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Michael Rudd

Music

Reviews and Articles

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Michael Rudd

Music

Reviews and Articles

About

Contact

American Roots Song

Americana Performance

Song of the Year

Michael Rudd

The Water

Critical Acclaim for Ways of the World & The Water

"...it’s a stunner. With a lyrical and musical eloquence, Rudd explores the deeper questions in life about mortality, love, redemption, and understanding, his deep vocals sharing each word with emotion and resonance. Ways of the World is an epic listen..."

Vents

"...deep and soulful... The new record broadens his sonic palette while maintaining the reflective core that defines his work... intimate sketches... Musically, the album finds Rudd evolving his sparse folk and Americana that feels uniquely Southwest with its lyrics and compositions that unfold like the majestic landscape of the place he calls home. These are songs that burn slowly and connect deeply. At times, they rock, and elsewhere, they convey a sense of intimacy, but they also get delivered with passion and soul as Rudd continues to carve out his place as a quietly prolific troubadour worthy of attention."

Glide

“Rudd’s music explores the "inner, secretive world" of the human experience, balancing themes of isolation and mortality—informed by a recent cancer diagnosis—with messages of redemption and joy. A former educator and school principal, Rudd’s "wizened" sound and desert-rock aesthetic have earned him critical acclaim and a dedicated following.”

Curious Goldfish

"...themes of desperation, joy, mortality and love, where an excellent cast is in attendance for the 10 tracks... If names like Nick Cave, Townes Van Zandt or John Hiatt mean anything to you, Rudd’s version of roots rock sure will, too, and be prepared to spend much time with this desert-rock influenced gem."

Take Effect Reviews

"Ways of the World... conjur[es] the likes of John Prine, Jim Croce and Blaze Foley...this is not your prototypical americana record. Instead, it’s a widely spun tapestry of colored lands where curious eyes and hearts roam. Songs like This Life Is Made for Me and The Water should become bedrocks of contemporary playlists... At the centre of it all remains Rudd’s particular way with a lyrical narrative, which careens through the record and you can’t help but become awed by... The album is without filler and rings in like portraits of lived experience... honest, warm storytelling..."

Americana UK

"Michael Rudd encourages deep thought with his music, soul searching of one’s place in the world. It’s fitting, then, that his new album is entitled 'Ways of the World.' Anyone who has searched and sought, journeyed through the nuances of change, contemplated mortality, or coped with the weight of daily life will find something that rings true among Rudd’s lyrics. The new album, the third in a quintet of rapid-fire album releases, is more of the glorious Americana we’ve come to love from Rudd; the dusty twang and rootsy-blues is resplendent and enveloping in all of the best ways, a satisfying listen from start to finish."

Amplify

"It’s an often poetic album that examines the human condition by digging deeper and pondering transcendence rather than the quotidian. If you know New Mexico, a song like 'Water' resonates, though Rudd’s deep voice takes us to the depths of the soul. 'On My Way' oozes darkness, but again in a contemplative way. Rudd uses his strong baritone to sing the blues, bring us down, and lift us up."

Off-Center Reviews

The ways of the world are too hard to know

If sorrow is the root from which we all grow

I could never be what they told me to be

All the joys in the world I was too blind to see

I walked out their door and left the world behind

I went down the way to the end of time

I walked all day and I walked all night

Until my soul was lost and too tired to fight

Take me to the river

Hold me by my hand

Lead me to the water

And I’ll jump right in

My mother she said I’d be all alone

With noone to love me and nowhere like home

I put on my back what little I owned

But nothing is new out here on the road

If time is a mountain, then I lived in a cave

What I felt as a boy, I’ll feel in my grave

I know what I know and I know that it’s true

That a man on this earth only gets what he’s due

Take me to the river

Hold me by my hand

Lead me to the water

And I’ll jump right in

Oh the earth is covered in ashes and dust

It’s stone-cold heart is not for us

Don’t know what I need or what door to go in

I’m a bird who can’t whistle or sing

Take me to the river

Hold me by my hand

Lead me to the water

And I’ll jump right in

Take me to the river

Hold me by my hand

Lead me to the water

And I’ll jump right in

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