Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your childhood impacted your musical direction?
A: I skipped school, traveled in old cars to see concerts in other cities when I was 15, and played songs on guitars with friends wherever we went. That was the start.
Q: Can you describe the musical style of RubyJoyful in three words?
A: Colorado Mountainlove Folkgrass
Q: How do you stay connected with your fans, and what role do they play in shaping your musical journey?
A: To date, most of our fans are local, so facebook, flyers, word of mouth. Now we will join the world of ultimate social media and flood the airwaves with our personal stuff. We look forward to developing a nice following of music lovers who can relate to our music and want to have it as part of their lives to put a smile on their face. We don’t need to play Red Rocks, just a small listening room/theater where people can listen to some good musicians do their tasty licks to some fairly mellow well crafted songs.
Q: You have just released your new album, ‘The Pie Chart of Love’. Is there a story behind it?
A: Joice and I fell madly in love around the age of fifty, we made unbelievable amounts of artwork for each other to express our love. I painted her a series of giant canvases based on love and mathematical principles you learned in middle school: The Venn Diagram of Love, The Line Graph of Love, and the Pie Chart of Love. The Pie Chart has an iconic feel to it, we went with our gut instincts on this to make it the album title.
Q: What is your favorite track from the album and why?
A: Fiddler’s Lament has two of my favorite musical heroes playing over each other on it, Stuart Duncan and Rob Ickes….that is a dream for me.
Q: Can you walk us through the creative process of producing the album, “The Pie Chart of Love”?
A: Unbelievable luck really….Wrote my first good songs after turning 50, started to believe it when friends actually liked it, started just recording a local/friends kinda record for keepsake….then everything changed when I played a small gig with Drew Emmitt. He liked it, brought in Andy Thorn, switched to a real Nashville engineer, then I got my engineer to connect me with some top musicians in Nashville, and now the album became something of a dream. Every detail became important and fun. John Prine’s piano player, Michael Webb. Jimmy Buffet’s drummer, Eric Darken. Stuart Duncan and Rob Ickes.
Q: What has been the most memorable concert or performance for RubyJoyful so far?
A: The first ever show at little ole’ Steve’s Guitars in Carbondale, CO. First time ever playing live with Drew and Andy. Lifelong dream.
Q: Reflecting on your body of work, each song holding its unique significance, could you share a particular track that stands out to you personally? What makes that specific tune special, and why does it hold a place of pride in your musical journey?
A: Take What You Will. It’s not my best song, nor my favorite, but Andy did such an amazing job on it, and he brought the sound to it that I never dreamed I could ever do. It’s the sound from Telluride from many years ago. It’s sort of the Strength In Numbers sound that just rings off the highest peaks around the town of Telluride. I lived there for several years back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. But also, all the love songs I wrote for Joice. The whole body of work is significant in that the love that began between us sparked a creative process in my brain that was totally unique and incredibly fruitful.
Q: Exploring the diverse creative processes within the music industry is always fascinating. Could you provide insight into RubyJoyful’s unique approach to crafting music? From the initial spark of an idea to the finished song, how do you navigate the creative journey and bring its musical concepts to life?
A: I cannot sit down and write a song because I want to or have to. The song plays in my head, like I am listening to it on the radio. So I have to stop whatever I am doing at that moment and sing the melody into my phone recorder and write down whatever words that came with it. Then I use a long list I’ve compiled over the years of phrases, ideas, sentences, words that can be used for that melody and create a song from that. It may be done in 15 minutes or it may be refined for months.
Q: As we wrap up our conversation, looking ahead, what aspirations or dreams do you have for RubyJoyful, and what message would you like to share with your fans as they continue to accompany you on this musical journey?
A: Joice and I are in our 50’s. This is our first foray into this kind of music world. All we really wanna do is grow old playing music together with good musicians. We were blessed to have a rich world of friends before this album was ever created, and we look forward to adding lots of new ones where we travel and play our love songs.
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