Email this article

Greg Ryder

Life Is Flyin' By

By Paul Paradis

Found in: | Inside | Music |

"[Ryder's] smooth voice - so smooth a friend of mine likens it to her favorite characteristic of her favorite beer - was first to catch my attention for how it seems to gather the wide open spaces of the Southwest."

Country music holds a special place in my heart. But I'm picky. I'm drawn only to country singers who are humble, whose music is gritty with a high lonesome sound. Greg Ryder is one of these country musicians, singing his and classic country tunes four nights a week in the relaxed confines of the Diamond Belle Saloon in Durango's historic Strater Hotel.

My love for country music is derived from my father, a country boy from the Francophone Acadian Region of northern Maine. A Cold War soldier, he tells "war" stories, 50 years after the fact, as if they just happened. They're always exciting, beginning where my father began his service, Ruidoso, N.M., before being transferred to West Germany.

New Mexico is where I conjure the most vivid, romantic visions of my father. Thanks to the details of his stories, I see him and his buddies cruising in the 1949 Pontiac that he purchased with money he made farming the hills of Ruidoso. Windows down and the radio blaring popular tunes like Johnny Cash's "Hey Porter," Chuck Berry's "Havana Moon" or the classic Marty Robbins song, "El Paso," I see a much-younger man, looking for trouble, with a wild grin on his sun-burnt face. Behind the grin he's chuckling in his harsh French accent. I see the carload of soldiers arriving at a smoke-filled cantina in El Paso or Juarez intent on raising hell. That done, I see them heading back to the barracks in wild laughter. As a vision of the Southwest, for years this is how I saw it.

Moving to the Southwest three years ago, I instantly felt a strong connection to these stories. Other than maybe a drive through the high deserts of New Mexico, nothing evokes this nostalgia like the music of Greg Ryder. The sights and sounds that I associate with my father spring to life upon stepping into the Diamond Belle Saloon, where Ryder's singing fills the room.

Ryder is a Durango favorite and a mainstay of the local music scene. For years he has worked with the Bar-D Wranglers. His smooth voice - so smooth a friend of mine likens it to her favorite characteristic of her favorite beer - was first to catch my attention for how it seems to gather the wide open spaces of the Southwest.

Ryder has cut a couple of studio albums that showcase his wonderful voice and his songwriting talents. His latest album, Life is Flyin' By, is a nice collection of songs written by Ryder with support from Wayword Son frontman Benny Galloway. Also helping out with the album are some of the area's finest pickers: Anders Beck, also of the Wayword Sons, on dobro, Robin Davis on guitar and mandolin and Pete Neds on slide and lead guitars.

The album's opening and title track pays tribute to the fine supporting cast. In a classic Texas Swing style reminiscent of the great Bob Wills, Ryder introduces the musicians prior to each's respective solo. "Life is Flyin' By" is a happy song that illustrates relish of life's simpler things: "Smoke 'em while we got 'em/Drink that rock and rye/The old folks was right boys/Life is flyin' by boys/Here's to you and I boys/Life is flyin' by."

"The Sunday Blues," written by Ryder and Galloway, may be my favorite song on the album. Bittersweet melodies and vocal harmonies accompany lyrics that address the fragile nature of love. The song laments inevitable loss. "Oh but honey we're still here/Though it's just a matter of time/In a heartbeat we'll be gone/And we're already down the line/I feel I'm losing you/ I feel I'm losing you." The song concludes with interchanging solos from Davis and Beck.

I hope to never lose the romantic visions I have of my father and his days in the dusty Southwest. Each time I hear Ryder croon, I am reminded of these memories. At the Diamond Belle, he sings country songs the way they were meant to be sung, humbly, gritty and sounding lonesome. Maybe they'll conjure up a memory or two for you too.