Mountain Times - Volume 48, Number 23: June 5-11

The Mountain Times • June 5-11, 2019 ROCKIN’ THE REGION • 19
Rockin’ The Region
with Ryan Fuller
rockin’
the region
by dj dave
hoffenberg
Catch Ryan Fuller
this Friday and Saturday
at The Foundry
in Killington at 7 p.m.
He has a few appearances
there every
month this summer
and has been a regular
part of its rotation
for the past few years.
He plays all over the Rutland region and can also be
seen June 21 at the Hop ‘n’ Moose in Rutland, and
June 28 at the Lake House in Bomoseen.
I’ve seen Ryan Fuller play for the past 12 years,
right after his start in 2006, when he was 23. His first
ever gig was at Magoo’s in Rutland, now called Union
Jacks. I first saw him play at Center Street Saloon. He
and Joel Hopperstad, known as Fuller ‘n’ The Hole,
would play Monday nights while I tended bar. He has
come a long way, and is one of my favorites to see live.
Fuller likes to play ‘90s alternative, but has a good
variety of country and classic rock, too. His biggest
musical influence is Dave Matthews Band. He’s
been a fan for a long time. His favorite song to cover
is “Grey Street,” and said, “That song is my all-time
favorite song to play.” He is a rare performer in the
sense that he takes requests, even if it’s not in his
repertoire. He has an iPad and said that if he has internet
and a general idea of how the song goes, he’ll at
least try it. “You can pull up tabs and chords from just
about anywhere these days,” he said. He never took
a lesson on guitar – he taught himself. “The internet
was a wonderful thing,” he said.
Fuller has always liked music. His father, Randy,
was a drummer in some country cover bands while
he was growing up. He said, “My parents were always
listening to Eric Clapton and Fleetwood Mac on the
radio.”
He played the saxophone when he was a teenager
and most of what he learned was by ear. “I took lessons
on the saxophone and I couldn’t read a note. By
my senior year I could kind of pick out what this or
that was, but for the most part, I would listen to the
piece and play it back,” he explained.
“I played in the band in high school. I got out of
that, but always wanted to be a part of a band so
I picked up the guitar at 19 thinking that I would
never be a lead singer. I decided that I wanted to try
and learn how to play it. I would listen to a song and
try and mimic it. I would go to tablature sites to see
where my fingers would go on the strings. By age 20,
I had learned a handful of
songs. I played [in] friends’
living rooms and just around
the camp fire for a couple of
years until I got that first gig
at Magoo’s,” Fuller said. His
first actual live performance
was at 3D’s performing at
Open Mic, which was just a
song. He said, “It went a lot
better than I thought it would. I was shaking pretty
darn good.”
After the Magoo’s gig, he would hit a few open
mics, and would usually be invited back to play a
“YOU CAN PULL UP TABS AND
CHORDS FROM JUST ABOUT
ANYWHERE THESE DAYS,”
FULLER SAID. “THE INTERNET
WAS A WONDERFUL THING.”
gig or share a gig with someone else. He said, “It just
kept growing and growing.” He met Hopperstad at
3D’s who then started showing up at some of Fuller’s
shows. Fuller added, “He came to the next and the
next. It worked well for quite a while.”
Fuller’s sound is unique because of his harmonizer
pedal. It takes the chords
that he’s singing and the
chords that he’s playing and
it finds harmonies based on
how he sets it. He said, “It
gives it – no pun intended – a
fuller sound. It’s not just like
I’m sitting around a bonfire;
it gives it a little extra. People
think it’s pre-recorded, but
it’s definitely all on the fly.” Basically, he’s playing the
guitar straight up and harmonizing with himself,
which is a cool sound.
Fuller has written a few originals, but said, “I’m
Ryan Fuller
Submitted
very hesitant to play any of it in public. On occasion,
if I’m feeling gutsy enough and someone asks for an
original, I’ll pull one or two out, but that’s once in a
great blue moon.”
Music is not a full-time job for Fuller, although
with the amount he performs, it could be. He’s been
working at Omya for the past 12 years, and, as he puts
it, “It would be stupid to stop that.” He also recently
opened up Ruff Life Coffee in downtown Rutland and
has Fuller Firearms, so he’s quite busy.
Because of all the above, Fuller sees music as an
outlet. He talked about that,
“Because I have so many other things going on in
my everyday life, it’s almost like a release from everything.
My little vacation or my stress relieving thing.
Some people play golf, some do yoga; mine is getting
up on stage. It doesn’t matter who is in front of me
or where I’m at, it’s all gone. It’s just the music at that
point. It’s my release from the everyday.”
Don’t miss a chance to see Ryan Fuller!