The Oldest was Born First
Traditional songs and tunes from New York State
Own label, no number
The Ballad of Blue Mountain Lake; Cabbage Head (Our Goodman); Montreal Reel/La Bastringue; Wisconsin; The E-Ri-O Canal; Rickett's Hornpipe; Bald Headed End of the Broom; Roslyn Castle (Two Ways); Oh! Dat Low Bridge!; Ball and Pin Hornpipe/Vic Kibler's Tune; The Barefoot Boy with Boots On; Shove Your Grog Around; The Year of Jubilo.
Dave hails from New York State which, despite its well-known cities, is mainly rural - and vast. Inland from NY City, it spreads out into a huge triangle: north as far as the Canadian border (Montreal is only about 50 miles away); and west almost to Ohio; to the northwest its shores are washed by Lakes Ontario and Erie. For montains, it has the Adirondacks and the Catskills - ie. the top end of the Appalachians. Once you've realised this, the CD's subtitle doesn't seem as unreasonable as I first thought ... "What are French Canadian tunes and Nigger Minstrel songs doing here?"
Just to give you a taste of Mr Ruch, here's a bit of track 4, Wisconsin. As well as being a very good singer, he plays a wide selection of instruments, some of which are over-dubbed here and there, particularly on the instrumental tracks. He's also joined by quite a number of musical friends, both vocally and instrumentally, but rarely more than one or two at a time, keeping to a well-textured but light sound throughout. This is a very nice record.
It's interesting that such an accomplished performer should keep to such a relatively local and low-key repertoire - this would never be the case in the UK, I think. Maybe the US is big enough to accomodate such an approach ... in any event, I'm glad of it. Don't think, by the way, that the 'low-key repertoire' I mentioned is at all bland - there's lots of variety here: a lumber camp ballad; canal songs; vaudeville; a child ballad (Our Goodman) and some cracking tunes. There's also a surprising amount of humour - try The Bald Headed End of the Broom.
Don't be put off by the 'Own label, no number' tag either - remember that Jeffs Davis and Warner also have to produce their CDs this way - despite its huge population, I guess the USA doesn't find this strain of unpretentious traditional music a commercial proposition. Maybe we can hope that, like the two Jeffs, Dave Ruch may wish to try his hand this side of the pond before too long. I know I'd be in the audience!
I should also add that the booklet notes are an absolute model of historical and personal information on the sources of these songs and tunes - possibly the best of its kind that I have seen. Well done!
To finish this review exactly as Dave does this CD, here's a little of a solo mandolin version of The Year of Jubilo. Wasn't that nice? You can get this most enjoyable CD directly from Dave Ruch at: www.daveruch.com Why Not?
Rod Stradling - 30.9.08
Top | Home Page | MT Records | Articles | Reviews | News | Editorial | Map |