Richardine Bartee
Being able to look back on life is a beautiful thing when you have little to no regrets. It doesn’t hurt as much. Nonetheless, the beauty of being a human is that we all make dopey mistakes. Other times, our actions are deliberate. Covering various topics in his songwriting, like struggling with a broken heart (on the title track), honesty (‘A House and a Porch’), and being able to move on (‘The Trouble With You’), the singer-songwriter taps into the human sentiment.
When I listen to Ryan Hutchens, the instrumentation makes me feel like I’m swaying in a hammock in the deep south. There’s a jar of fresh-squeezed lemonade nearby. I’m in a netted area, so there aren’t any mosquitoes or other insects flying over me. The vegetables that I roasted are cooling off. It’s almost supper time. ‘Poor Old Man’ plays from the speaker in the kitchen window. My stress levels are at a minimum. I am not worried nor am I mourning. It’s the best I’ve felt in a long time.
Relating to South Carolina-born Denver-based recording artist’s title of his album, a lot has happened for me in the last ten years. I’ve grown into a woman. I launched and maintained this company. I lost a lot; Experienced a massive loss of someone who is dear to me. I’ve been able to complete self-discovery as a young African-American person in North America, a thing most young people don’t get to achieve when I did or at all. I’ve taken the right steps to evaluate myself, mentally. On a positive note, I believe everything that happened to me in the last decade is what brought me to my current place of solidarity and conciseness. For the first time, I am eager to see what’s next. I live in the moment. I am alive and able to enjoy what I’ve been able to build for myself and others. I am emotionally intelligent, yet I am not coarse.
Last year, Ryan Hutchens released an eleven-track album that sounds like whipped margarine. Without doubt, the LP flows the way it is supposed to flow. Stream his sophomore project below. It’s soothing. It’s honest. It ends off with an instrumental.
