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Growing up, he did a little boxing and had a walk on offer to play college football for the University of Nebraska as a defensive end. His other passion was “Bull Doggin” (rodeo steer wrestling).

January of 1995 was Ryano’s bench mark of one year to get things started in his music career and 6 months later he landed his first publishing deal with Don Shlitz who had such hits a “The Gambler”, “Forever & Ever Amen” and “River and the Highway”. One year later he had his first cut by Rich McCready “ Most Likely to Succeed" on Magnatone Records. Since that time, he has co-written with such greats as Harlan Howard; Billy Yates; Charlie Daniels; LeeAnn Womack; Bigg Kenny (of Bigg & Rich); Ira Dean (of Trick Pony); Aimee Mayo; Dean Sams (of Lone Star) and the list goes on.

Ryano received his first record deal in 1996 to which he made an album he was truly proud of on Imprint Records. Imprint released the single “Do I ever Cross Your Mind”. It came to no surprise to anyone at Imprint that the single (out of thousands of hopefuls) came in third right behind Alan Jackson and John Anderson across the nation. 6 days after the single was released, the label folded and closed its doors. So Ryano did what he does best. He started playing live!

Ryano scheduled two showcases in Nashville and he remembers looking out in the audience to see about 8 record label presidents all sitting in the same room. After the showcase, Capitol Records stepped up to the plate and the process of getting a new deal was underway. But as tragedy would have it, it was during the time that Garth Brooks had his infamous “tantrum” and Ryano became yet, another casualty along with Deanna Carter and Julie Reeves. Virgin Records followed him 8 months later, but by that time, Ryano had enough of what he calls “the monkeys running the zoo” and turned down the offer to meet.

During the years of 2001 and 2002, Ryano no longer played at any venue and had not even picked up a guitar in over a year. The final straw came for him when his Mother, who had inspired him to sing, was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. He no longer dreamt about music or wrote a lick. He only focused on the little time left with the ones he loved. Then in October of 2003 he received a very strange phone call that changed everything.

The voice on the message said her name was Megan Kaiser with the Boston Red Sox and she was looking for Ryano. As it turned out, his song “Cowboy Up” had become the rally song for the team and The City of Boston. To Ryano’s surprise, she was wondering if he could come up to Boston to make a personal appearance to sing that song at Fenway Park and to his chagrined, he replied he didn’t do that sort of thing anymore. Later on that day, he had talked to his dad over the phone who, tried to encourage his son to go yet with every encouragement, he was met with every obstacle under the sun from Ryano. Finally, his dad told him that the night his song “Whiskey & Wine” was up for the CMT award, his Mother got out of bed in her jammies and sat in front of the TV to watch the show. It was then that Ryano realized how important music was in his family. His dad continued to tell him that even though she had just come from a chemo treatment and was extremely ill, at that very moment when his song was being sung by Lisa Brokop, Ryano’s Momma wasn’t sick anymore, she glowed. Ryano hauled ass to make one final phone call and Megan Kaiser sent 4 plane tickets. Ryano & his family (with momma) were headed up to Boston so that Ryano’s Momma could watch her baby son walk out on that pitcher’s mound and to see him sing in front of 45,000 screaming fans. His Mother had been given a 15% chance of making it through the next two years but we are happy to report however, she is still with him today. That’s when Ryano fell in love with music, all over again, and began to understand the healing power his music had in his personal life.

The following season he wrote and produced an entire arena rock album called "The Sound Of Fenway". The Boston Sox sold it online and at the park during games. Ryano even put a band together and spent all his time writing for the project. The band called "Abel Kane" sprang out from 2004 until spring of 2008. They tracked 18 songs and traveled from Boston to Phoenix playing festivals, fairs and bike rallies. After a major disagreement between band members, Abel Kane disbanded which left Ryano to make some hard decisions pertaining to his music career.

Now, more than ever, Ryano stands alone perpetuating his love for people and his music. He vows never to let the “music biz” get between him and the people he loves and those he loves to play for. He’s back-hills country laced with an edgy rock sound. His music is what he is: a person who has loved, lost and found himself again in the journey called life. In every face that looks up at him from the crowd, he sees himself and as he is looking back, he hopes they see some of themselves in him. He openly displays the real person he is and the influence music has made in his life. This time, the music is truly by the people, for the people!