Casey Ryan to play annual Wallace Blues Festival

This year’s Wallace Blues Festival has some local flare to it as Casey Ryan is performing several times this weekend.

Ryan has been performing like crazy throughout this year, but was able to make the festival after being asked by a Wallace business owner, Marcy Hayman.

This will be Ryan’s first time playing a Silver Valley festival and he is looking forward to it.

“While I've played festivals in Spokane, and Coeur d’Alene, I've never done one in my hometown area,”Ryan said. “I'm definitely super excited to see the turnout and see all my old friends and play for new faces as well.”

Ryan is an acoustic artist and doesn’t think of himself as necessarily bluesy, but he has an alternative style that tends to stick with crowds wherever he plays

“I like to think that my alternative style will bring a uniqueness to the festival. I’m hoping to have people say, ‘that guy stands out’ after they hear me play,” Ryan said. “Outside my original songs, I play a lot of blues covers, especially instrumental. So I'm looking forward to showcasing all of it for my hometown.”

What makes these festivals fun for artists is that they get to hear other artists, both new and familiar.

“I played a show in Dickinson, North Dakota, and the Stepbrothers opened for me,” Ryan said. They were all very kind to me and super interested in hearing what I had to say which I always appreciate. I'll definitely be watching them before I play.”

The Stepbrothers will also be playing the Wallace Blues Festival tonight from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Red Light Garage.

2017 has been a year of change and growth for Ryan who has already played over 120 shows in two countries and 13 states.

With just over 100 shows left this year, Ryan will travel to Germany, Australia, and New Zealand while playing many more shows here in the States.

“This year has been the most insane year to date for me,” Ryan said. “Outside of live performances, the release of my new album 'III' has yielded nearly 2500 downloads on iTunes and I recently hit 1 million streams on Spotify.”

After the Blues Festival Ryan will get to live out another dream (again) as he opens for City and Colour in September in Spokane.

Ryan will be releasing a music video for his single ‘A Game With No Winner” which was produced by Ryan’s friend and Silver Valley filmmaker Kyle Finlay, something Ryan is very excited about.

“Kyle is amazing to work with and I can’t wait for that to be released,” Ryan said.

In all reality, Ryan is just thankful for the opportunities that he has been given and the support that he has received.

“I'm extremely busy, almost too busy,” Ryan said. “But overall I'm so blessed and grateful for everything; and I owe it all to the support of all of my hometown friends and my fans across the west coast. I'm nothing without them.”

Casey Ryan can be seen today at 12 p.m. and at 6 p.m. at the Fainting Goat.