Eight months into his “Song a Month” series, Michael S. Ryan, aka approximately one half of The Town Heroes, has released “Lightning,” a song so sad that it advocates for Russian novels as romantic guides.
Michael S. Ryan explains that “Lightning” distinguishes itself from the rest of the series with a hard left turn into melancholy: “a melodic piano ballad in the vein of S. Carey or Patrick Watson.”
“I wanted to write the saddest song ever”, Ryan says. “I don’t know if I got that far, but it’s close!”
While sad songs may be de rigeur at the moment, “Lightning” pulls from the perennial themes of “unexpected lost love” and “yearning to go back to the way it was before.” As Ryan explains it, the tale of the love forsaken narrator, trying to find their way back to what’s been lost, why they ever diverged from that path, and what they would do to get back there.
It’s basically a sad version of The Proclaimer’s “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”.
The single takes its title from the line “No one expects lightning from a cloudless sky,” by which Ryan compares it the unexpected sense of loss akin to having the rug of romance pulled out from under you.
“As sad as it comes across, I think ultimately it’s an optimistic song,” Ryan says. “Sometimes the only way to get what you need is to fight for it… to go through a little bit of hell first.”
The sad streak might just be Ryan’s native tongue. It’s easy to believe when you take a look at his list of inspirations. It looks like he wades through heart-wrench on a fairly regular basis.
“My favourite song the last few years is Gregory Alan Isakov covering Iron and Wine’s ‘The Trapeze Swinger‘,” says Ryan. “Classics like ‘Left and Leaving’ by The Weakerthans. I used to love the band Travis, their album The Invisible Band has always been a big inspiration. Sharon Van Etten and Phobe Bridgers are some good new ones. The National is probably my fav band… and they don’t have too many happy tunes.”
As with all Michael S. Ryan’s songs, his wife Kristen Herrington will be creating a coinciding painting to go along with it. The painting will be released in the coming weeks.