The Rick Ruskin Interview
Tell me about growing up in Detroit. When did you first begin to fall in love with music and the guitar? Was this something that was relevant around your household growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years?
I was born in Detroit and stayed in the area until the spring of 1969. It was a great place to grow up back then with lot of support for the arts in the public schools. The bulk of my musical education was received through the public schools as a singer in glee clubs and chorales. Beside tax money, the Ford Foundation seemed to be on a mission to make the city a hotbed of artistic activity. Case in point - my high school graduation class chorale debuted an oratorio that the foundation commissioned. I was always interested in music and was responsible for it becoming part of the everyday of the house. I had a cheesy kids record player with a collection of typical kids records, which to say the least, was pretty unsatisfying, but I found a bunch of old 78’s in a neighbors trash and took them home. It was good stuff! Cole Porter, Gershwin and some classical pieces. After that the family library expanded and the playback gear got a bit better. My interests ranged from older to contemporary pop, as well as classical music.
I understand you began opening for Rev. Gary Davis at Retort Coffee House as just a teenager! How did this all come about and what were those times like for at the very beginning of what would become a very successful career in music?
Getting that gig was a case of being at the right place at the right time. I grew up, guitar-wise at the Retort. It was a win-win for the club’s owner, Pete Cantini and me. He got an opener for very little money while I not only got needed performing experience, but more importantly, the one-on-one time with the Rev. Throughout the engagement, I’d leave school, where I was taking 9th grade finals, go home to get my guitar, then hop a bus to the club. The Rev. and his wife were staying at the hotel above it so we’d hang out before show time. A lot of guitar playing was involved. I’d pick up a few things on my own and he was gracious enough to show me a few of his moves. He invited me to spend part of the summer with him at his house in NYC. At the end of his engagement, I traveled back there with him. It was a great time for me!
What ultimately inspired you to pursue a life and career in music? Singing with the legendary Takoma label in the early/mid 70s, tell me about writing and recording your 1973, s/t debut. How did you initially meet the great John Fahey and Ed Denson and what was that chemistry like?
Almost immediately after I started with it, guitar became an obsession. About a year later, I made up my mind to go pro. I worked around the Detroit area for a while then decided to move to Los Angeles in 1969. I was playing at the Ash Grove when I met Dick Rosmini, a well-known player who had recorded a very influential album on Elektra in 1963. He introduced me to Jackie DeShannon who hired me for her touring band. He also became the producer for what became all of my Takoma LPs. Takoma had very little to do with anything I did on the label. The first album was done on spec and eventually sold to them. They put up the budgets for the other two, but never had much input as to what would be recorded. I never met Ed Denson. He was no longer involved with the label by the time I got signed. I met Fahey at McCabe’s Guitar Shop. To say he was eccentric is an understatement. He was lying down on the floor in front of their cash register. That’s really all I remember about the meeting. Years later I worked with him on this 2nd Christmas album. I arranged all the duets we did on that. During those sessions, we also recorded “Silver Bell-Cheyenne Medley” which ended up on “John Fahey Visits Washington D.C.” Once we were in the studio, things went pretty smooth. Rehearsals were a bit odd because I never knew which John Fahey I’d be dealing with – the personable one, or the thorny one. I’d just be prepared so I could do the work at hand.
You would go on to release two more records, “Microphone Fever” and “The Sixth String Conspiracy” for Takoma over the next half decade. What was the overall process and approach when bringing these albums to life? What are your most fondest memories during your Takoma years?
The second and third albums, I had a large backlog of material after the first LP, so the immediate task was deciding what of those things I wanted to record. I’d show Rosmini what I had, starting with my favorites and together we’d develop the overall program for each project. Vinyl allowed around 20 minutes per side with decent signal to noise and you wanted to avoid putting slower pieces on the inner grooves because minor speed variations in playback could really mess with the sound. This is especially true with acoustic guitar. Those technical limitations had to be considered with regard to the choices and placement of the music. Once the choices were made, we’d start to record. For “Microphone Fever”, a lot was done at Dick’s place, but we also used a mutual friend’s home studio and Drew Recording Studio, which was owned by Sid Robin. He wrote the lyrics to, “Undecided” and “Because, Just Because, Just Because”, which was a B side of an Elvis Presley hit. “Six-String Conspiracy” was done exclusively at Rosmini’s place. Multiple mics were used on the solo guitar cuts - as many as five at times. This made for long days playing a given piece in the same spot until the desired sound was dialed in. At that point, we’d record. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the process, but it’s no walk in the park. It’s serious work. Fondest memories? I’m pretty certain that my work on Takoma was the major reason that I landed a gig in Olivia Newton John’s band. I’ll always be grateful for that.
You released a number of LPs throughout the following decade with titles such as “On The Cheap”, “Against Tradition”, “Sounds Familiar” and “Songs, Hymns and Chords”. Tell me about these albums and the more collaborative approach you seemed to have taken later on in your career with musicians like Lewis Ross and Karen Leigh Williams.
Being that Lewis Ross is another Detroiter, we did tons of playing together. Back then, the two of us got into working out arrangements of old and current pop stuff. The Beatles provided a big selection to mess around with. They still do, in fact. Anyway, he had been in and out of LA with one musical endeavor, or another, finally moving back around 1977. Not long after that, I ended up running an experimental recording studio for Teac/TASCAM from my house. It was a 16 track facility made up of prototype and early production units. My task was to use the gear and report any shortcomings and/or failures. Lew and I took advantage of the situation and started production of, “On the Cheap”. We would tag-team engineer duties for most of it, depending on which of us was in front of the mics. When playing together, John Horton, a mutual friend, was at the console. Lew and I were the only musicians involved. Besides guitars, he played bass and keyboards while I handled the drums. We’d show respective material to one another, bounce a few ideas around and then start to roll tape. After all the tracks were recorded, we each did our own mixes. For “Sounds Familiar”, we wanted to play together, so Dick Rosmini came in to engineer and produce. You lose some control when everyone plays together, but you know right away what works and what doesn’t.
The arrangements were well rehearsed, but we still got some really nice moments of spontaneity. I’m very proud of that record. I was a guest artist on a few cuts of, “Songs, Hymns, and Chords”. Lewis was the primary artist. He had his own 8-track facility and did most of the recording there. We did our duets live with Dick once again running the console at my place. Karen Williams and I both taught classes at McCabes Guitar shop. Her playing partner dropped out after a number of gigs had been booked so I stepped in. It was a big change for me because I’d never worked with a hammer dulcimer before and had little experience with old time, or bluegrass material. By the time we started on, “Against Tradition”, I was no longer involved with Teac/TASCAM. The void was filled by Sid Robin, owner of Drew Recording, who made the decision to close the business, but still keep the gear. He had it moved to my place, bringing my track count up to 24. Procedure wise, “Against Tradition” went much the same as, “On the Cheap”, in that one of us would play for the mics while the other would handle the control room. Karen wasn’t much of a tech, but truth be told, once mic placement, signal path and gain-staging are set, there isn’t much one has to do once the record button is engaged. She had good ears which is the most important. All-in all, the project went quite smoothly.
What have you been up to in more recent years? Are you currently working on any new material? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
I’ve put out a eight CDs, two Transcription books and three videos since moving to Seattle in 1988. The latest CD is called, “Playlist” and is comprised of covers of pop and R&B songs that I’ve loved and played for decades. The one before that was an all-blues program called, “Whatever Happened to Blind Matzoh Leftkowitz?” . I’m currently working on an as yet unnamed project that will be all original music – half vocals/half instrumentals. My studio is now 48 tracks via a pair of RADAR 24 digital recorders and large format console. I also vend for a few select pro audio companies. Anyone interested can check out my site
