After Uncle Ryano released the song “Run Wide Open,” oval tracks such as Hawkeye Downs Speedway and Lee County Speedway have taken to it. Uncle Ryano knows firsthand how a community can adopt a song and then it becomes a hit. His “Cowboy Up” song served as the anthem for the World Series-winning Boston Red Sox, from 2003 to 2004.
“The greatest achievement a writer has is that he or she created something from the heart and that was chosen to be part of the soundtrack of a listener,” Uncle Ryano said. “When a listener adopts a song, it is incorporated into their life. The onus is on me to produce something worthy for the people.”
Taking a Swing at It
Uncle Ryano’s roots in baseball run deep. His father, Archie Reynolds, played for the Los Angeles Angels.
“I’m named after pitching great Nolan Ryan, who roomed with my dad back in the day,” he said.
The Red Sox invited Uncle Ryano, then called Ryan Reynolds, to play at Fenway Park in 2003. He was on the fence about performing. When he saw his cancer-stricken mother, Theresa, watch a Red Sox game as his song came on, it became clearly apparent what he needed to do.
“My stepdad, Danny, said, ‘How many opportunities will you have to make your mom smile?’” Uncle Ryano said. “I flew to Boston, performed at Fenway.”
Uncle Ryano largely disappeared from the music scene in 2008 to spend more time with his young family.
“I always tried to write songs from voices in my head,” he said. “As a songwriter I try to write what you don’t hear on the radio. In Nashville, the machine chases the format. Music is cookie-cutter-produced. I wanted to make the format, not chase it.”
His Return to Music
With encouragement from Billy Ray Cyrus, among others, Uncle Ryano dropped his first album in 18 years with the release of “Voices in my Head” earlier this year.
His second album this year, “New West,” of which “Run Wide Open” is on, drops next week.
“Brian Austin and I created the album with the sound of bluegrass and ’70s funk,” Uncle Ryano said. “We wanted to make a ferocious album with the feel of moonshine running conveyed in ‘Run Wide Open.’”
Uncle Ryano wrote the songs in the album, including “Run Wide Open,” about Las Vegas. He felt the song applied to overall car culture, from hot rods, to drag racing, to NASCAR.
Connecting to Oval-Trackers
One of those from the oval-track world that heard his song, Iowa race fan Rowdy Lind, had worked at Imprint Records in Nashville back in the days of “Cowboy Up.”
“Uncle Ryano is a prolific songwriter,” said Lind. “I lost track of him after ’04. Then, I got a Facebook message this spring. We reconnected.”
Uncle Ryano wasn’t into social media until his daughter helped him get onto Facebook.
“Rowdy found out I stepped back into the pit,” Uncle Ryano said. “He’s getting word out. Now drivers and racing enthusiasts are responding with love.”
The connection led to “Run Wide Open” playing at two Iowa short tracks: Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids and Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. He hopes the connection between his song and the racing community leads to it spreading to tracks across the country.
“I’d love to do a ‘Run Wide Open’ tour with a few powerhouse musician friends of mine,” said Uncle Ryano. “It would be tailor-made for racing, with songs performed for the people who respond to and love racing. I believe that the more you give, the more you get — and I have lots more love and music to give.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
