"They just love her and want to talk to her for hours," teases her mother, as Ruby Jane blushes. Ruby Jane says she has friends of all ages, from 2 to 82. " Within a month, he stopped charging her for the lessons.Since then, the young chanteuse has become beloved at the senior center. He gives a couple of examples of why string playing is so important in American music. Salute to Industry 2019 But at the heart of it all, Ruby Jane - reader of the Chronicles of Narnia, unabashed lover of chicken fingers and riding four-wheelers with her friends - is still young, too young for what's being offered. I’ve had a cool life. I think it’s pretty easy to tell when someone’s playing just to play or making cliche rhymes. If we set our mind to it. It was a relaxed eight days or so of sleepovers with old friends, services at St. Paul''s Episcopal Church (where she once played in the handbell choir) and a driving lesson or two from granddad. It''s a major transformation. One of Ruby Jane''s projects this past year has been touring with Asleep at the Wheel in "A Ride with Bob," a musical drama about the life of Bob Wills, a legend of Western Swing music. I like acting a lot, and I’d like to in the future do acting as well as music, and I’ve taken some acting classes and I enjoy that.

Best of the Triangle 2015 26 Comments. “We've been beneficiaries of artists bigger than us giving us breaks,” Rich said in a recent AP/ABC News article, referring to McGraw's leg-up in '04 when he booked the pair on a 75-city tour. Ruby Jane: I’ve been lucky enough to gain respect at an early age, musically and artistically. Between winning her first fiddle competition after only six lessons, taking the Mississippi State Fiddler title, and performing at the Grand Ole Opry, life's kind of busy these days. Thanks for the interview Trigg. Back to School 2017 I think at this point in my life, I think if I were ever to feel unhappy, it would be because I felt like I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing. Home and Garden 2018 The Triggerman "Every show there's something to improve on, but it's not all about hitting the notes right," she says.

We would learn a few tunes, sit and visit for a while with his wife, then learn a few more tunes." Like I’ve thought about “what if?” but I think so much of my life has been involved in it I really don’t think I’d know how to do anything else at this point. "That's what Lady Gaga told Ruby Jane at rehearsal for her Stubb's performance. "It''s pretty funny. 8:21 am. November 18, 2010 @ If I’m not doing school, I’m doing rehearsals with adults, or playing a gig, or having a meeting. A delicious breakfast-inspired dessert FOOD, 4. After a time the tempo picks up, like the wind raising itself into a squall, and runs of notes crest like whitecaps.

Gene Robertson, Ruby Jane Smith, Jim Brock, Jimmy D Brock playing at my house after a fish fry. November 22, 2010 @ Ruby has the sweetest tone to her fiddle I’ve ever heard, I wonder if her early classical violin training isn’t one of the reasons. November 19, 2010 @ It's understandable if the past three years seem a blur. "About the very first night we were in town, we went to see some live music. "Last night, Ruby Jane enthralled a hometown audience with a performance at the Rosenzweig Arts Center here. College Football Preview 2012 Any country girl who likes sushi (and confesses it to Triggerman) is OK with me.

The Triggerman: So do you know what “soul” is?

For Ruby Jane Smith, however, it all feels quite normal. Really all I can do is be thankful because I do realize that my life has been very strange and different from most people. She plays Wills as a young boy. Less and less it feels right to call her a “prodigy” as she grows older and her skins on the wall continue to grow as well, surpassing the accolades many musicians twice her age have amassed: youngest fiddle player to ever play the Grand Ole Opry, touring with Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel, being named MVP of the Austin City Limits Festival by many. November 18, 2010 @ "It's not a love song," Smith says. "***Mother and daughter are at a crossroads again.

An artist and photographer herself, Smith proudly admits that neither of them are conformists.

The Triggerman: Tell me about your experience playing the Grand Ole Opry.

2015 High School Football Preview 5:15 am, Denise She felt in love with french cooking, I think…, The Triggerman Dale Watson was playing at the Continental Club." And that’s really the only sport. You’ll realize that you can’t really do what you thought you could do.”  That to me is really frustrating. Best of the Triangle Old or young, as long as it’s good, and real. We played with Ruby in France & she totally rocked the house.

November 19, 2010 @ At age eight, the Mississippi Arts Commission granted Smith an apprenticeship with Charles T. Smith, a famed old-time fiddle player. Clogs beating out a steady rhythm, flowered skirt whirling, she blazed through a few of the nine instruments she plays - fiddle, mandolin, guitar, harmonica, banjo, Dobro, piano, drums, and spoons - singing bluegrass favorites written long before she was born.Almost every performance results in invitations for others, adding to her crowded schedule. At that point they had already finished recording the whole CD, but Ray (Benson) had been talking to Willie about me, and Willie goes “OK let’s put her on the bonus track.” I met Ray about three months after coming into town (Austin).And I guess he found out about me because I’d been playing around town, and he was looking for somebody to be in the musical “A Ride With Bob.”. CC photo; O'Connor practices in the Green Room before coming onstage. After a surprise phone call from ABC, Smith attended the County Music Awards Festival in Nashville last month. Ruby has wisdom we can all learn from, regardless of her age. No doubt Ruby’s the real deal. Comments (2). And then I learned politics will always break your heart. Even for young fiddling prodigies, homework is a reality. "Taking a moment to recite her favorite poem from memory, Rudyard Kipling's "If," Ruby Jane pauses to reflect on the poet's admonition to treat triumph and disaster equally and dream without making dreams your master.

I’ve never been a big sports person, but I like playing football. "She's born with it - all it's got to do is come out," says Opry legend Jim Brock, who has been training her. He played on the Opry for years with Jim & Jessie, and Bill Monroe. “In turn, we try to pass that along.”Not long after she played the last note at the 4-County do last Thursday, young Smith headed north. So I think there’s a happy medium in really expressing yourself and having soul, but also something that makes sense and sounds good. Holiday Shopping Guide 2013 Salute to Industry 2016 Dining Guide 2018 The Triggerman: Does it frustrate you that you’re only 15-years-old? Performing by his side is clearly an emotional experience for her, and the audience applauds. I asked her if she ate “escargot” when she went to France, she said, “I just can’t eat snails”.

I remember walking in and I told Jim my fiddle teacher and my mom I said, “These are the doors to fame or doom.” And I almost couldn’t even open the doors I was so nervous. The Triggerman “He was just sweet and very friendly.”All the country music stars and Smith's performance can be seen during ABC's “CMA Music Festival: Country's Night To Rock,” which airs Monday, July 23. 8:08 am. Back to School 2014 It's a catchy tune but fiddlers almost never play it. ", Nelson has said of Ruby Jane, "She is a great picker, fiddler, songwriter and singer, with an amazing career in front of her. "I called up your house and your girlfriend said she's gonna be your spouse," Smith sings. Ruby is a prodigy violinist and singer/songwriter based in Austin, TX. It's mesmerizing, somewhere between classical music and something I wish I knew how to dance to. Smith studied right alongside her - until Ruby Jane turned 5 and her skills surpassed her mother's. O'Connor has recorded it with Yo-Yo Ma (read more aout that collaboration here.)
It didn''t really hit me until after I''d done it. This one starts out slow and melancholy. Just ahead on her dizzying itinerary are fiddle camps and the 36th annual Fiddlers' Jamboree and National Fiddlers Championship July 6-7 in Smithville, Tenn. Armed with pre-teen energy, mom Jobelle at her side, and a big RV on the open road, Ruby Jane is on the move. Yesterday, fiddle phenom, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and singer Ruby Jane turned 16. She first came to Mark's camp when she was ten; she'd been playing fiddle since she was two. November 18, 2010 @ I''ve definitely been influenced by all the incredible people in Austin. WaterWays 2019 Dining Guide 2015 December 5, 2010 @ "I thought literature and art and music and poetry were so important," she says. You have a new song that says, “I like to eat, pie makes me very happy.” What are some of your favorite foods? Mark O'Connor and Ruby Jane Smith: virtuosos of American fiddle, Naif Al-Mutawa brings multicultural superheroes to life, On the chapbook page at VelveteenRabbi.com, Joy to fuel our building - a d'varling for Sukkot, One Heart: Lessons in Love from Jewish Cuba, Oops, We Did It Again (On Choices, and Momentum, and Change). "It''s great to be back with all the people that I know so well," she said. It could all give a girl the big head. Ruby Jane Smith, 12, of Columbus smiles and happily obliges, thanking them for their support. And ever since then he’s been the sweetest, most non-intimidating guy ever. ” People say, “You never do what you thought you could do”. (Publications will be opened in a new window), Other special sections available online
When he stops playing, O'Connor tells us that his presentation is going to be about how natural habitat interfaces with music education.

Things change. Steady clapping ensues as she skillfully delivers note after note, song after song. The Triggerman Destinations 2010 "You'd think that I birthed her on stage. She wrote most of the songs for "Creekside," her new live CD (plus two studio bonus tracks) available at www.cdbaby.com. 9:23 pm. The Triggerman: Do you ever see yourself not playing music? Salute to Industry 2014

This one's a toe-tapper, fast and swirly and upbeat and danceable. Best Area Professionals 2019 When you''re 15 years old and your MySpace friends include Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton, it''s a good sign you''re leading a rather extraordinary life. She has developed her own style; a unique mark of brilliance beyond blazing fiddle breaks. The Smith girls are back in Texas, but Ruby Jane returns to Mississippi soon for a repeat appearance on Thacker Mountain Radio in Oxford Feb. 18. On the other end there’s music that’s pure beats and catchy and you can tell they put absolutely no thought into what they’re writing. [7] She also performed in 2003 at the CMA Music Festival.