From Boston’s thriving bluegrass scene comes The Ruta Beggars, five handsome lads who met up while studying in the Berklee College of Music’s American Roots Program. This month their debut single with Skyline Records, Taking My Time, is released online.
This group – Micah Nicol (guitar), Trevin Nelson (banjo), Noah Harrington (bass), Sam Stage (fiddle), and Jean-Baptiste Cardineau (mandolin) – has won raves for an original sound that mixes a firm grasp on bluegrass traditions, with a modern sensibility that appeals to younger urban audiences.
Taking My Time joins a long list of ballads wherein a man deals with an unfortunate romance by ending it – the life of his lover, that is.
Nicol, who wrote and sings the song, has this to say about it.
“In bluegrass, there’s a long standing tradition of ‘power-waltzes’ – as we like to call them in The Ruta Beggars. One of our favorites is I Live In The Past by Bill Monroe; when we heard it, we knew we needed one of these turbo three-quarter-time tanks in our repertoire. Thus, Taking My Time was born.
At shows, we often dare our audiences to waltz along to our too-fast-to-be-danced-to tune, and leave them huffing and puffing and chuckling with delight.
But what is the meaning of the song to which these folks dance so gleefully? The third verse of Taking My Time makes an allusion to the famous folk song and story of ‘The Oxford Girl’ (also called ‘The Knoxville Girl’, which is the title by which I came to know the story via a Louvin Brothers recording). The line in that song, ‘They’re going to hang me up so high, between the earth and sky,’ has a haunting beauty to it that we wanted to emulate in the lyrics of our composition.
We Ruta Beggars hope that Taking My Time can be seen as our nod to the Father of Bluegrass, and an exploration of a small corner of the murder ballads.”
The music video for Taking My Time shows some of the wit and cleverness of this bunch as they perform the single.
Check it out….
Taking My Time is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.
