Ryan Cook
ECMA 2009 Nomination: Country Recording of the Year
Ryan Cook is a rather unusual suspect in the world of honky-tonk singer/songwriters. Raised in a large dairy farming family in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Cook did just about everything he could to outrun the expected outcome of cowboy culture and country music. In fact, he began screaming in punk rock and death metal garage bands as a teenager and helped shape a popular Yarmouth music scene along with acts like Brian Borcherdt, Paul Murphy (Wintersleep), and Aaron Wallace (Sleepless Nights).
Ryan Cook on the Internet: www.ryancook.ca, MySpace, ReverbNation and Facebook,
In his early twenties, Cook worked as a student music therapist in a retirement home and took requests to play traditional country music. He began digging up old cassettes and records, and to his amazement, found himself falling in love with the “hayride” era of George Jones, Ray Price and Hank Williams. Several years later, after recording demos of his own songs and showcasing his music across Atlantic Canada, Cook entered the studio with his touring band Sunny Acres and released the award-winning debut LP “Hot Times”.
Produced by Scott Ferguson (The Rankin Family) and Ryan Cook, “Hot Times” is a bouncing collection of harlequin characters and slapstick stories, with a brooding undercurrent of grief and discord. Some of Cook’s inspiration can be attributed to obscure performers from the 1950’s and 60’s, such as the vintage sounds of Little Jimmy Dickens humorous novelty songs. While Cook’s Little Doves, Sharpest Knife and …Between The Buried and Me reveal the darker side of small town life, summoning the subtle nuances of Cook’s punk and heavy metal background. “Hot Times” was released on February 29, 2008, with special guest appearances from award-winning bluesman John Campbelljohn, Konrad Pluta, and members of Prince Edward Island’s Nudie and the Turks.
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