Ryan Kerr is a real big artist. Put another way: Ryan Kerr is real, Ryan
Kerr is big, Ryan Kerr is an artist.

You know he's real because you've met the people he sings about; you've seen the rightwing clash with the left; you know that the young lady down the street flew west with her baby because her husband wouldn't stay away from the gentleman's club; you've wanted to put a bullet between the devil's eyes; you've wondered when "the simple part" of marriage begins; you've loved someone who left you behind to long after a ghost...Ryan Kerr is real because the people and situations he describes in song are next door happening now.

Big is too small a word to describe Ryan. Extra large...? Humongous ...? Interstellar...? He doesn't fit in my Porsche 924. He wears size 16 shoes. He's difficult to hug 'cause there's not enough of you to go around. But that's not the "real" big that is Ryan Kerr. The real big is apparent when a room full of teenagers stop texting and pay attention to his set. The real big shows its face when you are listening carefully to a quiet vocal line, then POW , 125 decibels of approximate rhyme with an irregular meter chaser. The big Ryan is there when you need gas and are on your last $12.50, he passes right by and stands for a fill up. The big is felt in the short silence after his set while folks decide whether to shout, clap, stomp, laugh, whistle or holler.

The artist Ryan is the guy who listens so well and understands so keenly that he can put you, me, himself and the devil in a bag and shake it till a song comes out.

- a friend
 

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