We recently connected with Greta Ruth and have shared our conversation below.

Greta, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on is my recent album, Holy Omen. It’s about the sacred signs we can recognize in our lives that let us know we are on the path that’s meant for us. That might be seeing a hawk overhead, seeing a red rose, or seeing two cardinals kiss. In the songs I work through some of these signs and moments in my own life, and the album marks a turning point where I realized that love in its true form should be simple and sweet, not complex and aching. In other words, it’s about meeting and falling in love with my husband. The fact that he’s the one who recorded the songs to reel-to-reel tape and then mixed them makes it extra meaningful to me. The songs do move through other themes like finding the proper way to make self-sacrifices, letting go of the past, and finding joy, as well.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am an experimental folk singer/songwriter. I play acoustic, fingerstyle guitar, and I love finding unexpected chords and harmonies to follow the emotional story of each song that I write. I’ve been playing guitar for 18 years, but I’ve writing songs for as long as I can remember. Lyrics are at the core of what I do, because they’re the clearest way I have of offering my experiences in a way that might be able to help or heal others the way that writing them have helped and healed me. When I write, it feels like I am praying.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I had been more open to home recording as a final product early on and releasing things that I made on my own. I recorded a lot of demos that, because I made them myself, I never felt were good enough to share. I think there’s a lot of creative empowerment in realizing you can actually use whatever tools you have at your disposal to record and that the magic comes from the necessity, from working within the boundaries of your situation and also from not waiting for permission or specific finances to make what you want to make. So many amazing albums and songs were made in this way.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I would say that I’m not really in the driver’s seat in so many ways, and that’s how I know I’m on the right track. I don’t write music to prove something or to accomplish anything in particular, I write because it’s like breathing or eating. I think creativity is its own mission because it heals us, it connects us to each other, and it reminds us of the divine and that we, too, are creatures. It’s the nature of the human creature to create with our minds and hands, and for me that’s writing songs, among other things. So my songs are an offering, they are what I have from deep within to give to the world, whether they land on a few ears or on many.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gretaruth.com/
• Instagram: @greta_ruth
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@gretaruth?si=mYeVN-XuLyidgKCr

Image Credits

Elena Stanton, Jim Melcher, Dan Michener, Jon Behm