RYAN HOLWEGER

“I couldn’t overcome feeling I’d been dropped into the novel world of Cormac McCarthy’s gritty western fiction meets pure Southern Gothic. Lyrics are imbued with a straightforward clarity and darkness. Melodies echo universal hard-scrabble characters and striking vistas….You can nearly feel the fading heart, the grieving, the loss, the warm fluids running across cold fingers.” - REFUELED MAGAZINE

 

Ryan Holweger’s body of work has bloomed once again, with the inception of ‘The Golden Paper Flower’. Holweger’s 2018 debut solo album ‘Gunmetal Sky’ left some big shoes to fill, and he responded to the challenge with a deep, ethereal voice that transcends the limitations of its genre. ‘The Golden Paper Flower’ features a number of collaborating musicians, from budding newcomers like singer Reagan Helen to seasoned professionals like classical guitar player Aaron Bobis and bassist Blake Propst, and even Holweger’s talented wife Katie Anderson, who once again lends her voice to her husband's music, singing backup on ‘The County Route’ & ‘Bird’. Traditionally an international vagabond, Holweger has laid down some roots in Syracuse, New York, a dicey rustbelt city fighting to establish it’s creative identity, and this record just might come to serve as the essential anthem in that struggle. The album falls somewhere in between Americana, Southern Gothic, and Alternative Country, but to squeeze it into a box would only serve to diminish its value. At times it grooves like a samba beat, it picks up just enough, then slows down and settles in. It’s more nostalgic and celebratory than Gunmetal Sky. It’s a coming of age album, the voice of a rambling artist becoming a father. It’s a cosmic gospel. Holweger looks into the eyes of his Creator and stakes his claim here on Earth. The whole thing bleeds sincerity, it’s hard earned but full of the sort of surrender that only comes with carefully contemplated experience. The next generation needs this album, as with it, Holweger holds up the light to show us where to turn, and reminds us to have a little fun along the way.

Welcome to The Golden Paper Flower.