[This song is beautiful, strong, exemplary, intense, air-clearing and coalition-building. Please listen. In small doses it can cure you of a two pack habit. At full strength it will inspire children to build their own university and animals exposed to it will never go extinct. It is also quite catchy and good music with which to relax.]
Singer-songwriter-producer-arranger Ruby Friedman’s new neo-roots composition “The Book Woman’s Daughter” will appear in the video trailer for award-winning, bestselling writer Kim Michele Richardson’s like-titled novel about life in rural Appalachia, to be published by Sourcebooks Landmark on May 3.
[The Marvelous Ruby Friedman Orchestra will perform at PDX White Eagle Saloon on April 19.]
The Book Woman’s Daughter is a companion to Richardson’s previous fact-based work The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, which spent 14 weeks on the New York Times’ fiction bestsellers list in 2018; that volume was also promoted by a video trailer featuring a song composed, produced, and sung by Friedman that was expressly commissioned by the writer, who is a long- standing and ardent fan of the Los Angeles-bred, Portland, Oregon-based musician’s work.
Later in May, Friedman’s “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” will also be heard in The Pack Horse Librarians, a PBS documentary exploring the inspirations for Richardson’s novels: the pathfinding real-life women who delivered books to the “blue people” of Eastern Kentucky’s remote and sometimes hazardous hollers.
Friedman will take the stage in Los Angeles on May 13 for a live date at the Hotel Café, previously the site of a month-long residency by her band the Ruby Friedman Orchestra. On May 11, she will make a return appearance as a guest DJ on the Alabama AAA station Birmingham Mountain Radio (107.3 FM).
Friedman’s new song succeeds a run of attention-getting single releases and radio tracks. Her 2020 single “Ain’t Got Your Money” — a hard-hitting, tartly funny commentary about unnerving telephone debt collectors — garnered airplay from Los Angeles public radio outlet KCSN’s popular DJs Gary Calamar, Nic Harcourt, and Kevin Bronson and captured AAA airplay in New Orleans, Baltimore, and other U.S. markets.
Her single “Un4Givn” captured strong airplay on the top-rated L.A. NPR giant KCRW, KCSN and San Diego’s 91X. Her 2019 release “Teardrop Trailer,” originally written for Wynonna Judd, was produced by Mitchell Froom (Paul McCartney, Randy Newman, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Los Lobos). “Journey on a Bullet” was a collaboration with the Gentleman Alchemists — John Fryer (Cocteau Twins, Nine Inch Nails, This Mortal Coil) and Colin McGuinness (Gavin Rossdale).
Friedman’s 2016 album Gem, featuring 10 original compositions either written or co-written by Friedman and flashing a bristling rock- and roots-based sound, was named one of the year’s 10 best albums by KPCC Los Angeles air personality and noted critic Steve Hochman.
By the time Gem was recorded, Friedman had drawn acclaim with bravura club performances at L.A. venues like the Troubadour, the Roxy, the Satellite, and the Echo. She received rave reviews from the Los Angeles Times (“POWERHOUSE”), Hits (“full-throttle talent”), and Kevin Bronson’s Buzzbands.la site (“a thunder-and-lightning barrage of soul and nerves”).
Her original song “Drowned” was featured on FX’s hit show Sons of Anarchy, and a season- closing reading of Darrell Scott’s “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” was heard on FX’s Justified. Her original music was heard in Fox Sports’ series about the World Cup soccer competition, Phenoms. Her voice has been heard on trailers for the feature film Marshall and the Netflix series Godless.
She performed “Hunt You Down” in the Clio Award-winning trailer promoting the bestselling Sony Playstation video game Bloodborne, which has been viewed more than 8 million times on YouTube.
Friedman has opened concerts for rock ’n’ roll legend Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and Oscar-winning actor-musician Jeff Bridges, and made high-profile guest appearances with Grammy winners Scott Healy and Vince Giordano’s big bands and actor-pianist Jeff Goldblum’s jazz ensemble. She has twice appeared at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
https://www.rubyfriedmanorchestra.com/
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