CHRIS RYAN ft. JELLY ROLL - Scared To Go To Church - Warner Music Nashville

There comes a point in all our lives where we inevitably find ourselves seeking redemption away from sinful the road that we’re travelling on, but we often think that we’re too far gone to actually receive it. We face our mirror and admit our flaws, but then seemingly talk ourselves out of stepping into the one sacred space that could change everything.

This is the exact spot that Chris Ryan finds himself in on his brand-new single, “Scared To Go To Church,” his highly anticipated, major label debut as a solo artist and first official release since leaving popular duo BEXAR.

The song, co-written by Ryan with Jelly Roll, Logan Turner, Dave Kuncio, and Jay Joyce, relies on the vulnerability of the lyrics through the rawness embedded into Chris’ voice as sings confessionally through the opening verse of how he’s living out the songs that he wrote, sinning like it won’t be long until his vices of whiskey and women kill him.

However, it’s his heart crying out in prayer like fashion that shifts the dynamic when he admits, “I know my lifestyle don’t look like the prayers I’ve prayed,” to lead into the transparent honesty of the chorus:

“That’s why I’m scared to go to church

I can’t outrun these demons

And all of these people I’ve hurt

That’s why I’m scared to go to church

I’m so broken inside

Don’t know how much my soul could be worth”

Jelly Roll, having risen so quickly to an extreme amount of notoriety, perfectly matches his well-known story with the second verse of this song when he injects his powerful testimony against the shame and frustrations of trying to make amends with his wrong doings amid a sea of people who have turned their back on him.

Expertly written, Chris Ryan let’s down his walls to embrace the absolute truths within the missteps that we as humans so often make in our lives, driving to a tremendous crescendo moment of full surrender in the bridge through a mature understanding that he can’t change by himself, while reaching the encouraging fact that he’s “doing the right thing by talking to the one who can!”

With so much anticipation already surrounding this release, Ryan not only a delivers song that sets his next chapter in motion but gives us a call to action to lean our own insecurities against the one who can put our broken back together, directly holding truth to the message of hope that we find written in Psalms 55:22:

“So here’s what I’ve learned through it all: Leave all your cares and anxieties at the feet of the Lord, and measureless grace will strengthen you.”

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

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