Ryan Shaw, a gifted singer and songwriter in search of a musical path, discovered classic soul several years ago and heard his calling.
The 26-year-old's debut album, This Is Ryan Shaw, came out on the indie label Razor & Tie in April. It has since landed him airplay on radio stations like WMNF (which has brought him to town) and on tours with pop-soul singer Joss Stone and pedal-steel whiz/jam-band fave Robert Randolph. One of Shaw's biggest and most memorable gigs came last month when he was added to the Dream Concert, which featured Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Carlos Santana at Radio City Music Hall on Sept. 18 to raise funds for a Martin Luther King Jr. memorial.
"I was the only new artist on the lineup," he says proudly. "It was quite an honor, to say the least."
The young singer answers the phone from a hotel room while on tour through the Midwest. His voice sounds urbane, the vowels clipped, with little trace of his Southern roots (he was raised in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, Ga). Shaw's debut disc skews more toward Memphis than Motown, recalling the work of such greats as Wilson Pickett and James Brown.
Our interview eventually turns to Shaw's family and his seven siblings. He mimics the voice of one his six brothers — a sweet country drawl. Turns out, the singer/songwriter and actor ditched his accent upon relocating from Georgia to New York City in 1998.
"I had to lose it," Shaw says. "Everyone I met would say: 'You country, where you from?'
"Now, I'm like a hybrid," he continues. "I go home to Atlanta and everyone says: 'Why you trying to sound all Northern?'"
Shaw has an uncanny knack for mimicry that dates back to his childhood. The son of Pentecostal parents, Ryan and his siblings didn't waste their time watching MTV and playing Nintendo. Instead, they staged mini-productions in the backyard. I asked Shaw what kind of training he had prior to joining, in 1998, the cast of Tyler Perry's play I Know I Have Been Changed, which drew sold-out crowds at New York's Beacon Theater.
"Just growing up in my family, we all crazy," he says with a laugh. "We were always out back, always acting crazy, always on stage, me doing lines I heard."
Rather than copy what he saw on television or in films, Shaw entertained family and friends with send-ups of his peers.
"It was always easy for me to say things like other people," he says. "I used to do impressions, write skits and perform them at Thanksgiving. … One of the characters was based off our neighbor's son, based on how he talked. He never could pronounce anyone's name right. He was a little kid with a grown man's voice and all these extra sounds that would come out after he said anything."
Shaw does an impression of the kid and it's one of the most hilarious bits I've heard in a while.
The singer dropped out of Georgia State University after he learned he wouldn't be able to major in music and moved to New York to pursue his dream of being a showman. Shortly after, he landed the role in I Know I've Been Changed. After the play closed, Shaw lent the pipes he'd built singing in church to performing a wide array of cover songs at places like the Motown Café on West 57th Street.
"I sang everything from 'Start spreading the news' ['New York, New York,'] to 'Disco Inferno,'" Shaw says with a laugh. "Acting like a fool doing 'Hey Ya.'"
It was also during this time that Shaw discovered The Golden Age of Rhythm and Blues, which most music historians say took place from 1960-1972. Joined by musician/producers Jimmy Bralower and Johnny Gale, Shaw started recording his debut album without a label deal. The formula was simple: classic-sounding originals like the Shaw-penned first single "Nobody," along with lesser-heard R&B classics by the likes of the Combo Kings and the Sharpees, augmented by more familiar fare like Pickett's "I Found a Love." Keeping the production rooted in the vintage sound of the '60s is another factor that makes This Is Ryan Shaw one of the most refreshing R&B releases of the year.
Although by no means risqué by modern standards, the album does find Shaw tackling subject matter that probably would not have flown in his household as a child. But neither his family nor church has begrudged his success in the secular world.
"Everybody's fine with it," Shaw says. "Now if I was doing gospel, Mom would be ecstatic. But my music isn't anything I'm ashamed of."
An August story in The New York Times said that Shaw's pal Randolph was "barred from playing in church after becoming a jam-band star." Not so for Shaw. In fact, he'll be home for Thanksgiving weekend, and parishioners at the Free Church of God in Christ of Atlanta, where he learned to sing, will likely see him perform gospel on Sunday.
"Every time I go there they ask me to sing," he says. "They don't think what I'm doing is wrong. But they'll say things to me like [adopts a motherly voice], 'We're more concerned for your soul; we're praying for you.'"
Shortly after visiting home in Atlanta, Shaw will be seen by a nationwide audience when he appears on The Ellen Degeneres Show on Dec. 3. The singer is excited about the exposure, but there's a caveat. Up until a few months ago, he was still earning cash here and there as a wedding singer. He's afraid after the talk show airs people might start recognizing him from their home movies.
"I can just see them looking at the TV screen and saying: 'Hey, didn't that guy play our wedding,'" Shaw says, "It's gonna be all over YouTube.
This article appears in Oct 24-30, 2007.