Ruth Minnikin

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Ruth Minnikin and her Bandwagon get ready to start recording with Andrew Watt in April.

Ruth nominated for ’Best Female Album’ and ’Best Folk Album’ at the 2007 Nova Scotia Music Awards.

Ruth performed at 2007 international conferences ECMA, CMW, NXNE and SXSW

"...Contained in a hand-sewn, ink-stamped canvas case, ’Folk Art’ has no pretension – it is as independent as indie comes. But Minnikin has had her share of major record labels. Her pop band, Booming Airplanes, was signed to EMI during the Halifax pop explosion of the ’90s, and her side project The Heavy Blinkers, is big in Japan. She made two albums and toured the UK and the US with alt-country quintet The Guthries, who have shared the stage with David Byrne and Calexico. She’s happy to go the independent route now, but admits that labels do have benefits. "Not everyone is a motivated, e-mailing junkie like me", says Ruth, who is her own booker, producer, publicist and manager. She has crossed Canada, coast to coast countless times...

Folk Art is an appropriate title for the French horn, bass clarinet and banjo laden album, which also features her brother, Gabriel Minnikin on vocals, guitar and mandolin. "I look at art and music as being the same thing", says Ruth, a recent graduate of The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

Ruth’s remarkable voice drifts through these quirky, cutely beautiful numbers. ’Southern Misfortune’ deals with post-hurricane New Orleans, ’Nanny Jones’ with the death of her grandmother, and ’Admirable Admiral’ with difficult audiences. "It’s about playing in loud bars and seeing other quiet musicians doing their passion – putting themselves out there, playing their little ditties that came from their hearts. I feel like I really don’t have a choice in the matter – my music and art is just something i’ve got to do."
Penguin Eggs, AB, Mary Beth Carty, Oct. 2007

"Canadian country gal Ruth Minnikin just gets better and better. Beautifully presented in a stamped canvas sleeve, third LP Folk Art (4 stars) finds her shifting further from the sweet country-folk of earlier work into the darker recesses of rural American tradition. A bony set of tunes veering from freakshow carnival nightmares ("Bad Dreams Pt.1") through N’awlins jazz ("Chicken Cooped Up In Country Music") to spare parlour folk ("Song Mill"). See www.ruthminnikin.ca for details."
Uncut, UK, Rob Hughes, May 2007

"Ruth Minnikin signed with EMI as part of The Booming Airplanes at the age of 17. Ten years and several albums with Nova Scotian Alternative Country band The Guthries later, she issues her third solo record, Folk Art, in a small cloth bag with stenciled artwork, accompanied by a handwritten track sheet. Recorded and mixed in three days, even fans of lo-fi singer songwriters like Jolie Holland or Freakwater might find Folk Art a little minimal, but Minnikin’s cracked vocal skips over perfectly miniaturized songs featuring mandolin, banjo and French horn. Find Folk Art at www.ruthminnikin.ca. There’s a hootenanny in the dolls’ house."
London Sunday Times, UK, Stewart Lee, Feb. 2007

"Play her when you have company and absolutely everyone will ask you who the singer is. Some will say she sounds like a female Leonard Cohen."
Monday Magazine, BC

"Ruth Minnikin has a voice that would harmonize happily with the McGarrigle sisters and writes songs of stark but simple emotion that are evocative of Natalie Merchant or Gillian Welch at their respective best."
Maverick Magazine, UK

When Ruth’s first band, Booming Airplanes signed with EMI she was just 17 years old. Now ten years later, she is a musician, visual artist and businesswoman with an impressive roster of national and international tours both as a member of such bands as Reels, The Guthries, The Heavy Blinkers, and as a solo artist. Her voice can be enjoyed on radio stations in Canada, UK, US, Germany, France, Belgium, Japan and The Netherlands.

’Folk Art’ is an album that follows Ruth’s recording and releasing tradition. The album recorded in 2 days and then mixed in just 1 (with engineer and fellow ex-Heavy Blinker Andrew Watt).

A testament to the high demand for Ruth’s unique voice has found her on over 45 recordings. Some of the big-wigs that Ruth has been lucky enough to share a stage or CD space with are: Beth Orton (UK), David Byrne (UK), Gold Rush and KTB (UK), Orwell (France), The Handsome Family (US), Calexico (US), Kris Kristofferson (US), Joel Plaskett, The Super Friendz, Mike O’Neill, Wax Mannequin, Buck 65 and Blue Rodeo.

Discography
1996 Booming Airplanes – Yarn - singer/songwriter
1998 The Heavy Blinkers – Hooray For everything - singer
2000 The Heavy Blinkers – Self Titled - singer
2000 The Guthries – Off Windmill - singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist
2001 Joel Plaskett – Down at the Khyber - guest singer
2001 Hopeful Monster – Self Titled - guest singer
2001 The Heavy Blinkers – Better Weather - singer
2002 The Havenots (UK) – EP - guest singer, accordion, mandolin
2002 Paul Bellini – We Love Disco - guest singer
2002 The Guthries – Self Titled - singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist
2003 Ruth Minnikin – Live EP - singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist
2003 Heavy Blinkers – Papa Nez – Tribute to Michael Nesmith
2003 Heavy Blinkers – Split Single with Orwell (FR)
2004 The Heavy Blinkers – The Night And I Are Still So Young - singer
2004 Gabriel Minnikin – Hard Feelings - guest singer, accordion, mandolin
2004 Jason Haywood – Nothing Stays the Same - guest singer, accordion
2004 Reels - EP - guest singer
2004 The Hurtin’ Unit - accordion
2004 Ruth Minnikin – Marooned and Blue - singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist
2005 The Hylozoists - guest singer
2005 Dale Murray – Brighter Lives, Darker Side - guest singer/songwriter
2005 Kate Maki – The Sun Will Find Us - guest singer, accordion
2005 Soundtrack to film – The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico - singer
2005 KTB (UK) – Bluebird - guest singer
2005 James Lyons Compilation (UK) - guest singer/songwriter
2005 Mid-Winter Night’s Dream – singer/songwriter
2005 Jonathan Andrews – Halifax Indie Rock - guest singer
2005 Norma Macdonald - guest singer, accordion
2005 Old Man Luedecke - Hinderland - guest singer
2005 Mid-Autumn Night’s Dream - singer/songwriter
2006 The Divorcees - guest singer
2006 Ruth Minnikin – Folk Art - singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist
2006 The Hylozoists - guest singer
2006 Johnny Stevens - guest singer, accordion
2007 Orwell (FR) - guest singer
2007 Gabriel Minnikin (UK) - guest singer, keys
2007 Reels – Autumn Country - bass, singer, keys, percussion
2007 The Inbreds Tribute Album – contributed song
2007 Adam Puddington - organ, accordion, singer
2008 Thrush Hermit Tribute Album - contributed song
2008 The Russian Futurists - guest singer

solo albums
Ruth Minnikin and her Bandwagon - R n' B EP - 2008 (Sept)
Ruth Minnikin - Folk Art - 2006
Ruth Minnikin - Marooned and Blue - 2004
Ruth Minnikin - Live EP - 2003

Stream from - www.radio3.cbc.ca/bands/Ruth-Minnikin

EPK - www.sonicbids.com/ruthminnikin

www.myspace.com/ruthminnikin