Joy Ryder Bio

Singer Joy Ryder of the honey-and-whiskey voice, delivers classic R&B, soul and originals in her unique, outsider style. Though Ryder thinks of herself as an old-fashioned blues singer who's been through too much (including the sudden onset and miraculous recovery last year from a brain aneurysm), and has had her heart broken with the best of them, her catalog of identities is as thick as Casanova's black book: punk rocker, cabaret chanteuse, political activist, nightclub promoter and hard-working single mom.

Brooklyn-born Ryder (nee Denise Whelan) was the daughter of child star Phil Whelan. "He was a 'Star of the Future,' says Ryder proudly of her dad, referring to his appearance on the Depression-era radio program hosted by Nick Kenny, a columnist for the Daily Mirror. The red-headed Scotch-Irish kid with the heavenly voice put in his bid for stardom in the 1950s as one of The Five Encores, a short-lived pop-rock quintet that featured a honking sax and a driving beat in catchy songs like "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer."

Young Denise initially had no plan to follow in her father's footsteps. She enrolled in the University of Hawaii on a pre-law track, planning to become a Legal Aide attorney. But to help pay her tuition she wound up singing in Top 40 bands entertaining troops on the Islands' many military bases. Soon she found herself booking several shows a week through an agent. By graduation, Denise figured she preferred music to the law. But a life of pick-up bands and cover tunes was not for her; she was tired of channeling Donna Summer and Linda Ronstadt. "I just can't sound like anyone else; I've got my own voice," says Ryder.

Ryder headed back to New York where she looked for singing jobs, and studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute to conquer her stage fright. At a band audition, she met a guitar player who also had a catchy stage name, Avis Davis. The pair married and started an act, which toured on the international underground rock circuit and on NATO bases. Their best-known song is "No More Nukes": "Do you wanna have an army?/No! We wanna have a party!" Davis and Ryder were part of MUSE, Musicians United for Safe Energy, performing for a quarter of a million people at Battery Park City in 1979 with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and others. They also were on tour in the US for Rock Against Racism, to fight the neo-nazi movement that was surfacing at the time.

Joy and Avis eventually separated, and Joy went to live in Berlin, where she continued playing No Nuke festivals, and Anti-Fascist Rallies, as well as playing in films, plays and recording for RCA, Polydor, CBS and Mercury Records. Ryder lived a bi-continental life until setting down for good in New York City , when she fell in love with record producer, Disco Den, and had a son with him.

In NYC, Joy took a break from the secular world for 5 years, to raise her son, and to sing gospel at All Angels Church. The All Angel’s Gospel singers sang at prisons, churches, homeless shelters, weddings and funerals. Joy eventually decided to go back to singing in clubs, and began performing soul classics live. She worked in clubs in Harlem and the Village, and was featured in Roz Nixon’s play, Nothing But the Blues, as Gwenny. In addition, she booked acts at a nightclub in Tribeca, the Rhythm Club , and briefly was the house band in the short-lived resurrection of Max’s Kansas City.

After 9-11, Ryder found herself haunted by the story of fallen firefighter John Heffernan, who played with a rock band called The Bullys. The result was a new song, "Johnny Was a Fireman": "He was young and he was pretty/A rock n roll son of New York City."

With her penchant for telling stories in song, it's no wonder that Ryder would feel limited by the three-minute pop tune format. Among her current projects is a gospel musical: "about a man named Joe, woman named Mary and their baby"; a TV pilot about her adventures running the Rhythm Club, and an original cabaret act about an “over the hill” singer, the "Vanilla Queen of Soul."

Last year, Ryder's father-her first musical influence-passed away. Shortly after that, Ryder was plagued by headaches. She attributed them to stress: she was grieving; she was putting in 80 hours a week at her day job to pay the rent. When the CATscan showed an aneurysm sitting on her optic nerve, Ryder was rushed in for brain surgery. She has since recovered, but the experience has been engraved on her mind like the scars left from 50 staples in her head. Unlike the many other dramatic events in her life, Ryder's brush with death did not inspire any new songs or musicals. But Ryder has a collection of poems to show for it. The title? Staplehead. Ryder currently lives with her 15-year-old son Jesse, a student at the School of the Future in Manhattan. Jesse's drumming technique is taking off and, just like his mom, he has taken a catchy stage name, 'Jezz 5001”

The Joy Ryder Band concert features drummer Dave Dawson, Sly Geralds, saxophist Yasuyuki Takagi, and guitarist Stu Newman. Dawson's credits include playing drums for the Main Ingredient; Newman has been around the r&b and rock circuit, playing with bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Nona Hendrix and Brian Setzer (of "Jump, Jive and Wail" fame).