Chapter 6 NBC10 Boston News, Aired February 7, 2006
Six
Host: I’m here with young bluegrass star Ryan Holding, who’s been making waves in the Austin, Texas, music scene with her two hit singles “Providence” and “Shoes on the Dash,” along with her eponymous album, Ryan Holding, released last summer.
Now, she’s headed on tour with country music group Dust and Roses—but into familiar territory.
Ryan, you’re from our own town of Hamilton, Massachusetts, just a short drive from this very studio. How does it feel to be back home?
[Ryan smiles and tucks her thick hair behind her ear, smoothing her hands on her blue jeans.]
Ryan: It feels good. It’s hard to believe I’m here, honestly.
Host: Now, you are the youngest musician that Madcap has ever signed to their label, and as far as I’m aware, certainly the youngest to ever tour with Dust and Roses. Have you gotten to meet the band?
Ryan: Oh, definitely. They’re all really sweet, taking me under their wing and stuff.
They got pizza delivered right to the stage after the first rehearsal, and we just sat together and talked about how we got to this point.
I’ve been so lucky to have a lot of teachers—my first banjo teacher, Frank, but then my producer, Skip, has taught me so much, and my co-songwriter, Jasmine—everyone at Madcap.
And now the Dust and Roses crew. I know I’m still starting out, so there’s so much to learn.
Host: It sounds like you’re on the right track. What are you looking forward to most about being back in the Hub?
[Ryan laughs.]
Ryan: Honestly, I carved out some time between shows to see my old friends again. I’m looking forward to that more than anything. Oh, and maybe a lobster roll!
Host: I don’t think Texas can beat that. Ryan, I have your album here with me, and I’m going to give our audience a good look so they can find it at their local record store and wherever CDs are sold. And while we’re admiring this album, can you tell me a little bit about the art?
[The host presents the album, which features a photo of Ryan with her banjo between two monolithic stones, taken at Enchanted Rock’s peak in Texas.
Then, the host opens the CD case and points to the lyric booklet, which is covered in white doodled lines on a black background.
Ryan smiles demurely, and her tone is innocent. ]
Ryan: I’m not sure what you’re talking about.
Host: Well, some have said that there’s a secret message written in the doodles here. I haven’t cracked the code myself, but that looks like storms, and I think I might see roots down here . . .
Ryan: Would you look at that! You must have really good eyesight.
Host: I’ll neither ask you to confirm or deny—it sounds like our audiences will have to look for themselves. Ryan Holding is out now, and you can see her perform live with Dust and Roses at the Orpheum Theatre on February 11.
Mari
There were three different versions of the secret messages.
They were all quotes Ryan lived by: “Storms make trees take deeper roots,” by Dolly Parton; “I was determined to carve out a music of my own,” by Bill Monroe; and “Keep the music ringing”—that was something Frank always said.
She spent a day making the doodles herself and getting them just right before they sent the design files off to the printer.
Skip
It was genius. Everyone wanted to get their hands on those CD booklets to see what the secret messages were, and back then, the way to do that was to buy it. I’d say that idea alone nearly doubled sales.
Her numbers didn’t skyrocket like some of the other artists I’d seen at the big labels, but it was good, steady growth. And the tour could only improve that.
Reddit user u/RyanComeHome_90
Ryan’s team claims there are only three versions of the RH secret messages in the CD booklets. Not true. One of the lots that shipped to retailers in Boise, ID had a different message and many have taken pictures of this evidence—comment below if u have a booklet.
That version says “Storms make trees carve out a music of my own.” You can also clearly see the word “Allege” in the loopy script.
Is it a misprint? Maybe, but if it is, why was Boise the only place to receive those booklets?
Why did the tree in Ryan’s childhood home feature so heavily in “Hear Me Now?”
Plus the photo from u/countryjamz of the woman at Albertson’s in Caldwell who appears to be Ryan has Not yet been debunked. Caldwell is just a short drive from Boise. Stay alert.
#RescueRyan
Mari
Dust and Roses was when Ryan officially began homeschooling. The Northeastern tour dates stretched across two months, and between that and the other gigs she was playing, it just stopped being worth it to be enrolled at Eastside at all.
I was so excited to have her back in Massachusetts.
I mean—it wasn’t exactly how I’d pictured it.
I maybe hyped myself up too much. She came to Boston, not Hamilton.
She only had, like, two days before she had to join Dust and Roses again in New York.
It made me wish I’d made even more of our time together in Austin for the launch party—it was a very different feeling now that she was touring, and of course she didn’t want to let her headliner band down.
The launch party was a celebration. This time . . . I could feel the secondhand pressure.
It was sweet, though. Ryan reserved box seats for me, her parents, and Frank at the Orpheum. Before the show, she had us all come backstage. She had her own greenroom, and we had to wear badges and be escorted by stage techs and everything. It was legit legit.
“I know it’s not much,” she said. “But I wouldn’t be standing here in this freezing-cold dress without you all, so I wanted to give you something.”
It was cold backstage, and Ryan was wearing a metallic silvery dress with a million pleats that swished every time she moved and hung off her frame with these skinny little spaghetti straps.
Matching silver cowgirl boots were on her feet.
A whole team of people had done her hair and makeup, and she had thick black eyeliner winged way out and huge false lashes, like pow.
Onstage it looked normal, but up close I could hardly recognize her.
Her hair, in these perfect red ringlets, was voluminous and wild.
It was the look that would define her for the next six years.
Ryan picked up three CDs for each of us. She gave Frank the one with his quote, her parents the Bill Monroe, and me the Dolly Parton. Inside each lyric booklet she’d written a thank-you message—mine said, I stand by you forever.
Skip
I got Ryan all set up backstage and then headed into the house to see the lay of the land. I was hoping I could get a sense of whether anyone was here for Ryan, just for Ryan, with Dust and Roses being an afterthought.
No offense to them—they had a great following by that point in their career. But Ryan was my priority.
Man, I bet you’d never seen so many cowboy hats in Boston. Definitely more of a bluegrass city, if that, but I had to chuckle to myself when I saw the Stetsons and leather boots. Country fans never fail to surprise me—they can and do exist where I least expect them to.
I’d staked out a spot on the mezzanine to do my surveillance, taking in all the couples and the yuppies and the middle-aged guys like me.
And then I saw something interesting.
There were a couple of young girls in the front, maybe ten, twelve years old, wearing silver cowgirl boots.
No, not just two girls—there was another, and another, some with their moms, some with what must have been older siblings.
In fact, I counted no less than twenty-two middle school girls from my lookout on the mezzanine, and that was in the orchestra level alone.
Not all of them had silver cowgirl boots, but I spotted silver ribbons, vests, et cetera.
I remember thinking, What’s up with that? Are Dust and Roses doing a school partnership I don’t know about?
Well, silly me. Because just imagine what happened when Ryan walked onstage.
All those little girls started screaming.
Ryan smiled wide and waved like she was a goddamn pageant queen. And when she opened her mouth? Yep, those girls knew every word.
I tell you—I just started laughing to myself.
How had I missed it? Pigheadedness, I guess, I’ll admit it: Maybe I just didn’t expect young women to be interested in bluegrass.
I don’t know; in my mind, I think bluegrass, I picture a grizzled old man up in Appalachia.
Joke’s on me, the man who was literally producing the bluegrass music of a young woman.
Just goes to show about biases and the like, I suppose.
That crowd couldn’t get enough. They even chanted her name when she finished up “When in Texas” and ran offstage.
And I stood back there leaning against the wall, plotting, asking myself, Skip, how are we going to harness this?
Elyse James, author
It was on the Dust and Roses tour that Ryan’s path first crossed with mine.
I was a student at the University of Pittsburgh on scholarship at the time, and although I was majoring in communications, I was trying to get a photography business off the ground and working my way up by securing press passes to all the live music and events around town.
My brother, he . . . well, he was still in high school at the time.
He never would have admitted it, but I knew he thought my side gig was cool.
He was always asking if I had an extra pass, what it was like to see the performers up close, and so forth.
He was taking guitar lessons and—while no one can match the ambition I’ve seen in Ryan—shared a similar drive.