"Grainne Ryan may be compared to Lucinda Williams a bit for her brand of alt.country/No Depression, but I also hear a bit of Jonatha Brooke in the way Ryan sings and plays guitar. If you want one of those songs that makes a long country drive home seem endless, or perhaps you want to find yourself driving, never wanting to go home, the atmosphere of "Brace Yourself" offers this. The slide guitar (played by Drew Glackin has a similar vibe to how Jerry Garcia played on David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name, and true to the spirit of the song, you almost don't want it to end.
In a better world, "Brace Yourself", along with songs such as "Tree Frog", "What You Are To Me", and "Unfold" would be getting a lot of airplay and the musicianship of Ryan and her band would be celebrated around the world. I look forward to hearing what she's capable doing on a full length project, and if she isn't signed by a bigger label in 2008, people are missing out on a true talent."
John Book - Music For America (www.musicforamerica.org)
Grainne Ryan -All The Money:
(English Translation for review from Rootstime.be in Belgium)
"Americana is a genre (style) so big that it isn't a genre anymore. It fits almost everything: old-fashioned country, old pop & rock, old soul, doo-wop, singer songwriter, folk, bluegrass, old-time, roots, even old jazz. And it doesn't have to come from America. It has to say pure and one has to like the old fashioned handwork. Most of all it's a response against the commercialized record industry, as a result of artists that didn't fit in a little genre, didn't get a chance anymore.
Grainne (say : Grawn-Ya) Ryan just released her first EP "All The Money". Because of that the press called her the biggest talent of Canada. They compared her with Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Sarah Harmer, Patti Griffin, Aimee Mann or a young Sheryl Crow, but Grainne Ryan makes her own country-folk music, with her own personality and her own way of looking at things. On "All the Money" Ryan allows us after all a glance at treasures of her own songs. Only seven songs, but we should be happy with that. After all "All the Money" has, considering the fantastic Canadian/American line-up with Chris Brown (The citizen's Band, The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, Broken Social Scene, Bare Naked Ladies) on rhodes, Hammond and piano. Jason Mercer (Ani Difranco, Ron Sexsmith) on bass and banjo, Corey Richardson on drums and the beautiful guitar and pedal-steel parts of Drew Glackin (The Silos, Tandy, The Jack Grace Band, Crash Test Dummies) become a really consistent EP, full of lovely singer-songwriter material. The best songs are: "Cotton Candy", "Brace Yourself", "What you are to me" and "Souls and Shoes", but most of the songs are just introvert beauties, in which this in Toronto, Ontario, living singer-songwriter can illustrate that she is not only a great lyricist, but also a extremely gifted vocalist. Her well made songs are intense short stories, which she sings in a sincere, clear way with a lot of confidence.
The songs "Cotton Candy" and "Brace Yourself" (with harmony vocals of Ana Egge) are just openers of this beautiful EP, that is, together with the other songs of the same calibre, an itimate masterpiece, played with passion and pleasure.
People who love singer-songwriters and the artists mentioned before shouldn't miss this splendid record.
Conclusion: an absolute must for those who melt, listening to Aimee Mann, Lucinda Williams, Sarah Harmer..................that kind of tender voices with a strong opinion". .....
Freddy Celis -Roots Time