Ryan Sweezey

Ryan Sweezey is a singer/songwriter from just outside of Boston, Mass. His acoustic-based pop/rock draws on a variety of influences from several decades. His favorite artists, who come out heavily in his songs, are Augustana, Counting Crows, Matt Nathanson and Matchbox Twenty. Other major influences include Tom Petty, the Rolling Stones and the Allman Brothers. Blending together these elements with his own style, Sweezey shows a level of maturity in his writing, lyrically and musically, well beyond his years. He also displays an impressive amount of musicality built up over several years of relentless performing. Having been writing since 2007, Ryan met Brian Maes (Brian Maes Band, Ernie & the Automatics, RTZ, Peter Wolf’s House Party Five) in 2011 and that summer began recording some of his songs at Brian’s studio in Lynn. In December, Sweezey released his first single, “One Week Down the Road,” online and his debut album “No Hollywood Star” soon followed in January of 2012. Not out of the studio long, he returned to Maes’ studio in summer 2012 to begin work on his next project. The first single of the new album was released in January of 2013, entitled “If You Fall.” Along the way, Sweezey penned “You Can’t Bring Us Down,” a tribute to the victims of the Boston Marathon tragedy, which he released as a fundraiser in late April, raising over $500 for the One Fund Boston. In May he released the second single for the new album in “Truly Free.” Finally in November, after a recording process that took over a year, the album “Fall” was released. Both albums are available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon, as well as for streaming on Spotify and SoundCloud. Fresh out of college in the spring of 2014, Ryan took a deep dive into the Cambridge/Somerville open mic scene, and has been a frequent contestant in the Lizard Lounge Open Mic Challenge. After winning a Monday night contest for the first time in August 2015, Ryan made it as far as the final four in the bracket-style Lizard Lounge Main Event contest of Monday night winners that September. He has made many appearances at the Burren in Somerville, including his first full band show in the backroom in January 2016, and has also just joined the Wednesday night Exile on Elm Street cast in the front room. Ryan is a member of Emerging Boston Area Singer/Songwriters (EBASS). The nearly two years of being immersed in the open mic scene has sparked a meteoric upswing in the quality of Sweezey's already strong songwriting, and he hopes to display it on his upcoming EP, which is currently being recorded with George Woods (tentative summer release). Showing an interest in music from an early age, he was prone to belting out Jimmy Buffett songs before being old enough to know what most of the words meant. Upon entering middle school in 2002, he began playing sax in the school band and would continue to play alto and bari sax through the end of high school. In 2004, he started playing guitar and became a regular singer for the first time when he joined chorus in 2007. He graduated from Lynnfield High School in 2010 and that fall entered Northeastern University in Boston. A four year member of the campus’ all-male a cappella group, the UniSons, Sweezey graduated from Northeastern in 2014. Ryan Sweezey’s Americana-style pop/rock displays an impressive combination of vocal skills, guitar work and pop writing