BIO AND PRESS
Ry Cavanaugh
Ry Cavanaugh has produced, co-produced, performed, and written songs for nine albums by Boston’s Session Americana, the band that he co-founded. A moveable feast, as much a collective and as a band, Session American tours across the United States and Europe with a revolving cast of top-shelf players, centered on a stable core. "Session Americana has developed into a traveling medicine show which eschews snake oil in favor of an ongoing grail quest for the perfect collaborative experience" (Hot Press Ireland). But organizing, producing, and championing other artists - nurturing all kinds of collaborative work within the Boston scene - has always been the center of Ry Cavanaugh’s artistic life. From producing projects like One Night in Cambridge - an album of emerging artists including Faith Soloway, and Mary Gauthier - to his years with the cult favorite Vinal Avenue String Band (with Kris Delmhorst and Sean Staples), to his seventeen years at the helm of Session Americana, he has always worked in company, contributing songs and connecting players. In all that time, his most constant collaborator has been his wife, Jennifer Kimball (The Story), with whom he released an album under the moniker Maybe Baby in 2003. In 2009, the family lived in Donegal, Ireland, where Ry ran a weekly session and performed regularly with Finbarr Doherty, Kate O'Callaghan and The Henry Girls. After meeting Mary Black at a session, she released his song ‘Lighthouse Light’ on her album Songs for the Steeples, as a duet with Janis Ian. He currently lives on an island off the coast of Maine and he continues to tour and collaborate with Session Americana and others.
Beat Surrender UK: “Ry’s charm and wit, not to mention endless supply of great songs (both his and other people’s) was there for everyone to see and provided a real different approach to the standard singer-songwriter live show."
Americana UK: “(Great Shakes) opens up with the little gem that is “One Skinner”, a languid, gorgeously melodic song that slides into your consciousness and never leaves."
Twangville: “Cavanaugh’s gentle “Raking Through The Ashes” has a brilliant musical conceit, describing the quest to rekindle a failed love with the ashes left in an extinguished fire."
Boston Business Journal: “The Marvel's Avengers of Boston's burgeoning Americana music scene... have finally put out an album that meets or exceeds the promise of their engaging, inspiring live performances. There's plenty of folk, some rock thrown in for good measure, and a little bit of the blues. It's just the right recipe to make this the city's newest timeless album.”
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