A Dirty Dozen with MICHAEL RUDD – April 2025

Photo credit: David Rosenfield

According to a recent press release: “New Mexico-based Americana/roots rock singer-songwriter Michael Rudd is set to release his second studio album, Going To The Mountain, on March 28, 2025, via Invisible Road Records. Rudd writes and sings about people looking for meaning, searching for understanding about who they are and how they arrived at this moment in time, and seeking some kind of transcendence or even a small truth as they navigate the moments of their days. The long road west, and then Albuquerque itself, gave him what he needed. He joined a newly formed band as their lead singer and fell in love with the punkabilly from southern California and all the variations on the blues that they covered, and he started writing songs that tried to fit the sound that suddenly meant so much to him. After three years of steady gigs in the Albuquerque blues and rockabilly scene and opening for touring artists like Charlie Musselwhite, they put out a CD with several of his songs, and a few months later they were done. Then, after picking up his guitar a few more times, he more or less left it in its case for the next three decades.” We get Michael to discuss new music, influences, and more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release. What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through? Are there any hidden nuggets you put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

Going To The Mountain is musically more varied than Long Way from Paradise, my first album. I wanted a wider musical experience for anyone who chose to listen. The songs range from Americana to roots rock, and then there are other songs that I don’t really know how to classify. I’m still writing about the same people I wrote about on the first album: people searching for something, whether it’s love, acceptance, forgiveness, or simple human connection. Since you asked about “hidden nuggets,” I’ll mention two that may not be obvious on the first couple of listens. The last 1:30 of “They All Flew Away,” which we played live, was an homage to Bach. I probably shouldn’t admit that since I never even told the band. It may not sound like Bach, but it was definitely inspired by hours and hours of listening to him. I play recurring notes while the band swirls around them – it’s one of my favorite sections of the album. Another instrumental that may be overlooked is on “End of Days.” In addition to Pat Malone’s beautiful acoustic guitar, Asher Barreras plays a three-part cello solo that I never get tired of listening to.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

Something must have happened when I first heard The Beatles, Queen, Jethro Tull, and Cat Stevens as a boy. It could have been the blue glow of my turntable that turned those moments into magic. I was a big reader, but those songs hit me in other places. As for wanting to be a musician: a mushroom trip a long time ago let me hear my voice for the first time, which led me the next day to an audition for my first band. Then, after 30 years without music, songs suddenly started coming to me in the summer of 2023, which led to the making of two albums, with a third coming in the fall.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

Not really, since my taste continues to change as I hear music I’ve never heard before. Early on, I loved the depth and sincerity of Cat Steven’s voice and lyrics – his oldest songs still move me. Jackson Browne’s Late for the Sky is a perfect album that I’ve recently gone back to, and I still get a lot out of listening to The Band. Later, I fell in love with rockabilly artists like Barrence Whitfield & The Savages and The Paladins, and then the Malian guitarist and singer Ali Farka Toure. In the last couple of months, I’ve been listening a lot to Townes Van Zandt, who I was never exposed to growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey. Which reminds me: I can’t forget the impact that Springsteen’s Born to Run had on me and a few million New Jersey teenagers when it came out.

4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

Gillian Welch. There are lots of reasons. To name three: her voice, which can bring me to tears; her writing, which is so precise and moving; and her aesthetic, which results in songs that are pared down to only what’s essential. This goes for Dave Rawlings as well, since I’m never exactly sure how songwriting factors into their partnership. Their presence in the studio would be a constant reminder that less is often more. If they’re busy, I’d call in Sierra Ferrell.

5. What is your favorite activity when out of the studio and/or not on tour? What do you like to do to unwind?

I spend a lot of time writing songs and learning how to be a better guitar player. Aside from that, I love to read, hike, garden, and hang out with my wife, and my adult children when they’re around.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

I honestly have no idea. On any given song, the genre is unclear to me. I usually label it Americana and roots rock because they have a certain connotation that seems to fit most of my songs: raw, intimate, lyric-based, a kind of controlled energy, blues-based. I’ve been compared to lots of people, and, for most of them, I still don’t understand why. Comparisons, even when I disagree, which is almost always, never bother me, and none make me cringe. But the one that I’ll mention which I’ve heard now and then is Leonard Cohen, who I love but who has no influence that I know of on my songwriting. I’m guessing it’s mostly because I occasionally half-speak or whisper on a couple of songs from my first album. There’s no whispering or speaking on Going to the Mountain, so that comparison will likely go away. I think it’s just a matter of listeners looking for a reference point.

7. When your band is hanging out together, who cooks, who gets the drinks in, and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

We generally head over to Atrisco Cafe in Santa Fe for good New Mexican food. Drinks are every person for themselves – one drinks wine, another drinks beer, and the rest of us don’t drink at all. As for breaking out the acoustic guitar, that’s definitely our drummer, Mark Clark, who doesn’t get a chance to play his guitar much. We’re glad he does. He’s a great singer and a talented songwriter.

8. When was the last time you were starstruck and who was it?

Meeting Pele about 20 years ago. I’m a lifelong soccer fan, and he was at the top of my list before Zidane and Messi came along. Pele gave me a big hug and a big smile, a moment I’ll always remember.

9. What is the best part of being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?

Having time to create, to write songs, to play – can’t imagine anything better. But as a kid, I desperately wanted to play shortstop for the Mets. Nowadays, I’d take center midfielder for Barcelona as my day job.

10. What is one question you have always wanted an interviewer to ask – and what is the answer? Conversely, what question are you tired of answering?

How has the landscape of New Mexico influenced your songwriting? Not sure. But I suspect that the space I leave in arrangements and production has something to do with the starkness of the landscape. I’m guessing that what I write about has also been influenced by the endless sky and the desert and the mountains. I sometimes feel like I live at the edge of the world, which brings out all sorts of thoughts that may not be there otherwise. I don’t mind answering anything anyone asks me, but I’m more excited by questions that I don’t expect.

11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over,” even if it didn’t change your current situation?

I wish that three decades hadn’t gone by before songs started coming to me again. On the other hand, I don’t think it would have been as meaningful if I didn’t have all those years of musical silence, and I know I wouldn’t have been able to write the songs that have come over the last year and a half.

12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

The Last Waltz. Who wouldn’t want to be on stage with The Band, not to mention one seminal musician after the next? I’d also want to be there for the studio tracks because magic also happened when nobody was watching.

MICHAEL RUDD LINKS:

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Category: Interviews