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Chris Ruest belongs to the impressive class of serious Texas blues guitarists in their thirties, a group that includes Johnny Moeller, Shawn Pittman, and Nick Curran. While the others may have wider name recognition, Ruest has quietly built a reputation of excellence that is spreading beyond his Austin home base. A veteran with nearly two decades' experience on the bandstand, Ruest's passion for classic blues (jump, Chicago, and Gulf Coast) and roots rock forms comes through in an original voice that combines immediacy and authenticity. Dead-on songwriting and savvy selection of covers provide a platform for his unaffected, honest vocals and tough guitar.
The Connecticut native's interest in guitar was encouraged by his father and his uncle, jazz musician Louis Mastrobattisto. Ruest began taking lessons at 15, hoping, rather typically, to emulate blues-based rock guitarists Duane Allman, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page, but soon discovered the artists who inspired them. Gradually his core group of touchstone artists expanded to include the likes of Hubert Sumlin, Pee Wee Crayton, Robert Nighthawk, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Pat Hare, Eddie Taylor, Freddie King, Magic Sam, Robert Lockwood, Luther Tucker, T-Bone Walker, Albert Collins, Tiny Grimes, and many others. After playing around Connecticut between the ages of 17 and 25, Ruest resolved to make music his main priority, gave up his factory job, and relocated to Texas in 1999.
After a brief stay in Austin, where he held down a night at the storied Joe's Generic Bar, Ruest moved to Dallas at the suggestion of Brian "Hash Brown" Calway, another transplanted Northeasterner who is at the heart of the Dallas-Ft. Worth blues scene. Ruest credits his occasional gigs with Hash Brown as important steps in his development – "He taught Johnny and Jay Moeller and Paul Size and Shawn Pittman - all those guys came through him, and Nick Curran played with him for a while, and Elliot Sowell - some of the best guys came through his band" – and gained valuable experience backing singers Robin Banks and Wanda King (Freddie King's daughter). His most indelible lessons in blues and life came from the legendary Sam Myers: "When I got to Dallas, I spent a lot of time, like three years, with him. Before he died, I started spending more time with him. I actually did a couple gigs under my name with Sam, which was awesome." More recently, Ruest has enjoyed the mentorship of Mr. "Linda Lu" himself, the great (and elusive) performer Ray Sharpe. He is now living back in austin after 9 years in dallas.
Ruest's band has opened for Bobby "Blue" Bland, Johnny Winter, Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets, and Little Charlie and the Nightcats. 2005 brought Ruest's recording debut as a solo artist, Too Many Problems, a spirited collection that captured crisp performances in glorious, true-to-vintage sound. The notable players who appeared on that disc, including Preston Hubbard, Matt Farrell, and "Kaz" Kazanoff in addition to Curran and Hash Brown, offer testimony to the respect Ruest commands among his colleagues. Now expanding his performance schedule to a wider circuit that includes Houston, Corpus Christi, andSan Antonio, and club and festival dates outside Texas, Ruest is preparing to record a follow-up CD and to let the world share in this Dallas-Ft. Worth secret. "My goal is to play everywhere and keep playin'."
written by tom hyslop "blues revue magazine"
CD REVIEW.
A Connecticut native now based in Austin, singer and guitarist Chris Ruest shows a flair for inhabiting the blues and roots music styles of yesterday that recalls fellow transplant Brian Calway (Hash Brown), Ruest's mentor and the album's producer. Like another New England musician, Duke Robillard, Ruest plays a few choice covers in homage to his inspirations, and pens original songs that fit precisely in established genres.
Too Many Problems keeps alive the legacies of Chicago legends like Elmore James, whose slide guitar and rocking combo inform Ruest's "My Baby Loves Me"; Magic Sam, whose "All Your Love" gets a strong reading; and Howlin' Wolf, in a revival of "Sugar Mama." On the lazy shuffle "Pleadin' With My Baby," Ruest and Brown channel the most influential guitar duo in the blues, Jimmy Reed and Eddie Taylor. Swamp blues get their due in "King Bee," and the sounds of Texas and the West Coast ring through "The Shark," a powerful, jazzy instrumental showcase for Ruest and harmonica player Bill Johnston; the elegant, T-Bone Walker-style slow blues "Just Like A Puppet"; and the snappy Albert Collins lines that drive the greasy Texas funk of "Ice Queen." Ruest expresses his affinity for roots rock in the Chuck Berry-ish bounce of "Baby I'll Be Your Dog" and "If I Did You Like You Done Me," which sounds like a lost Junior Wells-Earl Hooker collaboration, but the dominant sounds on Too Many Problems come out of the classic jump blues and R&B tradition. The swinging "Thinkin' And Drinkin'" and "Some Other Guy" recall the honeydripping sounds of Jimmy Liggins and Roy Milton and make excellent use of Kaz Kazanoff's Texas Horns. "Tell Me How You Like It," another hard-edged Ruest original, is an ideal platform for leather-lunged guest vocalist Nick Curran. The hip, humorous "Too Many Problems," a stop-time number straight out of the early Ray Charles bag, lets keyboard ace Matt Farrell shine. The band lays down perfect arrangements for each song, and Billy Horton's engineering conjures the magic vintage sound that his Ft. Horton Studio so reliably evokes. Despite the presence of guest musicians like Hash Brown, bassist Preston Hubbard, and Curran, the spotlight belongs to Ruest. An accomplished guitarist, he employs a refreshing variety of tones – bright and reverb-drenched on "All Your Love," tending toward a darker sound elsewhere – and favors a less-is-more style that is clearly a matter of taste, not talent. Ruest is an appealing singer. No wild extrovert à la Curran, he breaks out a credible rockabilly yelp on his cover of Jerry McCain's primal "Geronimo Rock." His primary mode is more plainspoken, an understated approach that proves effective and likable on both the jumping songs and the deeper blues. Too Many Problems is an impressive debut. .TOM HYSLOP
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