Nashville-based experimental musician Rich Ruth has announced his third album, Water Still Flows. The follow-up to 2022’s I Survived, It’s Over is set to arrive on June 21 via Third Man Records. Today, Ruth has shared the single ‘No Muscle, No Memory’, alongside a video directed by Joseph Bird. Check it out below.
“After spending a large portion of the past 12 years touring and recording, none of this stuff has gotten easier,” Ruth said in a press release. “Much of the anxiety and intense feelings I’ve poured into this record are a direct correlation to the uncertainty of trying to earn a living with music. Despite many hopeful opportunities I’ve been given, it has taken a toll on my body and mental health merely trying to survive playing music in the current age. The soothing quality of these new pieces reflect a constant search for solitude and stability. The frenetic, heavier parts mirror the tense variability I feel on a regular basis as a working musician. At the end of the day, all of the sacrifice and uncertainty is a small price to pay for the privilege to share this music with people.”
Water Still Flows was recorded at Ruth’s home studio and mixed by Jake Davis (William Tyler, Skyway Man). Other collaborators on the LP include pedal steel player Spencer Cullum, drummer Ruben Gingrich, violinist Patrick M’gonigle, and saxophonist Jared Selner. “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,” Ruth added. “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.”
Water Still Flows Cover Artwork:
Water Still Flows Tracklist:
1. Action at a Distance
2. Crying in the Trees
3. God Won’t Speak
4. No Muscle, No Memory
5. Aspiring to the Sky
6. Blue Shell
7. Somewhere in Time
