon) to their intense performances of original and classic rock tunes .... well, you can connect the dots.

I've scoured The Suspicious' top secret archives to bring you a little sneak listen before the shows.  Here's a song that should resonate with all the Canadian boys and girls out there:

The Suspicious - Maple Sugar

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Photo: The Suspicious in the days leading up to their current prophecy-fulfilling inception.  To see that current inception you'll have to catch them at the shows at Fynnigan's!