Latest News | Ruth Purves Smith

“Epic” is so overused these days, but it really describes my almost 10,000 km drive through America. Firstly, I want to THANK EVERYONE profusely who helped and encouraged me on my journey!! As a child, I REALLY wanted to be a long haul truck driver. This trip I proved to myself that I could have been one…of course, behind the wheel of a Peterbilt 389! 😉

My adventure took me to Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. My mission was to attend the Folk Alliance International Conference, which was chaotic and wonderful… live music in every room on three floors of the Crown Centre Westin Hotel. I have a new album coming out at the end of the summer, and I garnered some interest in promoting and radio tracking for it… more on that soon!

I performed five showcases at the conference, and discovered some amazing artists, some old friends, others, brand new to me. Check out The Clements Brothers, Helene Cronin, Over The Moon, Scarlet Butler, Monica Taylor and John Moreland… to name a few!! The skies were clear, the roads were dry, I had a great car and the bluebonnets even showed up two weeks early in Texas. The roadside wildflowers there were spectacular.

Anyway, America is still huge and beautiful. I am so very fortunate to have seen so much of it on this excursion. Again, thank you all for helping me do a solo traverse of the spectacular country I covered. It gave me lots of new song fodder. (Obviously, remember that by the time I found out I could write a happy song, it was too late, but I am working on it…the proliferation of new suicide fences everywhere was one thing that struck me….)

Here are some pics from my trip for you! Check out my Gallery page for more.