Allan J. Ryan

There isn't much about folk singer Allan J. Ryan on the internet, aside from his personal website, but these days he holds a chair in Aboriginal Art and Culture at Carleton University. His personal site includes a collection of newspaper concert reviews, and it would appear as though he was a campus favourite at Canadian universities during the late '60s.



For You To Know Me (released on Columbia in 1970) was recorded by producers Mike Berniker and John Williams, with arrangements by George Andrews, at CBS New York and Toronto Sound Studios. Ryan, who also played guitar, was backed up by an impressive assemblage of studio talent; Ray Berliner, Elliot Randall, Hugh McCracken and Eric Weissberg on guitar, John Miller and Joe Mack on bass and Buddy Saltzman on drums. The overall sound is a sort of lush folk-rock, with strings and other instruments such as flute filling out the mix. The title track is a sweeping, I'm-a-sensitive-guy epic, while "Crawfish" (credited to Fred Wise and Ben Weisman, the only song here not written by Ryan) is a lighthearted throwaway about the correct preparation and consumption of, you guessed it, crawfish. "Haggada - Testament," a fairly conventional folk number, obliquely tells the story of a Jewish religious text, and "Harlequin Haven" is a long, country-ish number with a pronounced Dylan influence.

For You To Know Me
Crawfish
Haggada - Testament
Harlequin Haven