Ruby Joe was a Christian band from

Ventura Ventura (Italian, Portuguese and Spanish for "fortune") may refer to: Places ; Brazil * Boa Ventura de São Roque, a municipality in the state of Paraná, southern Brazil * Boa Ventura, Paraíba, a municipality in the state of Paraíba, in t ...

, California. Their debut album was cited as

psychobilly Psychobilly is a rock music fusion genre that fuses elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It's been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ram ...

, but their second played squarely as

swing revival The swing revival, also called retro swing and neo-swing, was a renewed interest in swing music, beginning around 1989 and reaching a peak from the early/mid to late 1990s. The music was generally rooted in the big bands of the swing era of the ...

due to the appearance of the horn section of

Royal Crown Revue Royal Crown Revue was a band formed in 1989 in Los Angeles, California. They have been credited with starting the swing revival The swing revival, also called retro swing and neo-swing, was a renewed interest in swing music, beginning around 1 ...

. Both were released on

Sub•Lime Records Sub•Lime Records was a short lived Christian music, Christian record label. They were a sublabel of Essential Records (Christian), Essential Records, and by extension Brentwood Music (Based in Brentwood, Tennessee, Brentwood, Tennessee) and th ...

, in 1998 and 1999. The bands' name is a combination of the founder's name and that of Ruby's Diner in

Huntington Beach Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 during the 2020 census, maki ...

, where the band was formed.

Background

Prior to Ruby Joe, Greg Russinger and Joe Baugh played in a band called Strugglefish. Russinger was a

youth pastor Youth ministry, also commonly referred to as youth group, is an age-specific religious ministry of faith groups or other religious organizations, usually from ages 12 to 30, whose mission is to involve and engage with young people who attend the ...

at Horizon

Foursquare Church The Foursquare Church is an Evangelical Pentecostal Christian denomination founded in 1923 by preacher Aimee Semple McPherson. The headquarters are in Los Angeles, California, United States. History The church has its origins in a vision of " ...

, Ventura, CA. In 1996 the band gained the bass talents of Amber Reeves and the drumming of Christina Hock, forming an all-female rhythm section. Ruby Joe's debut release, ''Sinking the Eight Ball'' (1998), drew upon the production talents of

Mike Knott Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

and

Gene Eugene Gene Andrusco (April 6, 1961 – March 20, 2000), better known as Gene Eugene, was a Canadian-born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musician. Andrusco was best known as the leader of the alternative rock band Adam Again, a member ...

. The band's sound wound up being somewhere between the

Stray Cats Stray Cats are an American rockabilly band formed in 1979 by guitarist and vocalist Brian Setzer, double bassist Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles ...

and

The Reverend Horton Heat The Reverend Horton Heat is the stage name of American musician James C. Heath (born 1959) as well as the name of his Dallas, Texas-based psychobilly trio. Heath is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. A ''Prick'' magazine reviewer called Heat ...

, or "like a rockabilly version of

..." Russinger wrote most of the lyrics, addressing issues such as racism, the underground church in China,

materialism Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical material ...

temptation Temptation is a desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals.Webb, J.R. (Sep 2014). Incorporating Spirituality into Psychology of temptation: Conceptualization, measurement, and clinical implications. Sp ...

, and internal spiritual battles with our sinful nature. Not all content was well received; three tracks in particular caused the band trouble. "Rock 'n' Roll & My Baby", which deal with

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...

spiritualism, and "Death Train", dealing with the victims of

the holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. Finally Russinger dealt with his own former

speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quantity ...

addiction in "Spiritual Heroin", describing how

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religi ...

can fill the need created by addictions, which one reviewer described as a "slightly disturbing metaphor." All of this led to trouble with the Christian music establishment; the album was pulled from some Christian book stores and the band disallowed from playing at a

Christian music festival A Christian music festival (also known as a Jesus music festival or simply a Jesus festival) is a music festival held by the Christian community, in support of performers of Christian music. The festivals are characterized by more than just music; ...

. On their second release, ''Hot Rod Deluxe'' (1999), the band added elements of

, leading one reviewer to refer to it as "swingabilly". This effort was produced by

Billy Zoom Billy Zoom (born Stuart Tyson Kindell; February 20, 1948) is an American guitarist, best known as one of the founders of the punk rock band X. At 68 years old, Zoom was diagnosed in 2015 with an aggressive form of bladder cancer and began imme ...

(of X) and joined by the horn section of

, including Bill Ungerman, Mando Dorame, and Scotty Steen. This release is generally considered to be their better effort, more focused than their debut. The lyrics also shift in attitude from their first album; on ''Hot Rod Deluxe'' it became "easier to see the biblical point" that is trying to be made. The band also appeared on the 1999 Jackson Rubio various artists compilation ''Jackson/Rubio's Rockabilly and Western Gospel Hymns''. This album contained reworked spirituals and standard hymns such as "

Amazing Grace "Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779 with words written in 1772 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is an immensely popular hymn, particularly in the United States, where it is used for bot ...

"; Ruby Joe provided renditions of "

Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" (or alternatively "Joshua Fought de Battle of Jericho", "Joshua Fit the Battle" or just Joshua and various other titles) is a well-known African-American spiritual. The lyrics allude to the biblical story of the ...

" and "Walk Dem Golden Stairs". Reviews of the band's performance were mixed; One reviewer called the band's cuts "standouts", while another stated that their rendition of "Joshua" "grows fairly long in the tooth by the song's end and easily pales in comparison to, say,

Elvis Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the " King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His ener ...

' more passionate and varied arrangement from his gospel magnum opus ''

His Hand in Mine ''His Hand in Mine'' is the fifth studio album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released on November 23, 1960 by RCA Victor in mono and stereo, catalog number LPM/LSP 2328. It was the first of three gospel albums that Presley wo ...

''." Russinger later provided lead vocals on the

Scott Blackwell Scott Blackwell is a Christian dance music artist, generally credited with being the first artist to produce such music for the Christian marketplace. In addition to releasing his own albums, Blackwell has produced many other albums, and has f ...

produced album ''Punk Praise Volume 1'' (2001, Abundant Praise records). The disc featured musicians from worship teams around Southern California.

Members

*Joe Baugh *Christina Hock – drums *Amber Reeves – bass *Greg Russinger – lead vocalist and guitarist

Discography

*1997: ''Year After Year'' (EP, independent) *1998: '' Sinking the Eight Ball'' *1999: '' Hot Rod Deluxe''

References

External links

* {{Authority control Christian rock groups from California Musical groups established in 1996 Musical groups from Orange County, California American psychobilly musical groups Swing revival ensembles