If you like the blues, you can’t go wrong with these folks. Janet anchored her passion for the blues while living in Chicago, where she hung out with the likes of Koko Taylor, Magic Slim and Big Twist and The Mellow Fellows. She also had the honor of singing with Duke Ellington when she was only 16.

Janet Ryan’s voice blends the blues with a unique soulful sound. You can feel the vocal influence of Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, Janis Joplin and Linda Rondstadt; the blues energy and style of Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, and the soulful depth of Otis and Aretha.

Janet Ryan developed a taste for the blues in Chicago, where she lived for 12 years, hanging out and soaking up the sounds in north side juke joints and sitting in with the likes of Koko Taylor, Magic Slim and Big Twist and The Mellow Fellows. In 1989, Janet brought her powerful blues presence to the East coast performing throughout Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. In 1998, Janet moved with her family to the Pioneer Valley and met her long time guitar player Ray Chaput at a blues jam. They’ve been playing together ever since.

She released several albums with her band Straight Up in the 2000’s and they exploded onto the local club scene, blowing the audiences away with their high energy rocking blues music at venues including the Iron Horse, Theodores, the Pines Theater and at festivals throughout the region including the Pioneer Valley Blues Festival.

Janet Ryan and Straight Up have shared the stage with, or opened for many artists, such as John Hammond, Guitar Shorty, James Montgomery, Solomon Burke, Sherman Robertson, Little Ed and the Blues Imperials, James Cotton, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Fliers, The Holmes Brothers, Johnny Winter, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Sugar Ray and The Bluetones, Magic Dick and J. Geils, Monster Mike Welch, Chris Duarte, Dickey Betts, Michael Hill's Blues Mob, Charles Neville and Roomful of Blues, and plays several times a year with local hero Roger Salloom.