The artist: Texas-bred Nashville-based country-folk singer-songwriter Ryan Beaver 

The album: Rx, Beaver’s third full-length effort, produced by Beaver’s longtime friends Jeremy Spillman and Ryan Tyndell

Fun fact: Beaver has toured with Ashley Monroe and Lee Ann Womack

Songwriter says: Rx is the record that has consumed my world for the past three years. Everything about it received so much thought and attention to detail. It’s a project that turned out different and better than I could have ever imagined. I leaned on creativity and ran from complacency. It taught me about myself and somehow made me love music even more than I already did. I owe so many people for lending their talent to this record and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

You can get the album now at www.ryanbeaver.com or on iTunes. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/rx/id1082397989

CMT Premiere – “Dark” Official Video

Today, CMT premiered the video for “Dark,” the first single to be released from Rx. Watch here: http://www.cmt.com/videos/ryan-beaver/1346357/dark.jhtml
Rx, which Beaver co-produced with longtime compadres Jeremy Spillman and Ryan Tyndell (both of whom have worked with Eric ChurchNikki Lane, and Little Big Town), makes it abundantly clear why Ryan Beaver has already been widely acclaimed as an artist to watch.
Rolling Stone recently named him one of “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know,” and he’s received acclaim from the likes of Lee Ann WomackMaren MorrisKacey Musgraves and Ashley Monroe, with whom he’s toured as an opening act.
Late last year, Stereogum premiered his single “Dark” and called it “the strongest country song I’ve hear all year.” The track became the imputus for the writing and recording of the album, and stemmed from a challenging time in his life when he lost his grandfather, a close friend, a subsequently a relationship in a short period of time.
“Writing ‘Dark’ really shook me, and really woke me up,” he says.  “I think I needed to hear those words more than anybody, and I realized that if I felt that way, maybe others would.  I got super excited, and I thought, ‘OK, I think I’m onto something here, this is a path that I want to take.’
“Singing ‘I ain’t afraid of the dark’ is as simple as it gets, and anybody can understand what it means.  That’s me trying to be an adult and trying to figure out how to deal with the real world.  It’s really simple, but getting yourself to the point where you’re able to express things that simply is a challenge, and it something I aspire to.  That’s what Hank Williams did, and it’s what Tom Petty does: express these complicated emotions in everyday language that everyone can understand.  That’s my goal.”
Tour Dates:
4/16: Savannah, GA – The Southbound Brewery %
4/20: Fort Worth, TX – The Capital Bar
4/22: Austin, TX – Lamberts
4/29: Jacksonville, FL – Mavericks %
5/5: New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
5/7: Philadelphia, PA – Milkboy Philly
5/10: Nashville, TN – The Basement East (Album Release Show)
5/11: Decatur, GA – Eddie’s Attic
% – with JJ Grey & Mofro
 
Track List:
1) Dark
2) Rum & Roses
3) Fast
4) When This World Ends
5) Jesus Was A Capricorn
6) Kristofferson
7) Habit
8) Vegas
9) Gravedigger
10) Still Yours
11) RX
12) If I Had A Horse

Listen to the song here!

Country music has always loved its cowboys and cowgirls. Their fashion has been celebrated on-stage, with razzle-dazzle, rhinestone-bedecked renditions of ranch wear (see: the handiwork of Nudie and Manuel), and in the audience, when, during the Urban Cowboy phenomenon, modern western attire found its way to country dance clubs in big cities. Countless country stars, Patsy Montana, Sons of the Pioneers, Marty Robbins and Reba McEntire among them, have immersed themselves in the role of a cowpoke. Even more have conjured the rugged, lonesome romance of gunslingers, steer-wranglers and bronco-busters in songs they’ve sung, including Jessi Colter, Waylon Jennings, George Strait, Garth Brooks, the Dixie Chicks, Brooks & Dunn and Randy Houser, who landed a portrayal of a saddled-up, strong and silent type on the charts just last year.

Filling all of these mythic cowboy boots are adult characters who bear no trace of youthful frivolity. In “If I Had a Horse,” Ryan Beaver unfurls a very different sort of fantasy — one of kids’ play, of galloping around the yard on a broomstick steed. Instead of depicting strength as a quality that only comes with being full grown, he yearns for the boldness he left behind with those long-ago games of make-believe. “With a pistol by my side,” he wagers, “I’d get back to being brave.”

In an email to NPR, Beavers explained that he initially viewed the song as capturing “the loss of innocence.” “It’s waking up one day and realizing that you’ve grown up and it’s time to deal with real life,” he wrote. “That part makes me truly sad, because it feels just like yesterday I was grabbing my mom’s kitchen broom and imagining it as a horse I was riding in some pasture. Now that I’ve had more time to live with the song, I hear traces of hope. Even though time moves forward, we can all find our ‘horse’ to make us feel like kids again. For me? It’s music.”

“Horse” concludes Beaver’s new album, RX, with stark, demo-like vulnerability; his voice cloaked in cavernous echo, his accompaniment consisting of plain, whole-note chords on piano and guitar. Beaver lingers over the ballad’s melody with a bristly sense of regret, landing midway between drawling and crooning. The remainder of the dozen tracks perform similarly visceral emotional work, albeit with a livelier combination of Music Row proficiency, singer-songwriter/ roots-rock earthiness and digital punch.

As a native Texan who came up in the Red Dirt scene before finding his footing in Nashville’s pro songwriting community, Beaver’s got the chops and the gumption to be a bit freewheeling with familiar country forms. “I look at being a part of both [songwriting] scenes as a blessing,” he wrote. “If you can own rugged independence and skillful song-craft, and exercise them when needed, why the hell wouldn’t anyone [want to do both]?”

RX is out on May 6 on St. Beaver Music.

Ryan Beaver Announces Anticipated 
New Album Rx Out May 6, 2016
Pre-Order RX  NOW!
Shares New Song “Fast”
Touring with Lee Ann Womack This Month
On May 6th, Nashville’s Ryan Beaver will release his much-anticipated new album Rx. Today, Ryan shares “Fast,” the second song to be released from Rx, which premiered yesterday at Yahoo Music.
Stream “Fast” via Soundcloud:
“This album is titled Rx because these songs are like medicine to me,” says Beaver of his new release. “Making this record was so much fun, and so therapeutic. These songs serve as a prescription for getting excited about music and life. And if they’re like medicine for me, maybe they will be for the listeners.”
Rx, which Beaver co-produced with longtime compadres Jeremy Spillman and Ryan Tyndell (both of whom have worked with Eric ChurchNikki Lane, and Little Big Town), makes it abundantly clear why Ryan Beaver has already been widely acclaimed as an artist to watch.
Rolling Stone recently named him one of “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know,” and he’s received acclaim from the likes of Miranda LambertLee Ann WomackMaren MorrisKacey Musgraves and Ashley Monroe, with whom he’s toured as an opening act.
Late last year, Stereogum premiered his single “Dark” and called it “the strongest country song I’ve hear all year.” The track became the imputus for the writing and recording of the album, and stemmed from a challenging time in his life when he lost his grandfather, a close friend, a subsequently a relationship in a short period of time.
“Writing ‘Dark’ really shook me, and really woke me up,” he says.  “I think I needed to hear those words more than anybody, and I realized that if I felt that way, maybe others would.  I got super excited, and I thought, ‘OK, I think I’m onto something here, this is a path that I want to take.’
“Singing ‘I ain’t afraid of the dark’ is as simple as it gets, and anybody can understand what it means.  That’s me trying to be an adult and trying to figure out how to deal with the real world.  It’s really simple, but getting yourself to the point where you’re able to express things that simply is a challenge, and it something I aspire to.  That’s what Hank Williams did, and it’s what Tom Petty does: express these complicated emotions in everyday language that everyone can understand.  That’s my goal.”
Ryan Beaver will hit the road with Lee Ann Womack later this month, with additional tour dates to follow.
Tour Dates:
2/21: Chandler, AZ – Chandler Center For The Arts *
2/22: Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up *
2/25: San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall *
4/16: Savannah, GA – Southbound Brewing Company #
4/20: Fort Worth, TX – Capital Bar
4/29: Jacksonville, FL – Mavericks #
* – with Lee Ann Womack
# – with JJ Grey & Mofro
 
Track List:
1) Dark
2) Rum & Roses
3) Fast
4) When This World Ends
5) Jesus Was A Capricorn
6) Kristofferson
7) Habit
8) Vegas
9) Gravedigger
10) Still Yours
11) RX
12) If I Had A Horse