Ryne Meadow

Singer-songwriter Ryne Meadow, an Athens native, moved to the New York City area a few years back, but a debilatating bout with depression and anxiety during what he dubs the "dark, two-year stint" left him unsteady and uncertain. Returning home, he "set out to create a new set of songs documenting his daily battle with mental health issues," according to a press release.

The resulting album, There Are Clouds in the Sky, is out Apr. 19, and today we're pleased to provide a full advance stream of the new LP, which highlights Meadow's emotive singing, introduces an expanded production palette and showcases an entirely more vulnerable side of the "self-proclaimed songbird." - Flagpole Magazine

Ryne Meadow has no fear when it comes to tackling intense and thoughtful topics. Topics such as depression, existential dread, and self love are just a few of the ideas that Meadow faces in his latest album, “There Are Clouds In The Sky”. After a brief two year stint in New York City, Meadow says he fell into a deep depression and longed for home and familiarity.

“I returned to the old family home that sat vacant in my absence, circled the wagons, and tried my best to not wallow in the idea that my songbird spirit was broken with no hope of repair.” He continues with, “tired of seeing the dawn of many mornings due to insomnia, I decided to make use of my lack of sleep. I wrote.”


THE ALBUM

“There Are Clouds In The Sky” was inspired by Meadow’s stay in New York. Created in a bedroom studio of his old family home, it’s formed around homemade beats, using a subdued songwriting approach. The sophomore record is “an album based on finding the silver linings in all of life’s hard times.”


Meadow says on the record, “it’s me putting a voice to the depression that silenced me for what felt like an eternity and it’s me taking my life back.” He continues to talk about his struggle with mental health and how he hopes it can inspire others with similar issues. “I’d love it if these songs could find their way to someone who feels silenced. I’d love to be the voice they need in their silent moments. I’d love to offer a helping hand in pulling them out of the darkness.”


WHAT WE THINK

Ryne Meadow fully embraces his struggle with his mental health in his sophomore album. Never preachy, this is a record that is based on self reflection and growth. Meadow never hides himself in what turns out to be a very open and transparent album. There’s something different within each song to keep the listener engaged even over the course of its 41 minute run time.


This is an album that is designed for the artist as a way to relieve an internal struggle. But in return, Meadow created a collection of music that will have a much greater impact than just being an unrestricted diary. At the end of record, regardless if the listener battles with any mental health issues or not, they will no doubt be lost in thought, doing a bit of self-reflecting themselves. - Blinking Mad

In the music industry, artists are able to share their honest experiences with fans without judgement through their music, but there is still work to do in the industry.
Music and mental health share strong links, as evidenced by the influence Ryne Meadow’s own struggles have had on his music. A singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia, Ryne spent the last year polishing There Are Clouds in the Sky, his sophomore album, with “those who feel silenced from depression” in mind.

When asked about this connection, Ryne said that “This album process found me in the darkest place I’ve been in to date. I was, in the words of my dear friend Tanya, ‘writing my way out.’ I put words to feelings I didn’t even know I could feel. And it felt liberating….”

Ryne’s work to bring hope to those struggling with mental health is much needed in the music community. Although, according to Ryne, “as of late, some pretty influential artists have opened up about dealing with…mental health issues,” it is “still such a taboo thing for the layman, and I think it forces people to bottle things up.” Ryne feels “that we, as humans (in any industry) need to work on compassion.” There Are Clouds in the Sky brings the music industry a step closer to this goal.

The first track of the album it titled “Not the End.” It begins with soothing acoustic guitar strumming and Ryne’s smooth vocals as he paints a picture of a relationship: “I’ve been swept away by your tide/There’s not a sailing ship in sight/And we once stood side by side until we lost the light….” The imagery in the lyrics is beautifully highlighted by the track’s simple instrumentals. The hopeful way Ryne sings, “this is not the end,” is a wonderful contrast to the harder-hitting parts of the song, when his vocals become louder and more desperate. The contrast in “Not the End” makes it interesting to listen to from start to finish.

The piano part in “Wandering” is beautifully integrated into the song, helping to highlight the highs and lows of Ryne’s voice. The instrumentals feel very full and emotional, each piece falling into place behind the trickling piano melodies. Even if the lyrics themselves are ignored, “Wandering” is beautiful for auditory enjoyment alone. When the lyrics are taken into account, the track blossoms: “I disappear in shades of gray/In my forlorn state of mind/Words said in vain….” Despite the “shades of gray” mentioned in the lyrics, “Wandering” is a rainbow of color.

I love the title of “Hot Air Balloon.” Beginning in a leisurely, building ballad, the song allows for tension to grow gradually, almost without listeners even noticing. The slow simplicity of the instrumentals until the climax allows for Ryne’s voice to be the star of the show for the majority of the track. The song flows well from part to part, almost like a hot air balloon floating quietly up above before Ryne’s dragged out notes form a puff of wind that takes it up into the clouds and out of sight.

“The Mess We’ve Made” features more soothing acoustic melodies in a classic singer-songwriter style track. The lyrics and phrasing of “The Mess We’ve Made” were some of the best of the album: “It’s been ten days since I’ve seen your face/And speaking with you has become a relentless rat race/You left the place you call home/Without a trace/Said you needed space….” Although the track does have the typical lost love aesthetic to it, the lyrics don’t feel cliche or overdone.

“Dandelion” has a fuller piano part than many of the other tracks, which provides it with a more saturated auditory experience. It would be easy to see “Dandelion” as part of a Broadway soundtrack when the hero of the show has a quiet moment of realization. Between the genuine emotion in Ryne’s belting voice and the building, flowing instrumentals, “Dandelion” glows, making it one of my favorites of There Are Clouds in the Sky.

The next track, “Wishing Well,” is much quieter than “Dandelion.” Although it does get a bit lost between “Dandelion” and “Foggy Eyes” when listened to as part of the album as a whole, it does have plenty of merit on its own. Ryne’s voice is strong throughout “Wishing Well,” and it is clear that a lot of effort was put into making sure the genuine emotion was palpable in his delivery. The lyrics, too, show thought: “I wish upon the dandelion seas/And I hope the echoes fade/And I know my heart breaks each and every day/Sometimes it’s okay to say farewell/I watched my dreams as they fell/Into the wishing well….”

“Foggy Eyes” is a song Ryne holds close to his heart: “It was written late at night. In a way, chronicling a breakdown step by step. The way I was feeling. The self pity of the boy I used to be. And the realization that I was ‘tired of waiting to die’ and that it was time to dig my way out of this dark cave I’d made my bed in. I really woke up in that moment.” The track feels a lot like a breakthrough, too; its soft, breathy vocals are intimate, brought even closer by its steady backing instrumentals. The lyrics are the focus, bringing one part of Ryne’s journey to life in a song.

The lyrics of “Trees That Fall” are beautiful: “I’ve been led astray all along / And I’m wearing thin / This worn out skin, I don’t belong / When all that is known comes tumbling down….” Accompanied by a beautifully simple piano melody, Ryne’s words tell a story of being lost that many listeners will be able to relate to. Being united in loneliness and loss is a powerful tool that might help others realize that they don’t have to be alone, and it will get better.

“The Shore” is another emotion-packed track. In his goal to be open with the music community about mental health, Ryne’s lyrics are honest and heartfelt: “And it shows that the harder I fight/The quicker I’ll be taken by your tide/And it really, it really feels like/I died on the inside….” Although the deep, swooping background tones are a bit distracting from the lyrics at times, they provide a dark tone to Ryne’s confessions of struggle in an effort to show listeners that they’re not alone.

“I’ll Hold On” is the final hurrah of There Are Clouds in the Sky, and a fine one at that. Brighter in tone than its predecessor, the track has a great rhythm to its phrasing and light, airy instrumentals. It ties together many musical themes of the album in a hopeful, lifting package that is pleasant to listen to. “I’ll Hold On” is a reminder to keep going no matter what is in your path.

Ryne hopes that There Are Clouds In The Sky has a big impact on those who listen: “I realized kinda midway through making the album that it wasn’t just about me. There are millions of people that need to hear my story. It’s for all of us. And honestly, that’s what keeps me going.” - Alexa O'Kane

The journey of an album can take you down many different paths. Some are wonderfully inspirational highs, some are deep and depressing lows, and some find a way to intermix the two seamlessly.

Ryne Meadow’s voyage towards making his newest record, There Are Clouds in the Sky, took a bit of a different route. Meadow says that after releasing his debut record, A Tale Of Two Songbirds, he found himself in a bit of a rut.

“As a musician, you write some songs, and then you have some that you think are good,” he explained. “You go out, you make an album… and then what?”

Meadow had uprooted his Athens, GA country lifestyle to move to New York, with hopes of making things bigger and better in his life. He said that he wanted to get away from the problems he was seeing, and wanted a fresh chance to change the way his life was going. He tried to book a few shows in the Big Apple, but seemed to find himself on the wrong side of things.

“I’m a country boy, but in New York it’s just so big,” he exclaimed. “I really tried to make something of it, but the longer I went without success, the more depressed I became.”

We’ve all been down that road before, right? Especially from a musical standpoint, you sometimes catch lightning in a bottle and you can write for hours. Then there are the darker times, where you wonder how you ever wrote anything before, and what it might take to reignite your musical drive.

Meadow says he definitely ran into those issues before starting to make his sophomore record. More than ever, he suddenly became overwhelmed with anxiety about his life. New York just was not the place for his songbird soul.

“It ended up being 10 tracks, but there was so much cutting and pasting going on,” he mused. “There would be times where I’d get on a roll, and then suddenly I wouldn’t have anything. I found those moments both hurt and helped me in the songwriting process.”

“It honestly took a full two years to make this record,” he continued. “By now, I’m 25-years-old but I feel like I’m eighty because SO MUCH happened from 2016 to now. It feels like it was so much longer than it actually was.”

The weight of depression is something I’ve written about before, and something that I find more and more in the musicians I meet around town. In speaking with Meadow on the phone I found him to be somewhat of a kindred spirit; someone who had lived the life I live, and had found a beacon of hope in his musical abilities.

Meadow had always been interested in making music growing up. He self-taught himself to play piano in high school and started writing music with his new-found skill. He said that he always felt that he had an ear for music, he just had to do something about it.

“I just kept telling myself it’s not anything until it actually is,” he laughed.

For the upcoming record, Meadow made his base of operations a bedroom in his family’s old home, armed with his vast array of keyboards and other instruments. As a matter of fact, Meadow himself plays all of the instrumentation and programmed the drums as well.

“I knew what I wanted the record to sound like as I wrote it,” he described. “I wanted a lot of layers, a lot of atmosphere. I’m never satisfied with just one thing while making music.”

The album opens up with Not The End, a song Meadow wrote about the great divide between where he was as a younger man and where he is now. He told me that he was worried that his career was coming to an end, and that his life was going to flame out. He said that he intentionally made this the first song of the record, because he wanted everyone to know that they can get through their struggles in life.

Wandering was the last song Meadow completed for the album, and he admitted to me that it wasn’t even finished until it was time to record. He shows his clever lyrical wit in the line I’m a songbird mending a broken tweet, trying to find a better way to see.

The record’s title is borrowed from Hot Air Balloon, a song which is a heavy tune with a drowning amount of dreary piano keys. It almost feels like the song was intentionally engineered to put a trance effect on the listener. You plucked the stars from the sky to safely light the way is another brilliant lyric that will pull you out of any haze you are feeling.

The first single released from the album is titled The Mess We Made. Meadow said it was written about an old relationship and how it eventually broke down.

“I was dealing with the emotions in quiet moments, and the stillness of things falling apart. It was both of our faults, and I knew I had to do things differently in the future.”

You can certainly feel the pain in Meadow’s wail on this one. It’s honestly a song you need to listen to a few times just to pick up on how complex the guitar work is behind his voice.

Dandelion touches on hopelessness, the feeling of futility, and finding some to help you through those trials, while Wishing Well flips the table and warbles about protecting yourself and wanting better. I won’t lose myself again, too many scars of healing deep within is a line guaranteed to touch home with anyone who’s ever felt unrequited love in their life.

There’s something to be said about the simplistic tone of the record. Every song features a massive level of keyboards and pianos, and Foggy Eyes brings it all together in one tremendous four-and-a-half minute measure. Meadow explained to me that he felt his most impactful lyric on the record is found here with Pale moonlight, stars intensely shine. I’m ready to feel alive, I’m tired of waiting to die.

“I didn’t want to write that,” he confessed, “but I had to make myself write it. I couldn’t keep that locked up within me.”

If you’re not feeling this record by the time you get to Trees That Fall, you simply aren’t listening. There are so many different songwriters that I could put on a similar level to Meadow for one reason or another. His voice is unique, his piano talent is inviting, and as I have continually referenced, the man knows how to write a damned stirring line.

“I never wanted to be boring,” he acknowledged. “I wanted to be unforgettable, and I felt like if I did it in an honest enough way, people would understand.”

The Shore is a bizarre and bending song that gives you a lot of intriguing sounds to focus on, almost losing the voice and hands behind it all. The song almost felt like it was placed there to prepare you for the album’s final track, I’ll Hold On. With all of the depression and emotion hidden within the words and notes, it’s important to note that Meadow chose to bookend the album with its two most uplifting tracks, as if to remind the listener that yes, even you can make it through the darkest of your times.

There’s no doubt that this is a solid record, even if you have to sift through a lot of ponderous piano work. Sometimes it seems that Meadow spent so much time trying to perfect his craft that he overdid it musically. I had to listen to it a second time to really pick out all of the really great lyrical gems, and they alone makes it worth a fantastic rating.

When I asked Meadow how he would describe his sound, gave me a few intriguing descriptors. “Folk-pop… Americana-ish… rootsy” were the three that stuck out to me the most. He says that anything he makes going forward is definitely going to have a different sound from “There Are Clouds In The Sky” simply because he has made it through that part of his life.

“This was absolutely a necessary record to get me to the point where I am today,” he declared. “I don’t want to say that I thank depression for the direction of this album, but it gave me the direction I needed to break through.”

“I’m not looking to record anything from that deep of a pit any more. I just need to find the happy medium between the person I was and the person I am today.”

Perhaps most importantly of all, Meadow says he is ready to get back out and play a few shows again, which he knows will bring him some of the joy that he was missing while writing this record. It was definitely uplifting for me to listen through this journey and hear the spark of excitement in Meadow’s voice and he told his tale to me.

Tracklist

Not the End
Wandering
Hot Air Balloon
The Mess We’ve Made
Dandelion
Wishing Well
Foggy Eyes
Trees That Fall
The Shore
I’ll Hold On - Music in Motion Columbus

On the surface, it’d be easy to categorize singer-songwriter Ryne Meadow as another Americana-ish artist rambling down the road. Dude allowed himself to be photographed in overalls, even. But There Are Clouds in the Sky is deeper than all that. Although the record begins with a little bombast and orchestra (“Not The End”), it comes into its own on the electric piano-led “Hot Air Balloon.” Overall—no pun intended—Meadow belongs to a school of songwriting that could include Mick Hucknell (Simply Red), Harry Nilsson, Warren Zevon and a few more modern things, like Arcade Fire, et al. This album is a treat. [Gordon Lamb] - Flagpole Magazine

Interview/Performance - WX4

CCJ News Director Amyre Makupson and Macon Pops drummer Steve Moretti sit down with Athens artist Ryne Meadow to hear about his musical background and listen to a few songs. - CCJ Reports

...Crisp, competent pop music based on Meadow’s minimalist homemade beats and urgent, emotive vocals.

— GABE VODICKA, FLAGPOLE MAGAZINE

Sophomore albums are a dreaded venture for most artists. For Ryne Meadow, it was a welcome blank slate. A self-proclaimed songbird, Meadow nested in the bedroom studio of his old family home and set out to create a new set of songs.

Meadow’s album, There are Clouds in the Sky, was over two years in the making. He wrote the lyrics and music while mending his broken songbird’s tweet after a dark, two-year stint in the NYC area. The album was self-produced during a period of difficult times in Meadow’s life.

There are Clouds in the Sky is an album based on finding the silver linings in all of life’s hard times. Slated for an early 2019 release, the songbird plans on sharing more songs as he prepares for a big album release show. More than ready to share this collection of work with the world, Meadow is excited to see how his work resonates with an audience who deserves music that shines a light on mental health struggles, something that he feels isn’t written about enough. - Paige Roberts Show

Native Athenian Ryne Meadow moved to New Jersey last year, but he’s back in his hometown to play a release show in honor of his debut album, A Tale of Two Songbirds, which he’s been crafting for the past five years. The record, which Meadow describes as “my story of love, loss and self-discovery while growing up gay in the Deep South,” is a 13-song collection of crisp, competent pop music based on Meadow’s minimalist homemade beats and urgent, emotive vocals. Wednesday’s show will mark Meadow’s first performance with a full band. Fellow singer-songwriters Cortez Garza, Sydney Baker and Oliver Jordan share the bill. - Flagpole

One of the trickiest aspects of mixing different audio tracks together is creating a sense of space. The goal is to have every sound belong in its place with as little contention as possible. While recording one’s own music has become more commonplace than ever in history, it should still be noted that the presentation of that sound is every bit a work of art as the sound itself and the intention behind it. Wildfire by Ryne Meadow is a song that you can appreciate for many things, but it can never be felt in its fullest without a stereo setup. Break out the nicest headphones or set of speakers you can find; this is worth it.

Ryne’s lyrics are touching and vocal performance is expressive and honest. Couple this with well-timed sparkling highs and full, commanding lows in the instrumentals and you’ve got quite a landscape. The real spectacle however, comes from the panning. Hearing parts bounce left and right across your mind as you meld yourself into the space created is a fun and immersive way to experience this song. Wildfire is passionate, but not explosive. It’s spritely, but not shrill. It’s warm, but not naïve.

This is a song that evokes good feelings that come from beyond the surface, and that’s something that a lot of artists will admit is no easy venture. Ryne Meadow effortlessly portrays a vulnerable and yet secure character in this song. It’s a song that feels like someone you can trust. Hopefully we can trust that there’s plenty more on the way. - A&R Factory

"Ryne Meadow is a work in progress. He’s a diamond in the rough, a songbird mending a broken tweet. He doesn’t have it all together. Some days are harder than others, because he’s human. And that’s okay."

This might be a little crazy to say, but do you remember when Kelly Clarkson first came out with all of her gospel-loving vibes and you just knew she was going to be a star? That’s how I feel about Ryne Meadow. He’s got soul and style, and the songwriting is impressive.

The instrumentals show true evolution throughout the track, and the lyrics kill me. KILL ME. Can we all just hug it out?

"Who’s gonna wake me
From the bad dreams
The ones where I can’t seem
To breathe or scream
Who’s gonna save me?”

Listen to the track below. Call me if you need someone to cry nostalgic with. #Imgonnasaveme - LeftBank Magazine