JR Ryan: Contemporary beatnik entertainer, working the street poet motif.
After a few years of college, JR dropped out and pursued his vocation of being a poet. It was the glory days of hitch hiking and it was cool to hit the road... He figured he would recite poems and sell copies to get around on. The street was his platform. It was time to develop his voice and write.
After years of solo performing, and occasional malnutrition, JR started working with musicians, developing his blues phrasing in a jazz idiom. As a youngster he was impressed with the beatnik phenomenon. Now he has created a romantic, hip, intellectual tongue in cheek stage presence that plays on what they were laying down. He taps into an archetype that was future shocked in America back in the 1950's. The blend of the beatnik and bebop spirit is kept alive by JR's unique approach.
JR currently struggles to survive in Austin Texas.
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