Ryan Hamilton & The Harlequin Ghosts

Based near Fort Worth, Texas, singer/songwriter Ryan Hamilton released his first solo album, the critically acclaimed ‘Hell of a Day’, back in 2015. Prior to this, Ryan had experienced success across North America and Canada with former band Smile Smile. February 2017 saw the first release under the banner ‘Ryan Hamilton and the Traitors’. Single ‘Heavy Heart’ was playlisted by Kerrang! Radio, as was the follow-up ‘Smarter’, also put into heavy rotation by XS Manchester and BBC radio in the UK. These tracks, along with the charity single (for Samaritans) ‘F**k You Brain’, written & recorded with former touring buddy Ginger Wildheart, have in turn been voted Classic Rock Magazine’s ‘Track of the Week’ (a tradition upheld with the majority of Ryan’s subsequent releases). Little Steven/Stevie van Zandt has not only bestowed upon the band the honour of ‘coolest song in the world’ multiple times now, he also play-listed half the album on his Sirius XM show, Little Steven’s Underground Garage.
Upon signing to Stevie Van Zandt’s ‘Wicked Cool’ label in June 2018 the band underwent a name change and became Ryan Hamilton and the Harlequin Ghosts. A sold-out tour of the UK supporting the Alarm followed. 2019 singles Mamacita and This Is The Sound were each playlisted on over 100 UK radio stations and syndicated across the US. Earlier in 2019 Ryan and the band completed a West Coast tour of the US. By personal invitation, Ryan also played Adam Duritz’ (Counting Crows) ‘Underwater Sunshine’ festival in NYC and The Alarm’s Gathering festival in both Wales and NYC. Mike Peters of The Alarm has said of Ryan: “this young man is the future of rock n’roll.” 2019 saw Ryan and the band tour the UK multiple times, once in support of the Tearaways featuring Blondie’s Clem Burke. Ryan closed out 2019 by opening for Jesse Malin (featuring Lucinda Williams) at the Bowery Ballroom, NYC.
Debut album under the new band name ‘This Is The Sound’ was released on Wicked Cool May 2019, with the follow-up ‘Nowhere To Go But Everywhere’ coming in 2020. This album featured in multiple Top 10 charts in the UK. 2020 also saw the release of Ryan’s chart-topping solo EP ‘Incommunicado’, following shortly after his ‘songs and stories’ solo acoustic tour of the UK just before the pandemic hit. Ryan and the band were booked to play multiple UK festivals during the summer of 2020, among them Maverick festival (Americana) and LeeFest, where they were fourth on a bill headlined by Brit-rockers Ash. During 2021, with touring still off the agenda owing to the pandemic, Ryan has been releasing a new track a month via Wicked Cool for his project ‘1221’, collaborating with such artists as Bob Schneider and Chuck Prophet.