Karl Ruch

"What strikes me first and most about Karl's music isn't its aural beauty or supple, subtle wit, though both are in ample supply, but its transparency. It seems to me the songs themselves are, as I know the man to be, inherently, sometimes unnervingly, truthful, their foundations firmly set in... And whether that kernel of truth concerns himself, his marriage, his journey through the wider world, or the God whose love he pursues, the simple and substantial reality of these thing comes to the fore.

I watch Karl perform with a strangely comforting mix of jealousy and awe. I'm reminded immediately of Brooks Williams, whose songs exhibit a kindred kind of stripped fullness: their simplicity is more beautiful than bare, a natural and welcome consequence of focused devotion to the task at hand. His ease with the instrument is unmistakable, and the degree to which our attention is quietly deflected into the song and the moment itself seems to me the hallmark of a true musician: the art itself is what captures our attentions, our affections, and the artist himself our late appreciation.

And that may well be the crux of the matter, the precedence and preeminence of the song: Karl's a talented player and a gifted writer, but it's his uncanny ability - his gift - to create music wherein neither craft outshines the happy junction, the moment of music enjoyed by him and us alike."