Amber Rubarth
| Amber Rubarth | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Amber Kristine Rubarth |
| Born | September 21, 1982 |
| Occupations | Singer-Songwriter, Composer |
| Instruments | Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Drums |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Website | http://amberrubarth.com/ |
Amber Rubarth (born September 21, 1982) is an American Singer-Songwriter who has independently released 5 albums and 2 EPs. Her newest album "A Common Case of Disappearing," produced by Jacquire King, was released October 4, 2011 and hit #13 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter charts. The album features two duets, "City Starts to Bloom" with Jason Reeves, and "Mirror" with Jason Mraz.
Amber is also one half of the Brooklyn based indie pop group The Paper Raincoat with long-time collaborator Alex Wong.
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[edit] Biography
Rubarth was born in Tustin, California and grew up moving around all throughout California. At 17 years old, she graduated high school and moved to Carson City, Nevada to apprentice at a chainsaw sculpting shop.[1] After three years, following the encouragement of the head instructor Matthew Welter, she quit the apprenticeship to pursue music.[2] She bought a small Martin acoustic guitar and taught herself to play and write songs.[3] Phil Ramone in The Huffington Post describes her style as "part of the new old-soul generation." [4] After starting out at open mics, local coffee shops and small venues, Rubarth soon began touring the U.S. and has now toured nine times throughout Europe and once in Japan.[2] At her concerts, she sings and plays a hollow body Washburn H-15 electric guitar as well as piano. In The Paper Raincoat she sings and plays a Nord Stage keyboard, as well as some guitar and drums. [5]
[edit] Recognition
Amber Rubarth won the Grand Prize in the 2010 NewSong Mountain Stage Contest with her song "Letter From My Lonelier Self." The prize included recording with Grammy Award winning producer Jacquire King (Norah Jones, Kings of Leon, Tom Waits) and a performance on NPR's Mountain Stage. The new album was released September 30, 2011 through the contest organizer NewSong Recordings.[6] Amber Rubarth's song "Washing Day" (co-written with Adam Levy) won 1st Place in the 2006 International Songwriting Competition in the 'Lyrics only' category, judged by Tom Waits, Brian Wilson and Robert Smith. The music video screened at the 2007 SXSW Festival in Austin. [7][8] On May 8, 2008, Bob Boilen chose Rubarth's song "You Will Love This Song" from her second album New Green Lines for his NPR show All Things Considered. He said he was "attracted by her honesty and humor".[9] On August 26, 2009, Tom Robinson featured the song on his BBC Radio show Fresh On the Net in the UK.[10] She was recently listed as #16 in the UK "Music to Die For's Top 100 Favourite Female Vocalists of the Decade"[11] between #17 Gillian Welch and #15 Tori Amos.
Many of her early fans discovered her music on MySpace where she received over 1.7 million plays and was featured in the Top 100 Independent Artists.[12]
[edit] Recent recordings
Amber Rubarth's newest full length record "A Common Case of Disappearing" was released September 30, 2011 on iTunes US and was named a "New and Noteworthy" release, jumping to #13 on the Singer Songwriter charts. It will be released in Europe and Japan early 2012.
A handmade collectors edition of Rubarth's album, Good Mystery, was released on August 21, 2009,[13] to a sold out audience at Joe's Pub in New York City. The collectors edition is a hand-crafted birch wood box with a red wax hummingbird seal on a sliding lid top. A limited edition of 1000 handmade editions sold out almost immediately through pre-orders on her site. The album rose to the #1 best seller spot on Amie Street for digital sales on its release day of August 21, 2009 and stayed in the top spot for 2 weeks.[14]
An EP collaboration with Adam Levy "The Church" was released on December 1, 2009 and also reached the top spot in the Amie Street top 25 records.[15]
Rubarth also created a limited edition handmade version of her "Unfinished Art" EP which consisted of an original blind contour painting by Rubarth pressed onto a hanging handmade canvas with the album and liner notes inserted in the back.
[edit] Tours
Amber Rubarth has toured extensively throughout the US, UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, and Japan.
In May 2009 Rubarth joined Jason Reeves and Brendan James to create "The Vespa Experiment," a musical tour along the California coast in which the three artists traveled on Vespa mopeds, camped, and did community awareness activities for 13 days to spread the message of environmental awareness.[16]
In September 2009, she toured America and Canada supporting Gary Jules and Josh Radin.[13]
On November 23, 2011, Jason Mraz invited Amber to be his special guest at a sold out Carnegie Hall concert. They sang "Lucky" and a new unreleased song they co-wrote called "Rated Ours."
She has also shared the stage with many other well known artists including Loudon Wainwright III, John Oates, Martin Sexton, Ryan Montbleau, Lisa Loeb, Roger McGuinn, Jim Bianco, Sara Bareilles, Joshua Radin, Gary Jules, Brett Dennen and Colbie Caillat.
[edit] The Paper Raincoat
In addition to her solo work, Rubarth formed a band with songwriter Alex Wong, called The Paper Raincoat. Rubarth explained in an interview with The Boston Globe that her solo work tends to be more personal, whereas The Paper Raincoat's songs are more imaginative, involving fictional characters.[17] Their debut EP (Safe in the Sound) was featured as an iTunes Indie Spotlight Artist.[18] In the fall of 2009, they toured the U.S. as support for Vienna Teng,[19] and their music was the subject of CNET's 'The 404' podcast.[20] The album "The Paper Raincoat" was released in October 2009.
[edit] Solo discography
- "Something New" (2005, self)
- "Unfinished Art" EP (2006, self)
- "New Green Lines" (2008, self)
- "Good Mystery" (2009, self)
- "The Church E.P. - split disc with Adam Levy" (2009, self)
- "A Common Case of Disappearing" (2011)
[edit] The Paper Raincoat Discography
- "Safe in the Sound" EP (2009, self)
- "The Paper Raincoat" (2009, self)
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.unsigned.com/amberrubarth
- ^ a b http://sivers.org/amber-rubarth
- ^ Thompson, Peter, "Local musician making 'Something New': Ex-Carson wood sculptor releases first CD," Nevada Appeal, June 15, 2005, accessed October 24, 2009
- ^ Ramone, Phil, and Evin, Danielle, "Dog Ears Music (Deserves to be Heard): Volume 82," The Huffington Post, July 24, 2009, accessed October 24, 2009
- ^ http://www.indieguitarists.com/rubarthmaloneinterviews.htm
- ^ "Brooklyn Singer and Multi-Instrumentalist Amber Rubarth Takes the Top Honor in This Year’s Mountain Stage Newsong Contest" PR Web, accessed November 26, 2010
- ^ "2006 ISC Lyrics Only Winners," International Songwriting Competition, accessed October 26, 2009
- ^ http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20070404194801234
- ^ "All Things Considered: A Great Unknowns Showcase: Bowerbirds, Bell, Port O'Brien, Okay, AU, and More," NPR, accessed October 24, 2009
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/tom_robinsons_introducing/tracklisting_20080811.shtml
- ^ http://musictodiefor.wordpress.com/100-extraordinary-women-favourite-female-vocalists-2000-2009/
- ^ http://MySpace.com/AmberRubarth
- ^ a b http://www.amberrubarth.com/GoodMysteryCOLLECTORS.html
- ^ http://AmieStreet.com/AmberRubarth
- ^ http://amiestreet.com/music/adam-levy/the-church-ep/
- ^ http://www.myspace.com/thevespaexperiment
- ^ Rodman, Sarah, "Raincoat’s a good fit," Boston Globe, July 25, 2009, accessed October 14, 2009
- ^ http://events.sentinelandenterprise.com/cambridge-ma/events/show/88431627-the-paper-raincoat-cd-release
- ^ http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=297844894&blogId=507329738
- ^ Yu, Justin, "The 404 434: Where we don our Paper Raincoat," CNET, September 29, 2009, accessed October 24, 2009
