Ryann Ross Enters Her Most Exposed Chapter Yet With ‘Blubird’
Ryann Ross strips everything back on her third single ‘Blubird’, allowing silence, breath and emotional precision to shape the first true glimpse of her forthcoming debut EP, On The Marsh.
There is a particular kind of restraint that only works when an artist knows exactly what they are doing. Not emptiness – control. The confidence to strip a song down to its bones and trust that what remains will hold.
On ‘Blubird’, the third release from alternative-folk-soul vocalist Ryann Ross, silence becomes structure. Built around little more than acoustic guitar, the track feels suspended in air, delicate but deliberate. Produced and co-written with Levi Roth, with additional electric guitar and lap steel from Ryan Richter, the song places Ross’ evocative, controlled vocal front and centre.
There is no cinematic swell here, no ornamental layering. Every lyric lands with intention. Every breath is audible. It is minimalism not as aesthetic choice, but as emotional necessity.
Ross first introduced her world with previous singles ‘My Thomas’ and ‘Sleep Talk’, tracks defined by ghostly intimacy and vocal precision. Drawing from classical phrasing alongside jazz, folk and soul traditions, her work has consistently balanced restraint with emotional weight. Strings and piano often move gently beneath her near-operatic vocal lines, creating quiet drama without excess.
‘Blubird’ pares that language back even further.
At its core, the song confronts change – the kind that arrives unexpectedly and leaves a permanent imprint. It traces the quiet reckonings that shape early adulthood: power shifts, heartbreak, subtle losses and the disorientation of starting again. Rather than dramatise these moments, Ross renders them with tenderness. The result is devastating in its subtlety.
Raised in New Jersey and now based in Los Angeles, Ross did not initially set out to become a musician. After studying method acting in New York, performance became a means of navigating an introverted childhood. Music arrived almost accidentally, but songwriting quickly evolved from curiosity into survival. Encouraged by a songwriting-focused vocal coach to write through heartbreak rather than perfect scales, Ross began building a body of work rooted in emotional clarity rather than genre expectation.
After relocating to Los Angeles, industry pressures attempted to funnel her towards contemporary R&B. It never felt like a good fit. Instead, she gravitated towards something best described as alt-folk-soul – cinematic yet intimate, melody-led rather than trend-driven.
‘Blubird’ serves as a prelude to her forthcoming debut EP, On The Marsh, due this spring. Written largely after November 2024 and shaped by years spent between Los Angeles, London and the English countryside, the project captures the turbulence of ages nineteen to twenty-five – breakups, imbalanced power dynamics, being underestimated and the magnetic brutality of starting over in a new city.
If earlier releases introduced the contours of Ross’ sound, ‘Blubird’ feels like its emotional centre. It is not louder or larger than what came before. It is sharper. More exact. A quiet declaration of intent.
With headline shows in Los Angeles and New York set to accompany the EP release, Ross enters this next chapter with a rare balance of vulnerability and resolve. ‘Blubird’ does not demand attention through spectacle. It earns it through precision.