You might as well know right up front that I’m not comfortable writing about myself.I find it pretentious at best and self-serving at the worst. Nevertheless, my publicist told me to come up with a short bio, so…
I grew up on the Central California coast in a sleepy little agricultural community called Watsonville, but I never tell people that’s where I’m from because no one has ever heard of it. I always say I’m from Santa Cruz. Almost everyone has heard of Santa Cruz. You know, “Surf City”; Steamer Lane; The Boardwalk; Redwoods; The Fighting Banana Slugs (I’m not making that up. The UCSC mascot is the lowly Banana Slug). Weird? Yeah, but I mean, come on…it’s Santa Cruz. Weirdness is practically required.
I attended a small, private university that was hidden away back among the redwoods in the Santa Cruz mountains. I majored in music composition with a minor in psychology, but I was a horrible student! Simply awful! I had no time for school. I was too busy playing bass, writing songs and performing with any one of several bands I had joined. It was a portent of things to come as at the age of nineteen I became regularly employed as a session musician up in the Bay Area of California. But it was at that funky little school that I met Cheri, the one true love of my life to whom I have been married for many adventuresome years. We have two grown children, Ryan and Sarah who both live with their spouses and our grandchildren (Ocean, Diego, Neely and Mable) in places nicer than here.
I started writing seriously following a long and satisfying career in the music industry as a songwriter, recording artist, arranger, producer and director of A&R for a couple of record labels. As a songwriter I have over one hundred and thirty songs in publication worldwide and have produced over fifty album projects and blah, blah, blah. I still write and record with my band, Armagosa. You can find some of our FREE MUSIC HERE.
I am the author of, “The Voices In My Head,” the life story of late Las Vegas entertainment icon, Danny Gans; two volumes of my popular series, Snapshots At St. Arbuck’s ™; seven novels and numerous short stories and poems. My wife and I live in the 702 with our Miniature Schnauzer of some renown.
I would love the opportunity to get to know you. Hit me up (I think that’s the way it is supposed to be said) at:
R.G. Ryan 