Following the announcement of new album Vade Mecum, out June 24th, venerable string-player Glenn Jones has shared the playful, heartfelt banjo and fiddle duet "Ruthie's Farewell".
Listen to Ruthie's Farewell now
The piece finds Jones spinning a banjo melody in parallel with longtime friend, former collaborator and esteemed fiddler Ruthie Dornfeld, who gifted Jones his first banjo. Says Jones:
"Ruthie Dornfeld is a long-time friend. When I met her she was regarded as one of New England’s finest fiddlers, playing everything from contradance music to modern improv; old time to music drawn from every corner of the world. (She plays on the first Cul de Sac album.) On a chilly January morning in 1996, after living in the Boston area for 15 years, Ruthie moved back to the land of her birth, settling in Seattle, Washington, where she now lives. I went to say goodbye as she prepared for her cross-country drive. She was circling her Volvo station wagon, which was stuffed to the roof with all her worldly possessions, trying to make room for the last of the things she wanted to take with her. Finally, she gave up – there was simply no room – and so gifted me my first banjo. As we hugged goodbye, it began to snow."
Vade Mecum is available to preorder now on limited-edition translucent red vinyl and CD.