style's a shrood mood

the lure of o'd's warm log fire, a pint or two of proper ale and a live band is too much to resist on a cold october night, especially when the band is ryan mitchell-smith's latest project, shrood. having watched ryan develop from the pony tailed zappa look-alike playing harmonica with dr blue during his university holidays, through his solo work, with the heat and sway, it's a real pleasure to witness the culmination of his previous work in his latest incarnation as the front-man for the blues-rock-jazz fusion that is shrood.

gone is the ponytail, jeans and t-shirt, replaced by a stylish black outfit and the now trademark 'trilby' as ryan leads his new band through a set of beautifully crafted pieces of music, each one tipping that aforementioned trilby in the direction of the myriad of musical influences he's grown up with. the band's core sound is the blues, but blended with many other genres, it feels so fresh and different that it could almost be said they've invented a whole new sound.

but let's not forget, shrood are a four piece outfit with some top notch musicians accompanying ryan's work on vocals, guitar and harmonica. on bass is matt bradley, who also plays in rosie doonan's band, on the drum-kit it adam larner, son of dr blue's drummer martin, while last but not least there's the flamboyant guitar of jim "the grynn" emmerson, a great guitarist and great head of hair! the band are currently working on a demo cd which will be available soon, and a track "the walk" can be heard on www.myspace.com/shroodmusic, along with details of upcoming gigs. check it out - it could be a shrood move!

derek lines - wakefield express – 26-10-2007

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