Biography
Hailing from Philadelphia, America's City of Brotherly Love, Ryan Tennis' music is all about dismantling boundaries and bringing people together. Genre-defiant by nature and with diversity at its core, his rousing songs are infused with the rhythms from the many countries he’s visited during his extensive tours. While his performances are dynamic and danceable, Tennis’ voice and songs have a disarming sweetness that lowers your defenses and lets you breathe easy.
A singer-songwriter and guitarist, Ryan Tennis' style bares a strong influence from the Folk and Rock he grew up with (Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, Crosby Stills, Nash & Young), a connection with roots soul music that grew in his youth (Bill Withers, Otis Redding, and Sam Cooke), and the energy and rhythms of Colombia, where he has toured and collaborated with some of the country’s finest artists.
Despite a life that now circulates around music almost entirely, Tennis admits he was a late bloomer when it came to songwriting. Sports occupied much of his time during his teens and into college, playing as a 1AA All-American defensive lineman at Davidson College in North Carolina until the age of 22. That intensity and power that he channelled for football still comes through in Tennis' live performances.
Over the last 12 years, Tennis has played 100-200 shows a year and pulled off countless independent tours with shows in the US, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Thailand, and Australia.
Since then, Tennis has also released four full-length LPs and two EPs, has fronted a 10-piece "Graceland'' band with the Grammy award-winning South African bass player Bakithi Kumalo, collaborated with Latin Grammy winning artists Nidia Gongora and Hugo Candaleria, and regularly toured South America with Latin Grammy-nominated group "El Caribefunk”. Additionally, he won the Philadelphia Songwriters Project, was selected as a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition, and helped found “Sancochofest” in the City of Tuluá, Colombia. In his hometown of Philadelphia, he curates and hosts “Tracks at the Vale,” a vibrant concert series on the stage he built in his backyard, where the music and the crowd echo the warmth and diversity he has fostered in his music.
“Everyone’s struggling these days in their own way, including me” Tennis says. “The best way I’ve found to feel that joy, that flow, that freedom from worry, is when I’m performing, when I feel like I’m channeling something big. When I’m in that place I can open up my own groove, and open it up for other people too.”
Ryan Tennis has achieved so much during his time in music and shows little sign of slowing down. His forthcoming single, 'Alligator' is scheduled for release in early September 2021; a taste of what’s to come from his forthcoming album later in the year.
Ryan Tennis Releases New
Single and Video
“Alligator” previews upcoming full-length album by world-touring Philly singer/songwriter
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – “Our brains are not equipped to process the turmoil of the world, all day every day,” says Ryan Tennis about the collective anxiety we’ve been feeling.
He’s not wrong, but he’s not getting sunk by it either. The veteran Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter’s new video single “Alligator” is simply a big, beautiful beacon for any who lift their tired eyes to see it. It’s poignant, it’s brilliant, it’s—
“It’s the silliest video I’ve ever done,” says Ryan, sounding sheepish and excited at the same time. “[filmmaker] Will Drinker is also a ventriloquist and puppeteer, and that enthusiasm and confidence rubbed off on me. We were just committed to having fun no matter what during the shoot.”
On a rolling carpet of relentlessly bright funk—and a perfectly infectious chorus—we get cascading visions of the 21st-century man in his native living room habitat: cross-stepping over toy train tracks in boxer briefs, dancing in an alligator onesie, crouching and wary in warpaint, posing as smoldering, wind-blown pop idol with a hair brush mic.
Why? Because the road to relief just might be paved with silliness. Ryan knows this, he’s taking that road, and he’s inviting along anyone who thinks shedding their own anxious skin and moving to rhythms outside their worried minds sounds like a good idea right now.
“Everyone’s struggling in their own way” Tennis says. “I am too. The best chance I’ve found to feel joy, flow, freedom from worry, is performing, when I feel like I’m channeling something big. When I’m in that place I can open up my own groove and open it up for other people too.”
Creating sounds that move has already been a journey for Tennis. He’s become a master of it over the 12 years since he first got serious about music. And whatever else he may say about the importance of being frivolous, that solid foundation is there. The anchoring beats, clean guitar work, the sneaky charm of his words and voice, the deftly-crafted song arcs—everything’s in place to give the listener a space to go nuts and breathe easy at the same time.
The road-taking has been a literal one, too, carrying him and his unfettered energy all over the U.S., Central and South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia…several hundred shows over five continents. Back in Philly, he’s even built a stage in his yard that is home to “Tracks at the Vale,” a concert series he curates and hosts himself, and is featured in “Alligator’s” final act.
The secret to the song and to the upcoming full-length album it previews is in letting all the negativity and grim worry of the day fall away. That takes willingness, work and savvy. “Alligator” provides real payoff—its embracing, community-inclusive finale is poignant and…kind of brilliant.
That’s a break we can all use.
Ryan Tennis is a singer/songflinger, a fun facilitator and a Philadelphian. For more information on his music, tour dates, and the new “Alligator” single and video, visit www.ryantennismusic.com.
