Profile by Brad Balfour
Most kids, when they embark on a musical trajectory, focus on making pop hits, club gigging and eventually radio. At the very least. Supposedly, they hope for a career that means big tours, private jets and endorsements on TV and elsewhere. In actuality, our lives and theirs are more likely enriched when musicians, songwriters and singers craft sounds that serve broader audiences and a wider range of interests than just pop hit making.
So when Ruth Weber received her Bachelor of Music degree (from San Diego State University) and a Master of Music (from California State University, Northridge — CSUN), she knew she’d follow her own path to acoustical salvation. Rather than go the route of being in one rock band or jazz combo hoping for pop success, she did it her way.
As a classical musician, Weber has performed internationally as well as in the U.S. She’s worked as an accompanist/coach with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, Opera Aguascalientes, CSUN, The San Fernando Valley Men’s Choir, and, as a recording artist with the Marantz Pianocorder Division. And, as the Artistic Director for Jean Will Presents… She directed and produced opera concerts and classical music events.
Weber, as Artistic Director/Conductor of the award-winning San Diego Jewish Men’s Choir for the past nine years, she presided over the creation of three award winning albums. Their 2015 CD, “KOCHI: A Celebration of the History of the Jews in India, “debuted at #3 on the Billboard World Music charts, received two Global Music Award medals, and won the Akademia Music Award for Best World Beat Album. She then led the group on two tours in 2018.
In that year, Weber formed Ruth and Emilia with her daughter — their children’s educational music duo. Their albums, “The Spaceship That Fell in My Backyard” and “Kokowanda Bay” garnered many awards including the Parent’s Choice Award, the Mom’s Choice GOLD Award, L.A. Music Critics Award, the Clouzine International Music Award, Grand Prize in the Hollywood Music in Media Awards (childrens), Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the NAPPA Award, and many more. The duo toured the west coast in the summers of 2019, 2021 and 2022.
As a Grammy voter and an ASCAP member, her songs have been recorded in the U.S. and abroad, and she’s been a winner of the New York Pro/Am Songwriting Competition, The Canadian Songwriting Competition, the Jewish American Songwriting Competition, the Radio Music Awards, The John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the Global Peace Song Awards and the Shalshelet Music Festival, to name a few. Her tunes have appeared in film and print music. She was the choral arranger and conductor for a feature film, 2019’s “One Little Finger,” as well as for the Billboard Charting UNESCO project, “Action Moves People United.”
The 60-something is also a music instructor at Palomar College and San Diego Miramar College in the Southern California area, serves as the director of two choral ensembles and maintains a private studio.
Now I got to know of Weber, not through a casual discovery process but because of the healing work she did. In taking my friend Mike Greenly’s poignant poem/lyrics written as a tribute to master deejay Tony Smith (who had a dance music program on the digital radio network), his late husband who suddenly died of cancer last year. She took his assemblage — “The Music to his Words” — and composed music to it. Once I heard that, I discovered there was a lot more to Ruth’s audio existence. The results of that exploration are as follows.
Q: What songs are a model for your own songwriting?
RW: There are so many songs that inspire me each time I hear them. I think I tend to gravitate to songs that have some kind of universal meaning and whose chords really illustrate the text well. One of these excellent songs would be,”Second Hand White Baby Grand,” from SMASH by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. There are so many wonderfully illustrative chord changes here, and the words have a deeper meaning behind them, They are very touching and remind me not to write-off people who are older and have been around a long time. They still have something beautiful to give to others and are a treasure!
Being a pianist myself, and someone who is getting older, I really relate to this song. I purchased my piano teacher’s old Steinway piano right after college, and even though it doesn’t have all the same beauty as a new piano it still has a lot of life and music left to give to me and it will always be one of my treasures.
Another inspiring song is an oldie but goodie, “It Goes Like it Goes,” by Broadway hitmakers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. The song won an Oscar in 1979 for best music from a film and was the theme from the movie “Norma Rae.” The instrumental introduction to this song is so unusual and beautiful that it just pulls me in right away. The melody has a lot of leaps in it which add some heartfelt pull to the well-written and hopeful text. It doesn’t hurt that Jennifer Warnes does an amazing job of interpreting this text as well!
Q: What songs are, in general, a model for brilliant songwriting?
RW: Recently my daughter introduced me to the wonderful music of Jeff Blumenkrantz. If you haven’t checked him out yet don’t miss his stellar song,” He’ll Never Get What I Do.” If you are a composer/ musician with non-musician friends, you will definitely relate to this song! Music is my life, just as it must be Jeff’s. Relatability is one of the most important aspects of this song to me. The words are really well-crafted and the chords have so many twists, turns and unexpected pauses you will be sad when the ride ends!
You can check the song out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu4sPj_52S0.
In my mind I can’t think of a better example of brilliant song writing than this particular song. It inspires me to avoid predictability in my own chord progressions and take my time and give full meaning to all of the words.
Another song I always come back to, and have to mention, is a beautiful song that Trisha Yearwood sings by Prestwood Hugh called, “The Song Remembers When.” Again, I think everyone can relate to this song. You hear a song on the radio, and it takes you back to another place and time in a way that nothing else can. But the composer doesn’t write, “the music helps you go back,” or something dull like that, he writes that the SONG is the one that remembers when, like the song is a person or something. That is the brilliance of the lyrics in that song.
Q: Sometimes a song doesn’t hit you until you’ve really had time to review the lyrics. In other cases, the lyrics didn’t matter — the song was just great on its own merits. Take for example, the Troggs hit, “Wild Thing.” Do you have tunes in mind for either category?
RW: Yes! When I first heard Michael McDonald sing his song, “Taking it To the Streets,” I was immediately taken by the instrumental tracks and the hook of the chorus. It is an uptempo song and so I just assumed it was a happy song! One day, I looked up the lyrics and saw that they were about the homeless people we see on the streets everyday. The words really hit me and have made me appreciate the greatness of the song even more.
As for the song where the lyrics don’t really matter, but the song is just great on its own merits, I would have to say, for me, that song would be Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow.” The song is so catchy that it just sticks in my mind for days, but when I pay attention to the words I always think,” that guy must have been stoned out of his mind when he wrote that song! But, that’s actually one of the things that intrigues me about the song! I can’t stop wondering what he was thinking when he wrote that song!!!
Q: What do you think makes a good song?
RW: A very wise songwriting teacher of mine, the late Jack Segal, once told me that you will know your song is good if it is equally comfortable in a variety of genres. I try to test out my songs and see if they sound good in different styles myself, and it is a very good tool! Another thing I try to aim for is having some kind of “hook,” in the song, whether that is just a musical riff that is catchy, or a melodic or lyric “hook” that catches the listener’s attention. Something that is relatable or has an important message is also something I strive for.
Q: How do you decide how simple or complex a song’s production should be?
RW: I think that the complexity of the song’s production should enhance the message and melody/harmony of the song and not detract from or overpower it. Often times I will hear an “unplugged” version of a song and think,”Wow these lyrics are wonderfully crafted and the message is so important! I totally didn’t listen to the lyrics before because I was so busy listening to the production! To me, the production should help illustrate the text and the mood you are trying to create. There is a kind of “magic” that happens when you achieve a good balance of this. That is what I try to shoot for when producing a song.
Q: Do you think the music business is particularly ageist or like the rest of society?
RW: I think that it depends on which part of the music business you are working in. As music is a reflection of society, I think that, like people themselves, the music business is always looking for the “next cool thing” to promote at least in the “pop” music genres. But, if you are writing or performing music in some of the genres like folk music, new age, classical, or even children’s music, I don’t think age is as important. In these categories I feel that the writers and artists who have been around for a long time tend to have a following that remains constant and that continue to care about the artist. I especially love that in the children’s music genre — one of the categories I work in with my daughter Emilia — I can be an artist in my 60s and just put on an alien costume and find that the kids see past my age. The songs I write in this genre constantly appeal to new audiences since there is a steady turn-over of young children who want to learn about aliens and spaceships!
Q: You have had a long career, what do you consider its highlights?
RW: It is hard to pick the highlights since I have been involved in so many aspects of music, including music education, conducting, songwriting, arranging, and directing. Recording the children’s albums and classical/crossover albums with my children and the 3 Jewish choral music albums with the San Diego Jewish Men’s Choir have definitely been highlights, and the cool thing about the albums is that when I play them they bring back all the wonderful memories I made creating them, and performing live versions of them afterwards.
The men’s choir’s KOCHI album, a collaboration with Grammy winning Indian artist Ricky Kej, charted in the top 5 on two Billboard music charts. That was a real thrill for our group. We also appeared on one of his subsequent albums.
Another choir I formed was featured on several UNESCO world peace albums, and is on the soundtrack for the feature film, “One Little Finger” — it’s about ability in disability produced by Rupam Sarmah. Hearing all our music in the soundtrack and seeing my name and the name of all my choir members in the credits, was definitely a thrill.
My son, Enrico Lopez-Yañez, is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Nashville Symphony. We’ve written many songs together, and he’s arranged a few of them for a full orchestra. I have been to several live performances of them, which he has conducted. That was definitely very exciting as well! I have directed several sold-out opera productions with full orchestra, and staging, and some of these performances raised money for good causes, like saving a counseling program in a public school system. That was very satisfying in a different way.
Q: When did you know you were committed to a career in music and talk about the struggles to maintain the effort?
RW: I knew I wanted to have a career in music from a very young age. When I was young my mother would sit my sister and I down on the piano bench with her, and we’d sing songs. Those were some of my happiest times, and I knew then that I always wanted to keep making more music like that! Unlike a lot of other musicians, my parents were very encouraging and supportive of me becoming a musician. They could see all the joy it brought me and gave me voice, piano and guitar lessons. I have always worked several jobs at one time in order to support myself as a musician That’s very difficult and tiring, but I do enjoy the variety of having some teaching, directing, and performing work going on. I am never bored, and there’s always some exciting project to work on around the corner.
Q: What led you to select Mike Greenly’s story and lyrics to create music to it?
RW: I actually received an email from Mike where he told me how his husband had passed, and how difficult it had been, since Tony was “The Music to his Words.” (Tony had a legendary music career and was one of the most influential people in the disco movement.) When I saw that phrase I immediately heard music to that line in my head, and I told him he should write the rest of the words and I would put them to music. Mike was really excited about the idea, and we had always planned on collaborating at some point in time. We eventually changed the title to “The Music to My Life,” and it is a positive song that we think is a comfort to all those grieving the loss of a soul-mate, or someone they loved very deeply.
Q: For some music is a business, for others it’s a cause, where do you lie on this spectrum?
RW: I guess music is a little bit of a business for me because I do make my living from it, but it really is so much more. It is my life, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else besides making music. Many times I have been able to use my music to help a cause I believe in, and that is wonderful. Other times it is just like a friend that is always there for me when I need it. That’s why I keep coming back to it.
A great philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Without music life would be a mistake.”
I think he was right.
Wikipedia- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Hertz_Weber
Website- www.RuthMakesMusic.com