Ryebender
Gig Seeker Pro

Ryebender

| INDIE

| INDIE
Band Alternative Country

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Matthew Ryan comments"

"There's something about those guitars and harmonies, somewhere between The Byrds and Son Volt's first records, they just makes you wanna adjust your rear-view mirror so you can watch what you're leaving fade all the way away. Good music offers cinema. This is good music guys." Matthew Ryan - Myspace


"Tim Easton comments"

"I always hear some part of the American Midwest or heartland inside the rock and roll bands of Alaska. Ryebender takes me back home to those raw sounds and influences I grew up with." Tim Easton - Myspace


"Ryebender's "Hollow and Drifting""

The twelve tracks on Ryebender’s debut disc "Hollow and Drifting" range from the hook filled power pop of “I Was Wrong�, the alt countryish “One Horse Town� on to “Drunk All The Time�, one of the best protest songs of 2008 (Todd Snider's "Peace Queer" EP offers several political tracks of stiff competition). The vocals and lyrics on “Drunk All The Time� owe more to Phil Ochs than No Depression and the painfully descriptive story of "Drunk" tells a sad contemporary tale of war, love and loss: “He was barely eighteen and called off to war to serve his country with pride.Fight for a cause that later we’d learn was based on a President’s lies�. - Hal Bogerd-Hickory Wind


"Best Alt-Country Albums of 2008"

Newcomer of the Year 2008 (#7) and Honorable Mention for Best Alt-Country Albums of 2008 - Radio Free Americana


"Alaskan foursome borrow from the best"

It’s not too hard to figure out where Ryebender are coming from. Their songs have titles like “One Horse Town�, “Whiskey and Caffeine� and “Drunk All the Time�. This is heartlands Americana that wears its influences on its sleeve without shame and pays what is often fitting tribute to them. There’s a heavy Son Volt vibe to the whole thing, but the listener can also pick up on the jangly melodicism of The Byrds, or the more contemporary adult rock of The Cardinals.

At the core of Ryebender are Alaskan brothers Mark and Jason Ward, joined by long term friends Michael Carpenter and Lennie Dietsch. The familiarity between them is made apparent by some tight and confident arrangements. If these arrangements sound perhaps a little too polished at times, they’re never generic or less than interesting and there are some memorable tunes. “Radio Dial� is a yearning piano led ballad, “Gravity� features a gorgeous co vocal with Lisa Whitworth and puts on a more countrified air, and the title track is a tough and elegiac alt country anthem with a high and lonesome harmonica blowing a sagebrush wind through the record’s closing moments.

There’s a skilled group of players on display here. Even if Ryebender borrow heavily from their influences they do so with the best of intentions, to pay tribute rather than to copy. There’s nothing revelatory or even particularly new here, just honest music played very well.


Date review added: Saturday, January 17, 2009
Reviewer: Alex Cleary
Reviewers Rating: 7 out of 10
- Americana-UK.com


"Ryebender - Alaskan Americana"

Recommended - Taking it back to the Roots!


"McRiprock's Lonestar Sixpack Project"

Ryebender–Hollow and Drifting–

This four-member rock band hailing from Alaska brings the core of Americana rock music to their album. Combining all things indie, country, pop, Irish, bluegrass and folk with the roots of arrangement and harmony, the music likens artists like The Byrds, Ryan Adams and Uncle Tupelo. The album is diverse and lyrical creating a genre that’s both new and old. 4.0 McRiprock’s - AustinDaze


Discography

Hollow and Drifting Full length CD - November, 2008
It's Christmas (Single) - December 2008

Newcomer of the Year 2008 (#7) and Honorable Mention for Best Alt-Country Albums of 2008
Radio Free Americana

Photos

Bio

The new Alt-country/Americana music of Ryebender is shaped by the musical journey of its members, with influences ranging from roots rock, pop and country, to folk, bluegrass and Irish music. The result is an unusual openness to diversity and personal songwriting � with a refreshing ability to create genre bending arrangements that defy convention. It is familiar yet different. Ryebender�s biggest appeal is that they need no genre, no parcel of land to call their own; they play honest music; created by musicians, for anyone with a simple love for music.

"There's something about those guitars and harmonies, somewhere between The Byrds and Son Volt's first records, they just makes you wanna adjust your rear-view mirror so you can watch what you're leaving fade all the way away. Good music offers cinema. This is good music guys." Matthew Ryan

Ryebender�s debut album �Hollow and Drifting� enters the Alt-country/Americana genre with honest, heartfelt, and thought-provoking songs to spur the imagination. "Hollow and Drifting" was mixed at The Factory Studios in Vancouver, BC by Juno award nominated engineer, Sheldon Zaharko, (who�s work appears on with The New Pornographers, Built to Spill, and Tegan and Sarah, and Leeroy Stagger.

The sound of the band is the product of Alaskan brothers, Mark and Jason Ward who grew up playing music with fellow Alaskan Lennie Dietsch. �We�ve been friends for years and played in a number of lineups both together and apart. These day�s we�re flung across the continent, from Anchorage to Oregon and Chicago, but came together in Sun Valley to record this CD. Getting the college band back together with our fellow band mate Michael Carpenter, was exhilarating because we already knew how to play together and the long hiatus had given each member something new to bring to the table.� Says Mark Ward, Ryebender�s front man. The songwriting uses both a sense of rural place and intimate passion to paint a variety of virtual sound landscapes.

"I always hear some part of the American Midwest or heartland inside the rock and roll bands of Alaska. Ryebender takes me back home to those raw sounds and influences I grew up with." Tim Easton

Ryebender�s �Hollow and Drifting� will be available in December of this year and released under its independent record label, Last Train Records.

For more information, please visit "http://www.myspace.com/ryebender" www.myspace.com/ryebender

For more information on Last Train Records and Ryebender please contact:
(Michael Carpenter, 208-720-8298, mc@michaelcarpenter.com