JOHN KRUTH

JOHN KRUTH

With ten solo albums to his credit John Kruth is a singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist who plays mandolin, guitar, banjo, flute, harmonica and sitar. John also leads the nine-piece New York based world music ensemble TriBeCaStan, who have recorded seven albums to date. As a sideman Kruth has performed and collaborated with Laurie Anderson, Violent Femmes, John Prine, King Missile, Hal Willner, Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, Elizabeth Swados, Sam Shepard and Ornette Coleman. Kruth recently recorded his next album in Spoleto, Italy, backed by the rollicking folk-rock aggregation the Società dei Musici.
John Kruth is also the author of three musical biographies to date including Bright Moments – The Life and Legacy of Rahsaan Roland Kirk (2000 – Welcome Rain), To Live’s To Fly – The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt (recipient of the ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award – 2007 – DaCapo Press), and Rhapsody in Black – The Life & Music of Roy Orbison (2013 – BackBeat/Hal Leonard Books). This Bird Has Flown – The Enduring Beauty of Rubber Soul 50 Years On – a history and analysis of the Beatles’ 6th ground-breaking album, was published in November 2015 by BackBeat/Hal Leonard Books. John’s most recent book A Friend of the Devil – the Glorification of the Outlaw in Song from Robin Hood to Rap was published in September of 2017.
As a music journalist Kruth’s articles have appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Progressive, Wire (UK), No Depression, Sing Out!, Wax Poetics, Folk Roots (UK), Rave (India) and So Jazz (Switzerland).
For the past ten years John has taught the History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, History of Jazz and Introduction to World Music as an Adjunct Professor of Music at Manhattan College and the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, New York, (where he currently teaches).