DRH in Billboard, June 97

Five Atlantan Acts To Follow

By Jeff Clark

DAVID RYAN HARRIS

For David Ryan Harris, the most important thing he's learned since his former band Follow For Now disintegrated four years ago is patience. "I guess right after we broke up, what I wanted to do was kinda parlay whatever name I'd made for myself with that band into a deal and keep moving immediately. Of course, that didn't happen."

Instead, after Chrysalis rejected the Atlanta funk-rock quintet's demos for their second album, there was talk of a Harris solo deal with Columbia Records, which never materialized. "But ultimately, I wasn't really ready, even if it had happened," Harris now says.

He spent much of '94 and '95 playing guitar with fellow Atlantan Dionne Farris, on her "Wild Seed-Wild Flower" album (on which he also co-wrote and co-produced several tracks) and subsequent tour. It was on several of those dates that Harris opened Farris' show with a solo set, getting comfortable with his new songs and the idea of being the sole focal point.

"At that point, [solo gigs] were really the most petrifying experiences you could imagine," Harris claims. "Now it's the easiest. It's really gratifying, because I know I'm in full control."

Now Harris is gearing up with a new band and preparing to tour in support of his long-awaited solo debut, due in July on Brendan O'Brien's 57 Records, through Columbia. With a more soulful, introspective bent than the rambunctious Follow For Now was known for (the band took its name from a line in a Public Enemy song), the "David Ryan Harris" album reflects the down-to-earth concerns of a 29-year-old father of three who has finally outgrown impatience. "I admire people who are slow and deliberate," Harris says. "So I'm just trying to chill out."


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.