Musical Master: Author, musician, teacher ... John Kruth does it all and he's bringing it here

By Lee B. Roberts

Monday, April 2, 2007 3:40 PM CDT

Journal Times

Like so many kids growing up in the 1960s and '70s, John Kruth wanted to play guitar.

His father - a World War II veteran who came from a poor, working class background and played football in college - wasn't real keen on the idea.

"Music was somewhat of a battle in my family. I wasn't allowed to have a guitar," Kruth said in a recent phone conversation from his home in New York City's Greenwich Village.

As the young New Jersey resident was exposed to the sounds of people like Bill Monroe, Ry Cooder and the Byrds, however, his need to make music only grew stronger.

"When the Beatles appeared on 'The Ed Sullivan Show,' it changed my life," he said. "One day I wanted to play baseball, and the next day, I wanted to get a Beatles haircut and play guitar."

Instead, Kruth went into New York City and bought a round-back mandolin.

"I figured it would be quieter than a guitar, and maybe my father wouldn't hear me practicing," he said. "Besides, the girls seemed to like it. It had that gypsy thing going for it."

Since then, Kruth has gone on to become a multi-instrumentalist who not only plays a mean mandolin but the flute, harmonica, banjo and, yes, the guitar.

Known mainly for his work as a musician and songwriter, his career is actually a many-layered one that includes work as a published poet (his writing has appeared in Rolling Stone magazine and The New York Times), a professor at Manhattan College, a producer of musical events and an author of two biographies - including the recently published "To Live's to Fly: The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt." His skill with words equals his musical talents, and his unique blend of sly wit and compassion comes through in much of what he does.

Brew City ties

Audiences here may be most familiar with Kruth through his work with the Milwaukee-based band Violent Femmes. He met members of the Femmes when they played in New York in the early 1980s and ended up coming to Milwaukee soon after to play with them.

"I was running out of money in New York, and I figured it would be cheaper to live in Milwaukee for awhile," he said. "I got out there and started playing shows with Brian (Ritchie) and the rest of the guys and found I liked it. Milwaukee was a funky, cool place back then. I remember we opened for Donovan at Century Hall."

He liked it well enough to stay until the mid-1990s, when he returned to New York (by way of San Francisco), where he has been living and working ever since.

Midwesterners have another chance to get to know Kruth and his music this month as he makes his way around Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota in a combination CD-release/book signing tour. He played a concert at Milwaukee's Miramar Theater last weekend, surrounded by a few other shows and book signings in the Milwaukee /Madison area. Friday he will perform here at McAuliffe's Pub. Joining him on stage at McAuliffe's will be Jeff Hamilton (Probers, Violent Femmes) on guitar, bass, mandolin; Paul "Evil" Kneevers (Probers, Contusionado) on keyboards, bass, trumpet; and John Sparrow (Violent Femmes, Danglers) on drums and percussion. New York musicologist Jeff Greene will also be on hand, playing a variety of instruments from

India and the Middle East.

New music

Kruth's show here will feature music from his latest CD, "Eva Destruction," a disc produced by Madison's Crustacean Records, that is the culmination of 10 years of writing and refining. He started the project while living in Milwaukee, but wasn't able to finish it back then because of his own struggle with a serious illness, followed by caring for his mother in her final years. Somewhere in between all of that, he was also writing books.

Through that time, Paul Kneevers, whose studio Kruth had made the early recordings in, convinced the New York musician to stop by and lay down a few tracks every time he came through the Midwest.

"He kept telling me I needed to finish it because it was that good, and I told him he was out of his mind," Kruth said.

An impressive list of Milwaukee-based musicians (including Ritchie, Victor DeLorenzo and Sigmund Snopek III) contributed their talents to the cause as well, and eventually Kneevers called Kruth and said he only needed a couple more tracks to complete the package.

"I argued, but he told me to shut up and get on a plane. So I flew out and we sat down and finished it."

The result is a collection of original Kruth songs that a review from New York's Downtown Music Gallery describes with phrases such as "weird, wonderful gem" and with "a great hypnotic groove, incisive, humorous lyrics and a fine didgeridoo drone at the center."

"Kruth's smooth, soothing voice and sharp songwriting make for a potent double whammy," says a publication called Jersey Beat. "The gorgeously fluid, rich and heady melodies artfully blend a wealth of eclectic world music elements into a very tasty and complex synthesis. A real treat."

"I'm very happy with it," Kruth said of "Eva Destruction." "I can't say enough about what Paul did for this project."

More to come

What's next for the madman of the mandolin?

No more biographies, he says. After delving into the lives of jazz saxophone legend Rahsaan Roland Kirk and the self-destructive songwriting genius of Van Zandt, he's done with that kind of research and writing for a while. He is, however, considering a couple other writing projects - one of which focuses more on the sociology surrounding artists, looking at how their writing is inspired by the time in which they live. He also recently returned from a six week trip to India where he studied with local musicians, including mandolin virtuoso Upalappu Srivinas. Kruth met Srivinas years ago when the child prodigy played in Milwaukee and had been invited to go to India to play with him several times since then. This was the first year he had an opportunity to do so.

"I practiced and practiced, but it didn't matter - it was like playing tennis with Agassi," he said. "It was great to play with him, but after a while, I realized that I would have had to have been chained to a chair, practicing 26 hours a day to keep up."

Still, it was a very valuable experience, Kruth said. Rather than leading him down a new path to Indian music, it has put him back on the path toward what he wants to accomplish in American music, he said.

"It made me reflect more on what I am about. I love that music deeply, but I don't love it enough to make a complete change. My whole thing is a real juggling act. It is all about playing different instruments and seeing how it all works together."

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