Thomas Wolfe was wrong. Not only can you go back home again — maybe you should.
After 13 years in Seattle, Ryan Trager moved back to Detroit. But after all that time, it felt more foreign than familiar. As one of the coldest winters on record swept in, so did a dizzying sense of displacement.
Trager holed up in his rehearsal studio with an acoustic guitar and a laptop, staring down a familiar foe: the inner critic determined to subvert him. But that winter, something cracked open. Melodies started emerging. Songs began to form. And as they did, Trager ventured out to open mic nights, searching for his voice.
He was pointed to the Ghost Light in Hamtramck, where some of Detroit’s best songwriters convene on Tuesday nights. It was a revelation: a thriving community of artists, sharing stories, working out new material, collaborating. It felt like home.
Those Tuesday nights helped shape Floodlight, Trager’s debut EP. It’s a sonic tapestry, highly-evolved from the skeletons presented at the Ghost Light. Trager, historically a lead guitar player, performs here as a multi-instrumentalist, delivering lyrical riffs on legacy, mental health, and yes, overcoming self-doubt.
Floodlight is all the inspiration that any burgeoning songwriter needs to realize that it’s never too late to do what you’ve been dying to do; to get your ass off the sidelines and make the thing that needs to be made. For Trager, that time is now. And that place is home.
-Travis Wright