Ruby James

Ruby James – Happy Now 



“I got a woman way across town - she’s good to me, oh yeah.”  



Ruby James is all woman, of that there is no doubt. Her new album Happy Now is a contextual exploration of the loving and losing of men and women; the very elusiveness of that ideal of being “good to me - oh yeah.” The sentiments contained within rarely result in the proverbial happy ending, as is true of life.  



Happy Now is the follow up to Ruby’s 2008 Desert Rose CD, a song from which found its way onto the soundtrack for the film The Women, co-produced by Mick Jagger featuring actress Meg Ryan. This new CD sizzles with the ‘gasping for oxygen’ that heartbreak brings. Its heat comes off the pavement in mirage waves of scorching summertime.



Ruby recalls, “It was June 2006 and I was living alone in a dingy apartment in Hollywood, totally depressed, when I met my good friend Matt McCormack.” Matt was to be the conduit for this project taking shape, offering a bridge to a well respected group of musicians. Will Sexton did the pre-production, providing the tone and the texture.  



The original Austin sessions yielded smolder and flame although the project has taken three years to complete. The initial set up was in Charlie’s house where they recorded eleven songs over three days; with Charlie on vintage drum kit, Mike Thompson playing a tiny standup piano and Will Sexton with a Paul McCartney-esque bass. Ruby was perched on a stool in the kitchen, Charlie having lent her his jumbo bad-ass cherry red Gibson acoustic. Ruby continues, “I still had no idea just how special this moment was until people started telling me the history of these two brothers. This project was a reunion, bringing them closer together; it was also the first time the Sexton boys played as a rhythm section.” Another session yielded three more songs, and subsequently Ruby did some touring, occasionally revisiting Austin to continue to work on the project. Meanwhile, Will, the original producer, relayed that Charlie had been working on it alone. Ultimately the production reins were passed, Happy Now growing into an organic collaboration between Charlie and Ruby.  



Upon returning to Austin to finish Happy Now, it was with peace, feeling at home in a space that was safe and nurturing with people who were, as she says, “Bringing out the best of who I am as an artist and who I could be.”  



Ruby James sits comfortably in between darkness and light. With Happy Now, James is poised to take her place as a classic American singer songwriter.



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