Ryan Walker

Ryan Walker is a harmonica player based in San Jose, CA. Growing up in the 90’s, Ryan was heavily influenced by the resurgence of the harmonica in pop and alternative music, and by the time he got his first harmonica at age 16, he was determined to make learning the instrument a serious discipline. After making the cut to play harmonica in his high school’s jazz band, he connected with David Barrett, Grammy-nominated harmonicist, author, and founder of The School of the Blues, as well as the instructional site www.bluesharmonica.com, where Ryan became a featured student and contributor for several years. Through this tutelage, he began playing in bands around the greater SF Bay Area, sharing the stage with blues heavy-weights like Kenny Neal, Lazy Lester, and Joe Louis Walker, among others. And while Ryan’s reverence for the blues runs deep, his love for all styles of music begged for him to seek artists to collaborate with outside of traditional blues.

In 2016, the WAR tribute band Cisco Kid was formed in San Jose, with Ryan being a founding member. The group quickly became one of the premier tribute bands in the Bay Area, playing numerous festival dates up and down the west coast, opening for acts such as Ozomatli, Rose Royce, Midnight Star, and The Bar-Kays, among others. In 2017, while WAR played a show in San Jose, Cisco Kid booked an after-party show just around the corner. This caught the attention of the band and prompted an improvised sit-in with several members of WAR joining Cisco Kid on stage. Ryan also recorded on blues artist John “Blues” Boyd’s 2020 album “What My Eyes Have Seen.” Ryan has his own band called Grace & The Grit, active since 2019, who play an original mix of blues, soul, funk, rock, and Americana, and have released an EP and singles independently. That band has had several notable side-stage performances warming up crowds for artists such as Buddy Guy, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, and Jon Batiste. Ryan hopes to be a torch-bearer for his generation to carry on the tradition of the harmonica, while also doing as much as possible to inspire the youth of today to find their voice on whatever instrument or avenue that that may be.