New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Ruby Dee�s is a tale of unbelievable resilience and drive in the face of struggles that would foil someone with less determination. She is a singer, songwriter, bandleader, and cook as well as a traumatic brain injury survivor. Her band, Ruby Dee & the Snakehandlers make American music with rockabilly, swing, country and R&B inflections, and their latest album,
Little Black Heart is a tour de force of exemplary musicianship. The album will be released July 22nd on Catty Town Records, a new imprint from a group of promoters devoted to American roots music.
The band will celebrate the release with a show at the Continental Club in Austin on July 23rd, with a full Australian tour on the books for August.
Ruby wrote every song on the album, with the exception of a Jack Scott chestnut that was a favorite of the band. This is amazing in itself, considering the aftermath of a terrible accident that left her with significant brain damage. Eight years ago, she was involved in a scooter accident that left her with sunglasses implanted in her forehead, a traumatic brain injury and other trauma. In previous years, aside from singing and writing songs for the Snakehandlers, she had owned and operated 3 restaurants in Seattle, quite successfully. Her trauma left her with vertigo, memory loss, nausea, mental confusion and language challenges. �I could picture an image in my mind, but couldn�t think of the word. I couldn�t finish thoughts or sentences or conversations, let alone write songs.�
Insurance difficulties left her with almost no aftercare, but she began doing lots and lots of word puzzles to stretch her brain, then started writing stories, but found she was cheating- if she couldn�t think of a certain word, she would substitute another for it. So eventually she began writing out her recipes, since you can�t cheat when listing ingredients, and 8 months later she had a book (Ruby�s Juke Joint Americana Cookbook). It was 2 � years before she wrote another song, a dark time for her. Eventually she came to terms with her losses � �I�m as good as I�ll ever be, and I�m grateful for that,� Ruby remembers.
Little Black Heart would be a fantastic album regardless, but with tight, catchy lyrics, it�s a testament to Ruby�s return to the level of musicianship she had to struggle to regain. Her smoky, expressive alto and the dynamic band lifts swing, rock n� roll, R&B and rockabilly songs that cover everything from her accident to social commentary on certain music scenes and their cliques, to love gone wrong. The title track �Little
Black Heart� is an old-fashioned minor-key murder ballad with steel guitar providing the spooky atmosphere.
With a reputation for high-energy shows that precedes them, Ruby Dee and The Snakehandlers deliver to capacity crowds in clubs, festivals and events, starting in the Pacific Northwest, where right off the bat, they were voted Best Band in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer People�s Picks 2005 & Best Signed Band in the People�s Picks 2006. The band�s first full-length CD, Uno-produced North of Bakersfield, earned huge airplay in the United States,
Europe and Australia, and charted repeatedly on the European Americana list, and subsequent releases Live From Austin
Texas and Rockabilly Playground earned the band Grammy considerations for Best Americana Album and Best Children�s Album.
Learn more about Ruby Dee and the Snakehandlers:
Www.rubydeemusic.com
Ruby's Juke Joint Americana Cookbook:
Www.rubysjukejoint.com
