Cole German- Raised Rowdy Contributor
With many of us on the brink of losing our sanity thanks to being locked inside for almost three weeks now, there hasn’t been too much to lift the old spirits. That was until Ryan Nelson decided to grab some old jams out of the closet and throw together a little 10-song banger. The project, titled “Cabin Fever” (for obvious reasons), features songs that he has had in his pocket for a while but hadn’t yet released. For many of the true Ryan Nelson die hards out there, these songs have been a long time coming. All of these were written and recorded between 2015 and 2018 back when Nelson first moved to town and was spending a lot of time producing. He describes these songs as being “raw and honest and show where I was at as a producer and a writer in different times of my career.” Now let’s dive into a few of them.
Take it Easy on Me
Yup… a classic feel good. I personally hate the word vibe, but I am going to make an exception this time and this time only. I have to say that I vibe pretty hard with this one. A great melody mixed with old-fashioned love song lyrics, but it’s the violin that gives it a little early 2000’s feel, which I really dig.
Younger
Nelson slows it down a little with this one. It’s more stripped down, which gives it a pretty unique and intimate feel. In this one I can definitely hear the raw and honest sounds that Nelson was alluding to. Throw on this jam, grab your significant other, a bottle of wine, sit an appropriate 6-10 feet apart from each other and you could have a pretty solid quarantine date.
Like They Used To
My personal favorite from the project, this one is just a damn good old country song. This will bring you right into your nostalgic feels and make you want to drink #AllTheBeers. Similar to the song Younger, you can hear the honesty in the words. It will remind you why you fell in love with country music in the first place.
I would hope that all of you have at least given this project a listen by now, but if you haven’t I strongly recommend it. This project sums up Ryan Nelson as an artist pretty well. The songs are not technically finished, as he dropped it on Sound Cloud and they are all old somewhat “forgotten” songs that never got on to an album. But that is what makes it that much better. Ryan Nelson sees what everyone else is doing in Nashville and just does the opposite. He sticks to his brand, doesn’t fall into the mainstream trap and time after time he continues to deliver. From all of us here at Raised Rowdy, Ryan Nelson, never change.