Ryan McGarvey: Rio Grande Review

It’s been five years since Ryan McGarvey released Heavy Hearted in 2018. Now McGarvey returns with the single, Rio Grande.

McGarvey made his debut in 2007 at just 19 years of age with Forward in Reverse, which was one of the more impressive debut albums you’ll hear from a young artist. Back in 2010, McGarvey won the Ernie Ball Play Crossroads Guitar Contest that sent him to Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival. He’s been touted by some of the heavy weights of blues rock including Joe Bonamassa.

Rio Grande is a new release featuring four tracks. “Rio Grande” is a hard rock tune with fuzzy guitar that McGarvey originally wrote as an instrumental before expanding the song with lyrics.

Rio Grande also features new previously unreleased songs, “Drunken Dreams” and “Persuade.” “Drunken Dreams” is another hard rock tune with a bone crunching riff and killer guitar playing. “Persuade” also leans on the hard rock side.

Ryan strips things back with an acoustic version of “My Heart To You” which is beautifully played and appeared on 2014’s The Road Chosen.

There are few guitarists out there with the chops of Ryan McGarvey. More people should hear his music. Rio Grande is great set of tracks and a warm welcome back after five years without a release.

The Review: 8.5/10

The Big Hit

– Drunken Dreams