It was a busy session day! After mixing the band “From Ashes to New” for our sister station The X, we looked forward to having an acoustic session from songwriter Ruston Kelly.
Ruston says he came from a musical family, his dad was a pedal steel player, and his mom was a singer.
Ruston joked about people thinking he was country, and came up with “dirt emo” as a description, which has stuck with him. He was upfront about addiction struggles, and losses he has been through.
Soon, Ruston Kelly will be opening the tour for Noah Kahan. Ruston’s label at one point let him buy a ukulele for songwriting, and he asked to have a rental place at Joshua Tree so he could do some new writing. When asked if it’s traumatic to live through difficult songs and memories, he said the the songs turn into something that doesn’t belong to him anymore.
During soundcheck, Ruston played through a medley of beautiful song pieces. One of my favorites of his, is “Mockingbird.” There is an insanely good cover of this tune by Sarah Jarosz, that is worth Googling.
Ruston said that The Carter Family was an inspiration for him with bluegrass, especially ”Mother” Maybell Carter’s harmonies.
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