Nashville music artist Chase Ryan is returning to the area to perform his first concert in Lake Charles. Friends and family might know him as Chase Guillory, the Lacassine-Iowa native who graduated from high school in 2014 with a plan to attend Louisiana College and join the Wildcats Basketball team. Instead, he joined the Marine Corp.     

The Marine Corps offered more than 13 weeks of rigorous physical, classroom and combat training. Ryan found his purpose.   

“I met a lot of friends and some of them had more of an appreciation of bluegrass music than you see down here,” Ryan said. “I fell in love with the guitar, picked it up and learned it. It was therapeutic. I never really thought about it as a future.”

Ryan said his musical style has been influenced by artist Billy Streams, whose album “Home” won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in 2021. Sturgill Simpson earned his first Grammy for Best Country Album in 2017 and wrote “Life Ain’t Fair” and the “World is Mean” for Hank Williams, Jr., a song that resonated with Ryan  during his enlistment. Ryan’s dog is named Merle after another country idol, the one and only.

“I moved back to Lacassine after I got out of the Marines and tried to live the plant life, but it just didn’t click with me,” he said.

His parents, Johnny and Cathy Guillory, were not pleased when their son told them he was headed to Nashville.

“They thought I was crazy for a long time, but once they started seeing it was paying off, they said maybe you’re not out of your mind – completely.”

As much as Ryan enjoyed basketball, he has no regrets about college or playing ball.      

“As much as I loved the game, it served its purpose,” he said. This is my purpose. I’m finally figuring out where I need to be.”

Fans who want to see Ryan cover the music he grew up on and his new stuff set to release in October, see him at McNeese State’s Legacy Center Thursday, Aug. 29, at 7 p.m. General admission is $30.