Nashville is not what it used to be anymore. It is not only that country music coming out of the city is changing, but also that artists located in this music centre are taking more divergent routes, including those that are connected to country music as such.
One such artist is Rich Ruth, who recently supported a rising country star S.G. Goodman, just releasing his third solo album Water Still Flows. On it, Ruth goes even beyond the recently coined sub-genre of ambient country, traces of which could be heard here too, but goes cross-genres, touching on, you could say everything – from spiritual jazz, to krautrock, even doom and drone-metal.
Sure, with such a widespread palette things could easily go wrong, but as the album progresses you realise that Ruth is not only well immersed in the sounds of different genres he combines, but that he has that necessary touch to make those sounds work in a fluid, seamless unison.
Adding to the complexity of Ruth’s task here is the fact that he recorded the album in his home studio with a set of stellar collaborators that included saxophonist Sam Que, harpist Mikaela Davis, pedal steel player Spencer Cullum, drummer Ruben Gingrich, violinist Patrick M’gonigle, and more.
With such music that includes quite a few improvisational elements, it was essential to have strong coordination of what is going on, and Ruth comes out of this task with flying colours.
“Working with people who are just better musicians than me, or play drastically different instruments like harp and saxophone, opens up millions of new pathways of where the music can be taken”, says Ruth. “I’ll stitch a narrative out of these improvisational ideas but letting these players do whatever they want without parameters creates a much more unpredictable and interesting thing”.
What we end up with here, is an experimental album out of Nashville that is so winning (and utterly listenable) on so many levels.
