Ryan Spearman

Clawhammer Banjo Lessons - Frailing Banjo Lessons - Ryan Spearman Check out his music & website at www.ryanspearman.net

Ryan Spearman lives to share music. He's a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, volunteer radio producer, promoter, podcaster, and the co-founder of an organization (The Green Strum Project) encouraging connections between sustainability and the arts in St. Louis.

Here's what St. Louis' Premier music magazine, The River Front Times, has to say about Ryan:
"Consider Ryan Spearman the jujitsu master of folk music. Whether selling out listening rooms as a solo artist or performing around St. Louis with formal and informal blues and old-time groups, he uses his considerable knowledge of folk material and unassailable skill on guitar, mandolin, banjo, harmonica and fiddle to disarm any attempt to fix tradition in history books or on wax cylinders. Spearman's 2010 album, Live at the Chapel is no less than a clinic on how to update tradition without losing what makes mastering the old language worthwhile. His music speaks to the old spirits and teaches them a thing or two about contemporary life and song as well."

Spearman is an instructor at The Folk School of St. Louis where--for the last three years-- he has taught classes covering several traditional musical subjects including, clawhammer banjo, old time & bluegrass fiddle, guitar, jug band, improvisation, music theory, & old time ensemble performance.

He has also conducted numerous educational workshops across the United States including a recent 3-part presentation on "Traditional Songs and Fiddle Tunes of Missouri and the Midwest". The presentation was commissioned by the Missouri Artisans Alliance and co-conducted with banjoist and midwest fiddle tune historian, Sean Barth.

Ryan is a proud recipient ot the 2012 Earth Dance Farms Mission Award for his work exploring the connections between sutainability and music.

He has recently worked with The Muddy Waters Theater Company as a consultant in musical direction on their production of Eugene O' Neill's "Desire Under the Elms" in which he provided live musical performance and played a small role as a townperson/musician. He also scored, arranged, & performed the music for Muddy Water's subsequent production of O' Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night".

Spearman has recently finished recording St. Louis, Missouri's first local, sustainable CD project. The CD is called Get Along Home and was sponsored in part by The Green Strum Project. The idea for the album was conceived during a recent European concert tour and features instruments made from found and recycled items in the St. Louis, Missouri metro area. The album was written, engineered, mixed, mastered, and designed in St. Louis. The idea was to make a recording with significantly low environmental impact and, as a result, help to raise awareness of easily adoptable sustainable practices for artists and the importance of local economy.

He has toured all over the United States and in France, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. He has performed on the main stage of The Telluride Bluegrass Festival (Telluride, CO), The Northwest String Summit (North Plains, OR), High Sierra Music Festival (Quincy, CA), Kinfolk Festival (Lyons, CO), and The Thomas Hollow Songwriters Gathering (Exeter, MO), The Fayetteville Roots Festival (Fayetteville, AR), The Boulder Theater (Boulder, CO) , The Aggie Theater (Fort Collins, CO), and The Fox Theater (Boulder, CO), & The Sheldon Concert Hall (St. Louis, MO) just to name a few.

Currently Spearman is performing solo, with the newly formed Ryan Spearman Band, and as one half of The Pokey LaFarge & Ryan Spearman Duo.