KARL RUCH is a singer-songwriter from Chapel Hill, NC whose pop-folk songs are influenced by the likes of David Gray, John Mayer, and David Wilcox. He has played for over 10,000 people throughout the U.S. and has shared the stage with contemporary fo [+]KARL RUCH is a singer-songwriter from Chapel Hill, NC whose pop-folk songs are influenced by the likes of David Gray, John Mayer, and David Wilcox. He has played for over 10,000 people throughout the U.S. and has shared the stage with contemporary folk icons such as Pierce Pettis, David Lamotte, Tom Kimmel, Chris Rosser, and Josh Lamkin.
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KARL RUCH grew up in suburban Charlotte, NC, and attended Davidson College, obtaining after four years of blood, sweat and tears a degree in neuroscience, which would seem to bear precious little relevance here. Upon graduation, he moved to Nashville (where better?) to search out his dedication and intentions toward songwriting and performance. Before returning to Charlotte, Karl married a wonderful woman, began writing happy, three minute songs about being in love, and recorded "A Long Time Coming" with the help of Erik Darken. He's played abroad with various Christian mission organizations and plays throughout the Southeast at Young Life events and camps. He also finds time to play at venues such as the Evening Muse in Charlotte and Nashville's popular Bluebird Cafe at their Writers Nights.
What strikes me first and most about Karl's music isn't its aural beauty or supple, subtle wit, though both are in ample supply, but its transparency. It seems to me the songs themselves are, as I know the man to be, inherently, sometimes unnervingly, truthful, their foundations firmly set in... And whether that kernel of truth concerns himself, his marriage, his journey through the wider world, or the God whose love he pursues, the simple and substantial reality of these thing comes to the fore.
I watch Karl perform with a strangely comforting mix of jealousy and awe. I'm reminded immediately of Brooks Williams, whose songs exhibit a kindred kind of stripped fullness: their simplicity is more beautiful than bare, a natural and welcome consequence of focused devotion to the task at hand. His ease with the instrument is unmistakable, and the degree to which our attention is quietly deflected into the song and the moment itself seems to me the hallmark of a true musician: the art itself is what captures our attentions, our affections, and the artist himself our late appreciation.
And that may well be the crux
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