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Ryan McMahon likes to tell people he’s a late bloomer. But when looking at the body of work the 44-year-old from Ladysmith, British Columbia has amassed since 2006, he certainly has made up for lost time. With seven releases under his own name, and two with his side project Lion Bear Fox, Ryan has established himself as one of western Canada’s most prolific singer/songwriters, leading to multiple Vancouver Island Music Awards and supporting slots for everyone from Lisa Loeb to Nickelback, including full tours with Burton Cummings & Tom Cochrane.

The latest addition to Ryan’s catalogue is Live Now, his first album since 2019’s In Line For A Smile, and a collection he has been eager to share since the pandemic forced him to pause all musical activity. The creation of Live Now began in early 2022 with the recording of “One More Fire,” arranged through the help of Juno-nominated country artist Aaron Pritchett.

Ryan explains, “Although we have stylistically sonic differences, Aaron’s been a great friend to me and my music since we connected at a charity event a few years back. We tracked ‘One More Fire’ as a stand-alone single at Vancouver’s Warehouse studio, with Aaron’s son Jordan and his fiancee Danielle handling production, along with engineer Sheldon Zaharko [Steve Dawson, Matt Anderson, Billy Talent]. We all found working together so organic and enjoyable that the decision was made to build an album around those first few sessions.”

With its uplifting, pop-friendly construction still grounded in banjos and mandolins, “One More Fire” set a high bar. Nevertheless, it kicked open Ryan’s creative floodgates, resulting a batch of songs he describes as containing more hope and optimism than any of his previous material. “The entire record is a reminder to myself of just how rich my life is, and how to dig in and persevere no matter what is going on around me,” he says.

A second single in the summer of 2023, “Lost & Found,” took things in slower direction, but powered by Scotty Smith’s shimmering pedal steel, it became the perfect soundtrack for gazing at the stars and taking stock of your life. Indeed, it’s hard not to feel inspired when hearing Ryan sing, “I know I gotta get out of my own way, and maybe I’m learning how / There’s time to make a change for better, I think I’m ready now.”

That may be the overriding message at the core of Live Now, as Ryan personally sees the album as the first he’s done that fully captures what he set out to achieve. It’s also contained within the finger picked ballad “A Song Can Change Your Mind,” an honest reflection of the impact music has made in Ryan’s life, and the impact he hopes his music can have on listeners.

“I’ve long had a wide variety of influences, but before creating these songs I really did some deep dives into the careers of current Americana-type artists that I really admire,” he says. “Jason Isbell, Nathaniel Rateliff, Father John Misty, Israel Nash—these artists are out there, doing their own thing using highly artistic and simultaneously entertaining methods, all the while telling their truth. That’s what I want to do.”