Ryan Michael Richards: More Than Time
Higher Level Media

I've listened to Ryan Michael Richards' More Than Time in a number of different settings, from the comfort of my living room to a variety of urban locales, but never has its pastoral folk material dovetailed more perfectly with the immediate environment than during a walk along the dusty trails of a nearby park. With blossoming trees and a symphony of birdsong as a bucolic complement, the acoustic guitarist's material resonates all the more powerfully.

At twenty minutes and five tracks, the EP, recorded at Will Ackerman's Imaginary Road Studios in Vermont, naturally doesn't carry the weight of a full album, but it's lovely nevertheless. More Than Time couples two tracks featuring Richards alone with others featuring, in different combinations, Premik Russell Tubbs (soprano sax, lyricon), Michael Manring (electric bass), Jill Haley (English horn), and Charlie Bisharrat (violin). The performances by the Hunterdon County, New Jersey-based Richards and his guests are exemplary, and the clarity of the presentation by producer Ackerman and master sound engineer Tom Eaton casts the guitarist's material in a magnificent light.

Nothing more than Richards' playing is needed to convey the sincerity and heart of the opening “Moving Forward.” His pristine picking gives eloquent voice to its uplifting lilt, and one comes away from it and the equally memorable “Friday at Five” convinced that an entire album's worth of solo performances wouldn't be unwelcome.

With Tubbs and Manring added, “At Your Leisure” resonates as powerfully. The bassist's subtle underpinning tastefully grounds the performance, but it's the blend of the guitarist's rich picking with his guest's gentle, flute-like lyricon that gives the piece its defining character. Tubbs return for “Timeless,” with this time his soprano sax a graceful duet partner to Richards' acoustic. The contributions of Haley and Bisharrat to “May I Have This Dance” elevate the lyrical minuet beautifully, with the two and Richards combining to make the elegant trio performance an EP highlight. As the recording ends, one's left hoping that the seven years separating the release of his 2014 full-length Experiences and More Than Time won't repeat itself. A full album of material like that featured on the EP can't come too soon.

May 2021