Straight Up! blends the wailing voice of singer/songwriter Janet Ryan, a recent arrival from southern Fairfield County, Connecticut, by way of Chicago, Illinois, with the talents of Holyoke, Massachusetts, blues guitarist/singer Ray Chaput. The feel [+]Straight Up! blends the wailing voice of singer/songwriter Janet Ryan, a recent arrival from southern Fairfield County, Connecticut, by way of Chicago, Illinois, with the talents of Holyoke, Massachusetts, blues guitarist/singer Ray Chaput. The feel of the music is blues, and it's combined with a unique soulful sound that takes the music to another level. You can feel the influence of Etta James and Janis Joplin, the blues of Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, and the soul of Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin.
Janet Ryan and Straight Up are a hard working band. In addition to headlining many gigs, they have opened for James Cotton, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Fliers, the Holmes Brothers, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Sugar Ray and the BlueTones, Magic Dick and J. Geils, Monster Mike Welch, Dickey Betts, Michael Hill's Blues Mob, and Charles Neville, among others.
Janet Ryan has become a recognizable name in Western Massachusetts since moving here from Southern Connecticut in 1998. Before moving to Connecticut, Janet developed a taste for the blues while living in Chicago, where she soaked up the blues in the juke joints of the Northside. In 1988, she brought her powerful blues presence to the East coast. Janet earned her living performing throughout the Tri State area. (Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York State.) Since moving to the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, Janet won the 2002 Valley Advocate newspapers readers poll for best vocalist, and her band Straight Up! won an award from the Valley Advocate for best Blues Band. She completed two CD's in three years, and held her most recent CD release party for a full house at Theodores' in Springfield, MA. Other recent shows include performances at the Taste of Northampton, MA, the Pioneer Valley Blues Festival, the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, MA, and the the Pines Theatre in Northampton among many other band and solo shows. Since the release of her first CD "Passion and Fire" and continuing with her latest CD "Wrapped Up In Blue", she and her band Straight Up! have exploded into the local club scene, and continue to blow the audiences away with their high energy rocking blues.
In addition to being a performing songwriter, (Janet wrote all of the material on the latest release) Janet teaches
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