Indie Music Review

GanoRyan Dream
Dreams of Flight
by Lisa Babick You may not have heard of GanoRyan yet, but you've definitely heard of its members: Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes, Billy and Brendan Ryan formerly of The Bogmen, Lonnie Hillyer from Maggie's Dream, and Frank Ferrer from Guns 'N' Roses. These five professional and experienced musicians have recently come together to form this incomparable-sounding new band. GanoRyan casts an engaging and distinct glow on alternative rock, and reveals a new layer to Gordon Gano's powerful and passionate voice. Their music is energetic, at times haunting and emotionally raw, and instantly addictive. We talked with keyboardist, accordianist, horn player, and all-around nice guy, Brendan Ryan, to find out what GanoRyan is all about. His brother, Billy, guitarist and back-up vocals, chips in for a bit too.IMR: How did you guys decide to record together?
BR: From what I recall we met in a bar in Greenwich Village called The Blind Tiger Ale House. Billy and I had been fans of the Femmes for years, but I don’t think Gordon heard our music until after we met. After The Bogmen broke up, Billy and I would play in a piano bar in the Village, and I remember Gordon coming down once or twice. Oh yeah, one common denominator that the Violent Femmes and The Bogmen have is that we both had a record produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads. That probably triggered some fun conversations which would usually segue into talk about music. In 2001, I played organ on a tune on Gordon’s Hitting The Ground. Then, The Bogmen reunited for a Bogmen benefit concert, and we asked Gordon to open for us. He had a lot of material that he was writing at the time, and Billy and I backed him up. While we were preparing for that show, we decided to write some songs as well, and that was when our collaboration began. How did Frank Ferrer who plays drums and Lonnie Hillyer who plays bass get involved with the band?
I’m pretty sure they were both introduced to Gordon by Warren Bruleigh. Frank played on Gordon’s, Hitting The Ground, and Lonnie had some great takes on it as well. My favorite Lonnie performance is on “So It Goes” a track that I think Linda Perry sang. Frank played with the Psychedelic Furs and now plays with Guns-n-Roses. Lonnie played with Bernie Worell and Maggie’s Dream. Lonnie’s father was an American jazz trumpeter who played with Charles Mingus and Clifford Jarvis, so obviously, the music is in the genes with Lonnie! According to your MySpace bio, you only recorded 22 songs. Any plans to record more?
We had a hard time narrowing it down to 22. I think there are another 10-20 that we put aside. The twenty-two that we recorded, to me, were the more simple and straight-forward of the bunch. We do plan to finish the rest in which we have talked about getting more adventurous instrumentally. Some were conceived from electronic loops and devices, so we plan on going in that direction as well.