Alberta Musician Ryland Moranz's New Album XO, 1945 Is Out Today!
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WATCH/SHARE Live Video For
3rd Single 'Beautiful World' HERE
Alberta-based singer-songwriter Ryland Moranz is excited to announce the release of his new album XO, 1945, out today on all digital streaming services through Tonic Records. Also out today is the live video for the album's 3rd single 'Beautiful World'. Watch the video here.
Continuing in the grand tradition of great storytellers, Ryland filters the spirits and genius of literary giants like Kurt Vonnegut and Ernest Hemingway through the compositional templates determined by Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, or Blaze Foley, whose tragic demise is recalled in the affecting 'There Ain’t New Songs', which, like the ragtime-style 'Run Rabbit Run', is one of many sublime highlights featured on Ryland’s sophomore release, XO, 1945.
Both in his own right as a solo artist and as an integral member of Leeroy Stagger’s potent alt-country outfit, the Rebeltone Sound, Ryland has spent a considerable time traversing the highways and byways of Canada, the US, and Europe, reflecting on personal growth and empathetically noting all around him, absorbing the images, stories, events, and experiences of the road as he goes. While the miles and time slip by Ryland reads, mainly history and classic literature, and of the new songs that have emerged from an inspired combination of the compelling pages of his book choices and all he sees through tour bus windows in pursuit of his art.
“I feel less like a writer of fiction and more like a collector of sorts," says Ryland. "It’s a romantic notion, but I like the idea of being a hopeful observer of the world and the people in it. I think in a roundabout way that’s what the new record is about, and kind of why I called it XO, 1945 – kind regards from a past that’s different than you remember.”
The album title, XO, 1945, holds a mirror to the title of Ryland’s 2016 solo debut, Hello New Old World, as if in continuation of his sanguine faith in humankind turning the corner. It’s a lyrically poetic, sonically earthy album of gritty roots rockers and moving, nostalgic balladry, propelled by Ryland’s clawhammer banjo, electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, mandola and harmonica, and intoned in a characterful voice recalling a young Steve Earle.
With ‘normal’ life on pause for the foreseeable future, Ryland will continue to passionately read, further enriching his mind with the classics, and, as that hopeful observer, gather and amass stories for the songs of Album # 3 and, quite likely # 4…and onward. Only time will tell.
Ryland Moranz’s new album XO, 1945 is available now on Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes, and other digital retailers and streaming services worldwide.
RYLAND MORANZ - XO, 1945.
RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 15th, 2021
(Tonic Records)
01. Where Are My Blue Eyes
02. If I Had Wings
03. Dangerous Man
04. Lay Me Down
05. There Ain't New Songs
06. The Old Ways Of Navigation
07. Beautiful World
08. Israel
09. Richard Nixon
10. Run Rabbit Run
11. Stolen Land
12. No More Guns In The Valley
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