“We are strong, but delicate. We are wolves with a
conscience. We are Delicate Hounds,” says Sacramento-based artist of album’s heartfelt
performances.
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Ryan Thompson of Ryan
Thompson & The Delicate Hounds. Photo credit: Ryan Thompson.
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“This song was written, composed and recorded in a
closet in my mother-in-law’s house in Mexico,” says Ryan Thompson about Waiting On A Ghost’s title track. “A
man is sitting alone in an empty house. He’s talked himself into the fact that
his significant other is coming back. But he knows it won’t happen. However, he
keeps waiting because he doesn’t want to give up hope. He knows he’s just
waiting on a ghost.”
[STREAM | MP3]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/ryan-thompson-the-delicate-hounds-waiting-on-a-ghost
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Ryan
Thompson & The Delicate Hounds – Live
05/09/2019: Sacramento, CA @ Torch Club (w/ JW Teller)
05/24/2019: Sacramento, CA @ Torchfest 2019
05/25/2019: Sutter Creek, CA @ Sutter Creek Provisions (Record Release Show)
06/29/2019: Sacramento, CA @ Side Door
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Waiting On A Ghost by Ryan Thompson & The Delicate Hounds was produced by Max Hart
(The War on Drugs, We Are Scientists)
Ryan
Thompson has been a visual artist,
poet, husband, father, businessman, alt-rocker, and singer-songwriter. It took
a lot of living to find his voice, and now Thompson
is finally set to release his debut album of songs about that life (and maybe
about your life, too.)
Waiting on a Ghost by Ryan
Thompson & The Delicate Hounds arrives on May 24th. The album is comprised of Country-influenced
songs about feelings and events that we’ve all experienced. Songs that resonate
lyrically, but also melodically.
“Even the sad songs need hooks!,” Thompson jokes with the bit of truth that all good humor has. These
essentials get taken home on the album by the pro-style of session players on
drums, pedal steel, and keyboards. Full-of-heart female backing vocals merge
beautifully with the swells, bends and layers of a Hammond B-3. Thompson named this band to represent
these sounds that they made together: “We are strong, but delicate. We are
wolves with a conscience. We are Delicate
Hounds.”
“I did not spend my twenties on the music scene,
trying to make a name for myself,” Thompson
explains of his origins. “From the age of 21, I focused solely on my family and
building my business career to support us. I always loved everything about
making music, but it just wasn’t in the cards during these years.”
The Sacramento-based musician finally found sound in
his 30’s, though he had yet to discover himself.
“I started what was basically a 90’s, alternative band
with some lifelong friends,” Thompson
remembers. “It’s kind of weird, but I wrote most of our songs on the bass
guitar, and even though the songs were not great, and we were definitely not
good, after a couple years practicing and writing, we put together some pretty
catchy tunes.”
As so many bands assembled “just for fun” will do, Thompson’s went away. It was at this
time that the burgeoning Americana genre began to take hold, drawing Thompson to artists such as The Avett Brothers, Drive-By Truckers, and Justin Townes Earle. Coincidentally, Thompson had just moved from playing
bass to playing guitar at this time, though he had yet to start focusing on
writing again.
The change happened when another friend, in need of an
acoustic guitarist for his new country band, approached Thompson about joining them.
“It was fun because the crowds were always into it and
could sing along and dance,” Thompson
says. “I enjoy that type of energy and I also love the formula for country
songs. So, I started writing songs on the side. The most popular was called ‘Poppin’ Pills and Sweatin’, which I
wrote based on a discussion about how Johnny
Cash must have felt when he was flying while all hopped up on pills. The
crowd always loved this song, and after I started to write more and more, I
decided to leave the band and focus on my own sound.”
Thompson began writing country-influenced songs with a little
more depth to them than “Poppin’ Pills
and Sweatin,” and soon another fortuitous friendship saw him forming a new
band, Million Dollar Giveaway, which
released two EPs, toured throughout California, and provided the proving ground
for the songs that later became Waiting on a Ghost.
“The making of this album started in Mexico,” Thompson says of the trip he took there
with his former Million Dollar Giveaway
bandmate. The two were accompanied by a laptop, microphone, keyboard, a
ukulele, an old guitar, and an upright bass previously owned by Thompson’s wife’s grandfather.
“I remember sending the demo of the song ‘Waiting on a Ghost’ to my wife after
we recorded it and realizing that I was on to something,” Thompson says. “A whole new sound and feel was starting to emerge.”
Inspired by the Mexico demos, Thompson knew he needed to flesh out the songs and complete an
album.
“I reached out to Max
Hart to see about recording the songs. He had just worked with The War on Drugs and was finishing up
the We Are Scientists album. He is
also the full time keyboard and guitar player in Melissa Etheridge’s band, so the fact that he was interested in
taking on my project was flattering. I went to Los Angeles to record my tracks,
and we continued to work on things remotely between LA and Sacramento. It truly
was a collaboration. Both of our visions are represented, and I believe
fulfilled, on this album.”
Waiting on a Ghost by Ryan
Thompson & The Delicate Hounds arrives on May 24th, preceded by the singles “Stop,” “Dreamin’ and Wishin,’” and “The Gift.” Ryan Thompson is
available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom
at Fanatic for more information.
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Ryan
Thompson & The Delicate Hounds
Waiting
On A Ghost
(S/R)
May 24th, 2019
Track Listing:
01. Stop
03. Here I Go Again
04. The Gift
05. Dreamin’ and Wishin’
06. Long Way Down
07. Sunrise
08. When Did You Say You Were Coming Home?
09. All Bones Underneath
10. Tucson
11. Finish Line
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Ryan
Thompson & The Delicate Hounds – Links
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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion
