Features : “Fools Gold” is a fine, rock introduction to new Canadian artist Joshua Ryan

Joshua Ryan’s debut song, “Fools Gold,” is a rocking guitar track with a hard, fast beat and pop lyrics sung in his husky baritone voice.

It’s a perfect career opener for a new artist whose official bio so far is pretty much this: “Just a boy with a Gibson and a dream,” which sounds like a throwaway line but has a great story behind it.

And “Fools Gold” is not a one-off. He’s got 10 more lined up behind it in the final stages of mixing, and he will start releasing them in another two or three weeks.

First, though, “Fools Gold,” because it is out, it’s his first, and it’s a fun pop-rock listen.

“‘Fools Gold’ is an upbeat party song that you can really rock out to,” he said. “The louder you turn it up, the more you feel it. It’s all about volume on that one.”

It’s a driving song, he said. “You turn it on and get behind the wheel,” or a party song, “something to get you moving and just rock out a little bit.”

I can see us driving out of town
In a fast car
Finding fortune on the wheels
Of a fast car
Tell me where you wanna go
Baby how far

The dream of putting out music is real for Joshua Ryan Barnett, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His artist name is his first and middle names. He has spent six years and a lot of work to develop his guitar skills and his sound and to make the money he needed to put out high-quality tracks as a purely independent artist.

“I don’t have a label or a team behind me. I did all the writing, all the recording, the mixing and the production work.”

The part of his bio that says “a Gibson and a dream” is way more literal than it sounds.

He started piano lessons in grade school but moved to guitar in junior high, played in school music programs, but “never anything too serious,” he said. But guitar was there, though at first it wasn’t the Gibson. It was a “crappy old acoustic” that he thinks he got from his mother.

“It sounded alright, but it wasn’t anything special,” he said. Still, it was a comfort to play it when his life hit a span that was likewise nothing special. He was working as a framing carpenter.

“I was working hourly for guys building houses, and I was in a place where I was like, ‘There’s got to be more to life than working your ass off for not very much money.’”

During this period, crappy old Washburn or not, he was playing it and he started writing songs, and somewhere during that time, a vision gradually began to take shape.

“I just started expressing myself through my guitar, adding melodies over the top with my voice, and it kind of developed on its own. It wasn’t all at once. It was like a vision I had that if I really just home in and put the work in and learn these skills, the guitar and the writing, I could really change the way that my life is going.”

Life and music were going nowhere on a hired-man’s wages, so he started his own framing company and, with contractor-level income, he could, and did, get serious. For one thing, he acquired a Gibson ES 335 with the semi-hollow body. He has a couple other guitars now, too, but that one is his favorite, and it’s the instrument behind “Fools Gold.”

“Man, I love that guitar.”

He also acquired high-grade music and computer technology for his home, where he develops his music before going to the professional recording studio, which he can afford now.

The songs, he says, begin with the guitar.

“Absolutely, brother. I start with the guitar. Everything I do starts in the guitar. Before I add beats, before I add vocals, I write my music on my guitar.”

He lists his genre as indie because in addition to rock he has country and R&B influences. His upcoming work demonstrates some of those influences.

He likes to listen to artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and Chris Stapleton, “guys that can really play and have a unique sound.”

“When they pick up the guitar and start playing, you just know that it’s them playing.”

Next up, in a couple of weeks, is “What This Leads To,” which has a rockish vibe similar to “Fools Gold” but with a different tempo to its melodies.

He calls “Fools Gold” “a throwback” to rock ’n’ roll glory days.

“It’s a very guitar-heavy song, and I thought it would be cool to add some pop lyrics and a cool production beat. I’m still trying to find my sound, but I know that it’s centered on guitars, because I love guitars.”

“Fools Gold” shows that the years he prepared for his debut was time well spent.

Also time well-spent: connecting to Joshua Ryan on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

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