Ryan Verthein began playing the guitar at age 4 when he received a Harmony guitar for Christmas. After his Dad taught him three basic rock and roll chords and handed him some Buddy Holly CD's, Ryan set out to learn to play. Soon discovering the blues, especially at a Jonny Lang concert back when Jonny was 14 and Ryan was 8. The sound of blues guitar left it's mark and Ryan spent hours every day listening to every blues record and CD he could get his hands on and developing his own style. Soon he was writing songs and playing small clubs and coffee shops around Northern Minnesota. This led to two CD projects, one a home made and home recorded CD and one a professional recording in a real studio. Regional success followed, airplay on national and worldwide syndicated blues programs helped get his music out there. This CD contains 13 tracks all written by Ryan himself, and also serve as a bit of a sampler of his two other CD releases, and includes some very unique and interesting tracks. The first 5 tracks were released on Ryan's first "commercial" CD release "Absolute Custom". This entire CD was recorded at First Generation Studios and features Mike Carvale of the Lamont Cranston Band, who Ryan "borrowed" for these recording sessions. More details can be found with the listing for that CD. Track 6 is the title cut from his "home-made" CD release, 1949 Chevrolet Blues. A simple acoustic guitar and vocal number with a bit of whimsy in it. The next 5 tracks were also recorded at First Generation Studios with Ryan, and the rest of the Del-Rays, Kevin Severson on Drums and Joe Downing on bass. This was the personel lineup for nearly all the Del-Rays live shows and recordings. This was for a second (or third, depending on your point of view) CD project that due to life circumstances never was completed. There are some great songs among these "On It" being a personal favorite. These are tracks that contain the original "live" vocals. Many of you realize that in the studio the songs are laid down and generally the vocals are redone for "real" after the fact. These are the raw, live studio vocals. There are no overdubs here. Track 12 is honest to goodness blues, recorded live at the Finlayson Music Hall in the small town of Finlayson in Central Minnesota, a venue that is now defunct. This hall was basically an old school gym with a stage. The gym area had been filled with old recliners, ottomans, sofas and stools allowing people to hang out and enjoy with plenty of room for dancing. Needless to say the natural reverb of the huge room adds to the sound! About the song. Imagine being 17 or 18, and your girlfriend has just dumped you. Most teenagers would simply sulk around for days. But, when you sing and play the blues you write a song. Which is exactly what Ryan did. This recording is the first performance of this song. Not only that, the girl the song is about is in the audience. So Ryan is literally singing the song he wrote to the girl, TO the girl, LIVE on stage in it's very first performance. As an observer in the crowd I saw first hand the pain, hope and emotion in Ryan's performance and the reaction of the girl in the song. The emotion you hear in Ryan's voice is completely real. To this day I turn this track up real loud and the hair on my arms stands up when I listen and realize that this IS the blues, the honest to goodness venting of raw emotion thru the guitar and the singing voice. Bad live quality recording notwithstanding, this sucker rocks! Not to mention some girls in the crowd screaming their lungs out while he plays! Special thanks to Chris O'Brien and the Cohorts, the act that shared the bill with Ryan that night. They recorded all their gigs with a digital recorder at the back of the hall, and unbeknownst to us, recorded Ryan's performance as well and graciously gave us the recording of the nights performance, which is what you hear here raw and unedited. This back when portable digital recorders were a rare item. The last track came about when Ryan was called into action by a local radio station where the DJ's had complained that besides hymns there were no Thanksgiving songs. 20 minutes later, "Thanksgiving Baby" was born. Nothing left to say but "Enjoy".