What’s this? High school acquaintances? Well, it’s the truth. Back in middle school and high school I knew a boy by the name of Ben Ruttenburg. He was a generally average individual, from all I knew of him. It was passing odd that his father was so very into getting us kids (as 8th graders) to perform in a musical for the rest of the school.

Yet the musical inclinations of the father seem to have rubbed off on the son to a certain degree. After years of little to no contact, I saw Ben Ruttenburg again as he was performing at his CD release party in my (our) hometown of Chico, CA. His music, however, was inspired by city-life in New York, where he had been living and working for the past months. I was very pleasantly surprised by what I found, upon listening to Ben sing with the accompaniment of both a full band as well as simply an acoustic guitar.

Inspired by his own experiences, Ben’s lyrics feel very familiar to the listener – not in the sense that we’ve heard them before, but we have experienced the very same emotions as he is portraying in his music.

So I encourage you to check out Ben Ruttenburg’s Myspace page and give a listen to his music. It is mellow and soothing, with comedy seamlessly woven in to the careful listener. I just encourage you to have a blast with it!

ps. My personal favorite song is ‘I Am Cool’. Seriously. Listen to the lyrics. They’re hilarious.