CRITTER RUWART • Both Sides Now

Critter Ruwart is an independent folk band rooted in authentic storytelling, rhythmic instrumentation, and the type of divine vocal harmony that can only be created by blood brothers - genetically linked together in a heavenly chorus equally as unique as it is inimitable, similar to groups like The Bee Gees or the Gallagher brothers from Oasis.

With a core trio consisting of Chris Ruwart on Lead Vocal and guitar; Brendan Ruwart (Banjo);  Igor Trifunovic on Violin, the group first came to our attention through recording engineer Andy Reed, who has been producing tracks for the group’s debut album. When we approached Andy  about new artists he’d been working with over the past year who had grabbed his attention the most with their originality and creative songwriting skills that would be good to feature at this year’s 40^th Annual REVIEW Music Awards Celebration on May 3^rd, his immediate response required little thought: “Critter Ruwart is an incredible Americana act. This would be my biggest endorsement to date. They are legit.”

Investigating further the first thing one is struck with by this group is the sincerity of their craftsmanship and the purity and depth of their musical focus - two qualities that belie their youthfulness with a maturity of understanding rare to find in popular music.

Recently we sat down with Chris to find out more about the qualities of composition and the band’s journey from Wyoming to the Great Lakes Bay of Michigan that has led them to this pivotal point in their musical career that has taken them to the crossroads they find themselves at today.

REVIEW: How did you first get engaged with music and what were some of the influences that helped inform your sensibility and mindset about how you wanted to approach it?

CHRIS RUWART: Well, I kind of grew up singing in Church - not against my will, but singing with the parish. My parents always told me I had a good singing voice and I was kind of dismissive about it. I’m not saying I was way too cool to sing, but my attitude was kind of ‘whatever’ - it didn’t really register that much. 

But then when I was a freshman in the high school I got into some trouble, so my Mom said part of my punishment was that I had to join the Choir that next semester. Starting my sophomore year of high school I joined the choir and was dragging my feel with it a little bit for the first couple of weeks; but then I suddenly realized I actually enjoyed singing, so that’s the place where I started with music - when I was about 16-years old singing in choirs. 

REVIEW:  Actually, choir is a great way to become introduced to music because you learn so much about the way to approach harmonies and deal with phrasing when it comes to dynamics and intonations.  People often don’t realize the importance of that, or recognize it when they hear it.

Chris:  Yeah, I absolutely agree. It expanded my knowledge and I never really learned how to read sheet music, but was picking everything up by ear and could kind of mimic sounds, which initially was my strength musically.  One of my buddies in high school was also in the choir and he was learning how to play acoustic guitar at that time, so we started learning some cover songs together and I would sing while he would play the guitar, so that was kind of my first foray into playing and singing live that wasn’t an actual concert recital.  This was back around 2012-13 and focused on songs by Ed Sheeren and The Goo Goo Dolls. We liked some of that Alternative stuff and those were some of the early artists I was listening to growing up.

After that my first music device was a portable CD player. I have older siblings and they would download music onto my Mom’s computer and we would burn CDs, and the stuff I found myself gravitating towards was music my older sister was into - bands like Third Eye Blind and later The Lumineers and Mumford & Sons, so that was a great period that shifted my focus more into the Folk arena.

REVIEW: At what point did you start moving away from cover songs into writing your own material?

Chris: In college was when I really started to write my own songs, once I figured out how to play the guitar. It took me probably three years of picking it up and putting it down before it really stuck and I was able to learn how to play and sing at the same time. At that point I started learning all my favorite folk songs, like Turnpike Troubadours and that type of stuff, which was getting more into Alternative County. I wrote a couple songs in college - nothing I would ever share; but I did start to figure out how to structure a song and tell a story.

After college ended I met my wife Emily and ended up spending time with her while she was finishing up Grad school in North Carolina, so  moved there to be with her. I didn’t have any friends around, so I spent a lot of time by myself and that’s when I started really honing in on my writing skills.

It’s funny because one of the songs on this new album is one that I started writing when we were living out in North Carolina seven years ago, so it’s just been one of those tunes I’ve had to whittle away at. It’s called Rosie and is definitely the most Country 2-steppy sounding but in a minor-key song that we have on the new album.

REVIEW: How would you categorize or distinguish your sound and approach to songwriting?

Chris: I would say our sound is kind of shifting more to Indie-Folk, but there’s still those Country elements. I grew up out in the state of Wyoming, so there was always that country influence in my life. Right around college when I discovered there’s other music out there that isn’t coming out of Nashville, but is still traditional in the sense of storytelling - that’s what I gravitated towards. There’s a lot of that that lives within me, so every now and then I’ll write a song and go, ‘Wow - that’s a country song.’

REVIEW: There’s a huge trend and movement towards Fusion music going on with many artists ranging from Billy Strings to the Celtic Fusion band Skerryvore that performed at Midland Center recently.  How would you distinguish what you’re doing and striving to create from other music out there right now?

Chris: That’s a good question. I think I’m coming at it from a unique perspective, having grown up in  a unique place. Wyoming is a big state, but it's got small populations and it’s not dissimilar to Michigan in the sense that you get to battle the elements in the Wintertime. It was a unique experience growing up there and I feel like there are a lot of stories within me and stories told through my songs about  some characters that I've been able to bring to life. You don't find a lot of books about rural Wyoming or a lot of songwriters from there, so I think it gives me, maybe not an edge, but a unique perspective from which to start telling stories.

REVIEW:  I remember reading an interview with John Lennon and he said the way you could always distinguish songs that he wrote from ones Paul McCartney wrote was that McCartney would generally write songs in the 3^rd person about different ‘characters’ like Lady Madonna, or Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, whereas Lennon would always write from a first person perspective - songs from the gut mostly about himself and how he was feeling, like ‘Isolation’ or ‘Help’.  How would you say your own songwriting leans?

Chris: Well, I do a little bit of both. It’s not really something I’m consciously thinking about. I’m working on a song now where I didn’t find it as compelling coming from my personal perspective, so switched it around to a 3^rd person perspective, and that opened up a few more new ideas lyrically.  But for me, I could go either way.

Not everything is obviously autobiographical, but I do draw from a lot of influences in my life that I might write from a first person perspective, but it’s actually from the point-of-view of my buddy or someone that I knew, or a melding of these characters that I grew up with.  I’m calling them characters, but they’re real people I’ve known in my life.

And then musically, my brother  Brendan brings a lot to the table. He plays the banjo and he also plays the drums, so if you could clone two of him that would be perfect. He's kind of really what inspired me to want to be a musician.   He was in bands in college out in Laramie, Wyoming, where we went to school. It was so cool to see his band play somewhere every weekend and they put out a couple albums and I really wanted to do that,  because I wanted to play music and spend time with him and all that. 

He made the decision to move out here about 2 years ago and we just hit the ground running with the songs that I had been writing, so he pushes me and I push him and I always feel like I do it because I love to do it, but I also want to bring new material to the table to give him stuff to work on  too, and that's exactly what I love. I love doing it with other people.

REVIEW:  Can you tell me a little bit about the rest of the guys you work with?

Chris: Our bass player is my brother-in-law. His name is Jack Michalak and I met Jack when he was probably about 16 or 17 and me and my wife gave him a guitar.  He picked up playing the guitar and he's in a band now down in Ann Arbor, where he went to school at the University of Michigan. Over the summer he just was kind of hanging around us and started picking up the bass and now he's our bass player - so it’s kind of a family trio in that sense.

Our fourth member came to us through a show we played in Ann Arbor back in October. His name is Igor Trifunovich and plays violin in Jack’s band. His family is from Serbia and he’s applying for Med School right now, so we don’t know how much longer we’ll have him, but he’s a real talent.  He offered to play this show with us and did everything by ear and made us sound so good we asked if he would like to play with us some more, so he ended up playing on most of the songs on the new album; plus we’re about to play our first live set with all four of us this weekend in Grand Rapids, so are pretty excited.

REVIEW:  So when do you plan on releasing the new album and does it have a title?

Chris: I think I’m going to call it Eye Contact With Strangers and we have one more date on the calendar with our producer Andy Reed, but all the songs are tracks so we’ll probably release the tracks a singles and go that route to drag out exposure as long as we can. That’s the way things are done now.  We’ll send everything off to get mastered, start getting the singles out, and still need to finalize an album cover, but it will definitely be coming out this year.

You can check out Critter Ruwart’s music and videos on their facebook and Instagram pages and also on YouTube.  They will also be performing at this year’s 40^th Annual REVIEW Music Awards Celebration on May 3^rd at The Westown Theatre in Bay City, joined by Andy Reed on bass and Donny Brown on drums.