January | Happy New Year!
Welcome to 2020!
Hope your new decade is going well so far; personally, it's making me feel a little nostalgic. The 2010s were a spectacular, productive, and also challenging decade for Ruby Rae. I started writing songs not-so-secretly under the name Ruby Rae soon after moving to NYC, but did not fully pursue them as a creative project until 2009, so it has felt pretty significant to this past ten years. So to celebrate, I'm including some vintage 2010 photos in this newsletter. First one is from the first RR release party at Hank's in 2010:
Since then, in collaboration with so many wonderful musicians, producers, engineers, and artists* (list continued below), Ruby Rae independently released:
2010: Double Feature (Single)
2012: The Outskirts (EP)
2012: Night of The Psychopomp
2014: Voodoo Queen (EP)
2016: The Uncanny
AND the next record will be out this year in 2020, which is so numerically pleasing, don't you think?
2015 Sharing new songs for The Uncanny at Akumal International Artist Residency in Mexico
These songs have traveled from practices in a very dusty room in Gowanus, to both Portlands, Austin & LA, duets in Berlin, to a residency in Akumal Mexico, to the House of Blues in LA with a West Coast band, down to Nashville - it's been wonderful! I'm so proud of the work and the journey we've taken so far.
Creating music and releasing it into the world makes me feel hopeful even (and especially when) the rest of life feels chaotic. Art is both a comfort and a challenge. I would not have been able to do any of this without other artist collaborators and YOU. I hope you enjoy these records and cheers to the next chapter!
New Songs
For now I am focusing on finishing the new record, songwriting, sharing demos and booking shows for 2020 from my new home base in Nashville. I will be re-vamping the RR Song Club so stay tuned for more info on that (and a bunch of new demos on Bandcamp coming by the end of January). You can listen to all of the records above on Spotify (or many other streaming services) and listen / buy / join the song club via Bandcamp.
2011 Middle East Show with Olivia + Kristin in apparently night vision - photo by Kerri Woodford
New Record
Speaking of the new record! Lawson and I are diligently working on True Crime, and getting closer to completion. These types of records take time to be made; I have been listening to the mixes while driving around Nashville, and I can tell you - sounds so good, they will be worth the wait! If you are a Kickstarter, an update is coming your way soon as well.
New Shows
I'm excited to announce the following 2020 shows:
First Official Nashville Show!
Saturday, March 14 2020 @ 7pm
2905C Gallatin Pike | Nashville, TN
Ruby Rae // Jessi Robertson // Jesse Correll
Saturday, April 18 2020 @ 7pm
Rockwood Music Hall No. 3
185 Orchard | New York, NY
Ruby Rae // Mary-Elaine Jenkins
2014 Ed + Tyler + Olivia - photo by Elise Kirk
As always, there is more info on the website here.
If you'd like to say hello or reach out with questions here - I love to hear from you!
Hope your new year is going well!!
xx RR + co.
P.S. Some big thanks below.... :)
2013 Dance Party at Pappy & Harriet's w/ Levi + Jim
2017 Hank's with Ed + Colin + Tyler - Photo by Carrie
*THANKS!! Thank you to everyone who played on these records and hometown shows and beyond in the past decade! Ed Coleman, Tyler Beckwith, Olivia Mancini, Colin Dempsey, Ed Donohue, Mike Horan, Ben Arons, Jeremy Moore, Jim Kremidas, Jim Reynolds, Levi Strom, Jaime Fallon, Ofer Erenfeld, Kristin Forbes, Nick Loss-Eaton (+ many more)
Thank you for all of the beautiful visual artwork! Katherine Hardy, Allison Sall, Elise Kirk, Alexis Brooks, Jaime Fallon
Thank you for capturing these songs and making them sound beautiful! Matthew Agoglia, Lawson White, Ed Donohue, Mitch Rackin, Bob Mallory, Alex Wernquest, Alex DeTurk, Jimmy Gnass, FJ Ventre
Thank you to the lovely & strange venues we've played + songwriters who teamed up for RR + Friends. Thank you for listening, for coming to shows and for your support over the last ten years!
Special thanks to my mom Sarah, and my dad Phillip. He passed away in January 2011, so he missed out on a bunch of this, but I think he would have loved it. ❣️
Outskirts Release Party Poster by Katherine Hardy
