Pat Ryan Now ‘Express’es Himself Through Song

12/03/2009 04:47

They are simply known as The Ryans.

Pat Ryan, the famous and now retired curler, and his daughter Lynsay, the 24-year-old unforgettable in a nude pose in a curling calendar and an accomplished musician, songwriter and singer.

Now they are a duet, performing at assorted functions such as this week's Tim Hortons Brier Canadian men's curling championship.

"I figured it was a good time to pick up the guitar, wind up my curling career and take on something new," smiled the 53-year-old Ryan, a two-time Brier champion out of Alberta in the late 1980s and one-time Brier winner out of B.C. in 1994. "This is something to refocus upon."

The Ryan Express last played in a Brier in 2003, and it wasn't long after that the native Winnipegger, who calls Kelowna, B.C., home, started to take his singing and songwriting beyond impromptu performances at bonspiel parties.

"It started four years ago when I found myself writing songs," he said. "I thought I better start recording them, and I had some real good help with my daughter because she's been a musician all her life and it inspired me to do a little bit more with it.

"So here we are playing in public. She's done that a lot, but I've never really played in public that much. We're having some fun . . . it's pretty cool for a dad to be able to do something with his daughter."

Although Ryan officially packed up his slider and broom last year, he served as an alternate for Peter Corner's team in the recent Ontario men's playdowns.

"I haven't missed it too much," he said, "but I was kind of getting the itch to get out there at the Ontario playdowns.

"I don't miss all the little playdowns, the circuit, the tour, but I do miss playing in the big events like the Brier."

Lynsay did some curling, about 10 years of it with former Brier champion Rick Folk's daughter Andrea, but her calling was always music. And, it seems, to help groom her father for the stage as a professional.

"Oh, he needed a little work," she said. "He commutes to Toronto where I live, so we get together the odd weekend, practice, write some duets. Our first gig together was the Arnold Asham Stomp in Winnipeg last summer and we've done a few since."

Right now Pat Ryan has two albums on myspace.com, Old Dog-New Tricks and Little Bit of Trouble, the latter featuring this week's biggest hit, The Brier Song.

"You do the thing you love and that's music," he said.

"You also try and design songs that people like and if you do catch their interest with one, it can certainly make a big difference to all the other music you've written because people want to listen to it as well.

SWIVEL HIPS SAYS:

I’ve seen Pat Ryan perform and he’s an awesome entertainer. He does a really ‘mean’ Elvis impersonation.