SINGLE REVIEW: STEPHANIE RYANN - WHERE THE LIGHT STAYS ON

Building on the success of last years "Naked" single, Stephanie Ryann has spent much of 2025 firing out a string of successful singles and with "Where The Light Stays On" she seems set to see out the year in style.

From the insistent opening of guitar and keys there is a sense that something urgent is to be shared.

"There's a gravel road, past a rusty gate

Where the sun sets slow, where the winds don't wait

Screen door creaking back in the kitchen

Where the coffee's brewing on the stove

As day breaks in

Used to think that was all that I'd ever need

Till you showed me what home really means"

Written with Kenneth Hart and Caleb Lovely, and produced by Brent Rader, Stephanie loads that opening verse with evocative images, sounds and smells while using alliteration to give a silky, smooth rhythm.

The crash of three drum beats guide us into the chorus, where Stephanie outlines the true feelings of being at home and it's a person as much as it is a place.

"It's really just a roof and four old walls

It's your voice like the wind down the long dark halls

Daylight coming in on a Sunday morning

It's the sound of your laugh coming without warning

Takes you some place down the county road

It's the way you smile when the night gets cold

Even when I’m feeling lost, I know where I belong

It’s in your arms where the light stays on."

The second verse shows no sign in letting up Stephanie's abilities to paint a verbal picture, and the sun that so strongly defined the joys of being at home, now emphasise the feelings of separation.

"I've been in desert towns where the cactus bloom

City lights, like fireflies from a hotel room

The sunrise ain't the same when you watch it alone

Now I realise where you are is where the light stays on"

Musically there are key contributions from Jonathan Brown on keyboards, and Josh Swifts delicious dobro playing which is excellently high in the mix yet as ever it is Stephanie that steals the day, the chorus where the band fade away being a prime example where her vocals are to the fore and left to shine.

"Used to pray that was all I'd ever need

Till you showed me what home really means"

Five storming singles and some high profile support slots should cap off what has been a highly successful year for Stephanie Ryann. Just needs a trip to the UK to raise that profile further and get 2026 off to a flying start.