Ryan Langdon - 'Leave Me Right'

By David Farrell

Ryan Langdon – ‘Leave Me Right’ (Slaight Music). The Niagara Falls hat singer’s father played college football for the U of Tennessee and it left him exposed him to a lot of southern rock and country music that explains the blazing guitar riffs and Nashville-influenced vocal twang on this debut single.

It’s a story-telling song about a busted relationship with an unmistakable hook that hits at the 38-second mark, and a run time of 3:45 that doesn’t spare a second canoodling or dillydallying in its wake. In short, this is a taut, action-packed debut that opens with blazing certainty and carries through to the last lick.

We’ve seen Langdon perform and he’s the real deal in a genre all too often typified by bursting bustiers, soft-pawed Bel Air cowboys and songbooks coyly tailored to capture achy-breaky hearts. Give him a barstool and an acoustic guitar and he can capture and hold a room with his commanding voice, natural charisma, brimming confidence and a presence that tells you he is anything but a product spun from some AI algorithm.

No word yet on when an EP is to be expected. “Parkside” Mike Renaud is stick-handling.