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Interview Articles - Jim Ryan & Craig Wilson - Cruzeros

Jim Ryan and Craig Wilson - Cruzeros

Jim Ryan and Craig Wilson, members of the Canadian country band Cruzeros, were taking a break from touring and were rehearsing for a duo gig for the 2001 Halloween Bash at the local pub in Christina Lake when they were interviewed for this article for the local Grand Forks Gazette. Jim and Craig are no longer (2007) with the Cruzeros, to find out who the new members are follow the link at the end of the article. Jim is an amazing musician, and I felt exceedingly privileged to have him part of my own CD recording session (Homemade) while he was on a break from touring.

Taking a break

The Cruzeros

It was just hours before their debut performance as a duo at the Time and Place Pub in Christina Lake when Jim Ryan and Craig Wilson, members of the roots country band Cruzeros, sat discussing what they planned to do for the Halloween bash.

"It's a really new act," laughed Ryan as he sipped on coffee and explained his pre-gig jitters. "We've been rehearsing all week. I can't overstate the disclaimer. I've always prided myself on being prepared - I'm a rehearsal freak. If we can't be a diamond we can at least make them laugh."

Jim Ryan - bass player extraordinaire for 26 years

Ryan, a resident of Christina Lake for the last six years and member of the Kelowna based Cruzeros for the past five, has been a professional musician for 26 years playing bass, keyboard, accordion and tuba.

"My wife Julie is from here, and all the years we lived in Vancouver I promised we'd move back," says Ryan. "I'd had my fill of the music scene in Vancouver. It was good for gigs and studio work but I needed the sanity of country life. I came from a farm, in Langford outside Victoria. Now we have some cattle - it's a perfect balance for the music."

Ryan was raised on music. "Mum had me listening to Claude Debussy and Dad had me listening to everything else. Dad was a great sax player who played with Tom Jones and Oscar Peterson. At one time he had a band and a young David Foster was his keyboard player. I used to sneak down and play Foster's Fender Rhodes - that was in the 60s."

After stints playing stand-up double bass with U.Vic and Victoria symphonies, he made too much money gigging on electric bass and was side-tracked from his university studies into the real world - doing session work. Years of studio and band work playing everything but hardcore jazz, and touring with groups followed. He had more or less given up playing and was setting up a studio at Christina Lake to do his own music, going back and forth to Vancouver to do some session work, when he was approached by Barry Mathers of Cruzeros.

Jim Ryan joins roots country band Cruzeros

"I was blown away by the package he presented," exclaims Ryan. "It took a few weeks to team up (with Mathers and guitarist Curtis Tulman) and develop the three-part harmony, then we put together a seven piece band to record the debut CD “Cruzeros”. We toured for two years, and had four Canadian hits off the CD and four videos," adds Ryan. "We were also writing for “El Niño”. That took a long time to get done."

“El Niño”

“El Niño”, Cruzero's latest CD, has not only had terrific reviews across the country, the single "This Old Road" climbed to the top 40 in country radio, and three of their songs have been added to the soundtrack of a major motion picture starring Malcolm McDowell and due for release in the new year. “El Niño” has even been nominated for Canadian Country Music awards, B.C. Country Music awards and a Juno. "We haven't won an award in our lives," says Ryan. "For years we've come in second to Farmer's Daughter, in every category."

Craig Wilson plays drums for Cruzeros

This is where Wilson comes into the picture. When Wilson, a native of Castlegar and past resident of Grand Forks, isn't playing drums he's a carpenter, bartender, and sometimes golfer. "You have to do what you have to do to keep going. I was here in Christina Lake for a year before meeting up with Jim," he explains. "When I heard they were auditioning for a band I asked to try out."

Wilson climbed on board with Ryan, Tulman and Mathers last March as part of the touring Cruzeros, playing to packed houses and doing promotions at radio stations and record stores for “El Niño”, racking up 14,000 km. and travelling as far as Wakefield, Que., about half an hour north of Ottawa.

"Somewhere we wrote the specs on the trip," says Ryan. "It was mind boggling, how we got on. The longest day was 26 hours straight from Windsor to Winnipeg. We're still talking."

And where did the name Cruzeros come from, for a country band? "Tulman and Mathers had a band 16 years ago called the Sea Cruise," explains Ryan. "It got shortened to Cruz. When they were in Mexico they found that the word Cruzeros is powerful, meaning 'warrior'. It's an evolving name. Every year one or two of the guys goes to Mexico. A lot of El Niño was written there."

The CD is well worth a listen. It's not totally country, has a bit of folk, Americana, Canadiana, bluegrass, and a slight Mexican flavour with lyrics and harmonies that touch on all emotions from 'hurt' to 'fun'. The critics are right when they talk about "a fresh gust of warm air" and "a wonderful change from that assembly line pop/pretty boy/country stuff that has engulfed our airwaves and CD players in recent time."

Meanwhile, Ryan and Wilson have given their Christina Lake duo a new name; B.U.N.T. - Butt Ugly No Talent. And about their debut Saturday night? Word has it they did really well. Of course!

For the latest updates on Cruzeros and the band members, their music and tours visit the Cruzeros web site.

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