Amber Rubarth
Encyclopedia
Amber Rubarth is an American Singer-Songwriter
who has independently released 4 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.
. At 17 years old, she moved to Carson City, Nevada
to begin an apprenticeship in chainsaw carving. After three years, following the encouragement of the head instructor Matthew Welter, she quit the apprenticeship to pursue music. She bought a small Martin acoustic guitar and taught herself to play and write songs. Phil Ramone
in The Huffington Post
describes her style as "part of the new old-soul generation." After starting out playing 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. 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, as well as some guitar and drums.
(Norah Jones
, Kings of Leon
, Tom Waits
) and a performance on NPR
's Mountain Stage
. The new album will be released on NewSong Recordings, based out of Brooklyn, NY. 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. 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". On August 26, 2009, Tom Robinson
featured the song on his BBC
Radio show Fresh On the Net in the UK. She was recently listed as #16 in the UK "Music to Die For's Top 100 Favourite Female Vocalists of the Decade" between #17 Gillian Welch
and #15 Tori Amos
.
Many of her fans have discovered her music on MySpace
where she has over 1.7 million plays and was featured in the Top 100 Independent Artists.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
In September 2009, she toured America and Canada supporting Gary Jules
and Josh Radin.
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 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
.
that her solo work tends to be more personal, whereas The Paper Raincoat's songs are more imaginative, involving fictional characters. Their debut EP (Safe in the Sound) was featured as an iTunes
Indie Spotlight Artist. In the fall of 2009, they toured the U.S. as support for Vienna Teng
, and their music was the subject of CNET
's 'The 404' podcast
. The album "The Paper Raincoat" was released in October 2009.
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
who has independently released 4 albums and 2 EPs. Her newest album "A Common Case of Disappearing," produced by Jacquire King
Jacquire King
Jacquire King is a record producer, mix engineer, songwriter/musician, and artist manager. Some of the artists he has worked with include Tom Waits, Modest Mouse, Kings of Leon, Mutemath, Cold War Kids, Norah Jones, Tim Finn and Buddy Guy. He is a multiple Grammy Award winner and nominee...
, 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
Jason Reeves
Jason Reeves is a radio broadcaster and television presenter from New Zealand. He hosts the breakfast show on Auckland's Classic Hits 97.4, previously Jason has hosted the drive show nationwide on Classic Hits and worked on The Edge as breakfast co-host and hosted Headliners on TVNZ, and New...
, and "Mirror" with Jason Mraz
Jason Mraz
Jason Thomas Mraz , also known as Mr. AZ and Mr. Raz, is an American singer-songwriter. Mraz released his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy ", in 2002, but it was not until the release of his second album, "Mr. A-Z", in 2005, that Mraz achieved...
.
Amber is also one half of the Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
based indie pop group The Paper Raincoat with long-time collaborator Alex Wong.
Biography
Rubarth was born in Tustin, CaliforniaTustin, California
-Top employers:According to the City's 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Tustin had a population of 75,540. The population density was 6,816.7 people per square mile...
. At 17 years old, she moved to Carson City, Nevada
Carson City, Nevada
The Consolidated Municipality of Carson City is the capital of the state of Nevada. The words Consolidated Municipality refer to a series of changes in 1969 which abolished Ormsby County and merged all the settlements contained within its borders into Carson City. Since that time Carson City has...
to begin an apprenticeship in chainsaw carving. After three years, following the encouragement of the head instructor Matthew Welter, she quit the apprenticeship to pursue music. She bought a small Martin acoustic guitar and taught herself to play and write songs. Phil Ramone
Phil Ramone
Phil Ramone is a South-African violinist, composer, recording engineer, and record producer.-Biography:As a young child in South Africa, Ramone was a musical prodigy, beginning to play the violin at age three and performing for Queen Elizabeth II at age ten...
in The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
describes her style as "part of the new old-soul generation." After starting out playing 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. 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, as well as some guitar and drums.
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 KingJacquire King
Jacquire King is a record producer, mix engineer, songwriter/musician, and artist manager. Some of the artists he has worked with include Tom Waits, Modest Mouse, Kings of Leon, Mutemath, Cold War Kids, Norah Jones, Tim Finn and Buddy Guy. He is a multiple Grammy Award winner and nominee...
(Norah Jones
Norah Jones
Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress.In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies...
, Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon is an American rock band that originated in Albion, Oklahoma but formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Anthony Caleb Followill , Ivan Nathan Followill and Michael Jared Followill Kings of Leon is an American rock band that originated in Albion,...
, Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
) and a performance on NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's Mountain Stage
Mountain Stage
Mountain Stage is a two-hour music radio show, first aired in 1983, produced by WV Public Broadcasting and distributed worldwide by National Public Radio and the Voice of America's satellite radio service. Hosted by Larry Groce, the program showcases diverse music, from the traditional to modern...
. The new album will be released on NewSong Recordings, based out of Brooklyn, NY. Amber Rubarth's song "Washing Day" (co-written with Adam Levy
Adam Levy
Adam Levy is an accomplished jazz guitarist and singer-songwriter. Levy has recorded with Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman, Sex Mob, and Amos Lee, and has released several solo albums as well. is his latest....
) won 1st Place in the 2006 International Songwriting Competition
International Songwriting Competition
The International Songwriting Competition is an annual song contest based in Nashville, TN, whose mission is to provide the opportunity for both aspiring and established songwriters to have their songs heard in a professional, international arena. ISC is designed to nurture the musical talent of...
in the 'Lyrics only' category, judged by Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
and Robert Smith
Robert Smith (musician)
Robert James Smith is an English musician. He is the lead singer, guitar player and principal songwriter of the rock band The Cure, and its only constant member since its founding in 1976...
. The music video screened at the 2007 SXSW Festival in Austin. On May 8, 2008, Bob Boilen
Bob Boilen
Bob Boilen was the director of the NPR show All Things Considered and is the current host's and the creator of NPR's online music show All Songs Considered. Boilen writes music with electronics and friend Michael Barron; both were founding members of the psychedelic dance band , for which Boilen...
chose Rubarth's song "You Will Love This Song" from her second album New Green Lines for his NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
show All Things Considered
All Things Considered
All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
. He said he was "attracted by her honesty and humor". On August 26, 2009, Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson is an English singer-songwriter, bassist and radio presenter, better known for the hits "Glad to Be Gay", "2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with his Tom Robinson Band...
featured the song on his BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Radio show Fresh On the Net in the UK. She was recently listed as #16 in the UK "Music to Die For's Top 100 Favourite Female Vocalists of the Decade" between #17 Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely...
and #15 Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
.
Many of her fans have discovered her music on MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
where she has over 1.7 million plays and was featured in the Top 100 Independent Artists.
Recent recordings
A handmade collectors edition of Rubarth's latest solo album, Good Mystery, was released on August 21, 2009, to a sold out audience at Joe's PubJoe's Pub
Joe's Pub at Public Theater is a nightclub that hosts live performances regularly. The venue, which is a non-profit operation, is located at 425 Lafayette Street near Astor Place in Manhattan, New York City...
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. The album rose to the #1 best seller spot on Amie Street
Amie Street
Amie Street was an indie online music store and social network service created in 2006 by Brown University seniors Elliott Breece, Elias Roman, and Joshua Boltuch, in Providence, Rhode Island...
for digital sales on its release day of August 21, 2009 and stayed in the top spot for 2 weeks.
An EP collaboration with Adam Levy "The Church" was released on December 1, 2009 and also reached the top spot in the Amie Street
Amie Street
Amie Street was an indie online music store and social network service created in 2006 by Brown University seniors Elliott Breece, Elias Roman, and Joshua Boltuch, in Providence, Rhode Island...
top 25 records.
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.
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
Jason Reeves
Jason Reeves is a radio broadcaster and television presenter from New Zealand. He hosts the breakfast show on Auckland's Classic Hits 97.4, previously Jason has hosted the drive show nationwide on Classic Hits and worked on The Edge as breakfast co-host and hosted Headliners on TVNZ, and New...
and Brendan James
Brendan James
Brendan James is an American singer-songwriter originally from Derry, New Hampshire, who started in New York City but is currently residing in California...
to create "The Vespa Experiment," a musical tour along the California coast in which the three artists traveled on Vespa
Vespa
Vespa is an Italian brand of scooter manufactured by Piaggio. The name means wasp in Italian.The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A...
mopeds, camped, and did community awareness activities for 13 days to spread the message of environmental awareness.
In September 2009, she toured America and Canada supporting Gary Jules
Gary Jules
Gary Jules is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his cover of Tears for Fears' third single "Mad World", which he recorded together with friend Michael Andrews for the film Donnie Darko. It became the UK Christmas Number One single of 2003...
and Josh Radin.
On November 23, 2011, Jason Mraz
Jason Mraz
Jason Thomas Mraz , also known as Mr. AZ and Mr. Raz, is an American singer-songwriter. Mraz released his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy ", in 2002, but it was not until the release of his second album, "Mr. A-Z", in 2005, that Mraz achieved...
invited Amber to be his special guest at a sold out Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
concert. They sang "Lucky" and a new song they co-wrote called "Rated Ours."
She has also shared the stage with many other well known artists including Loudon Wainwright III
Loudon Wainwright III
Loudon Snowden Wainwright III is a Grammy Award-winning American songwriter, folk singer, humorist, and actor. He is the father of musicians Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche, brother of Sloan Wainwright, and the former husband of the late folk singer Kate McGarrigle.To...
, John Oates
John Oates
John William Oates is an American rock, R&B and soul guitarist, musician, songwriter and producer best known as half of the rock and soul duo Hall & Oates ....
, Martin Sexton
Martin Sexton
Martin Sexton is an American singer-songwriter and producer originally from Syracuse, New York.- Early life :Sexton grew up the tenth of twelve children in a working class Irish-American family. He acquired his first guitar, a Sears & Roebuck acoustic, at the age of 14 and later played in local...
, Ryan Montbleau
Ryan Montbleau
Ryan Michael Montbleau is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He annually tours across the U.S. with the Ryan Montbleau Band.-Background:...
, Lisa Loeb
Lisa Loeb
Lisa Anne Loeb is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She launched her career in 1994 with the song, "Stay ". She was the first artist to have a number one single in the United States while not signed to a recording contract.Loeb's efforts now include music, film, television, voice-over...
, Roger McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
, Jim Bianco
Jim Bianco
Jim Bianco is a critically acclaimed independent musician, singer, songwriter and producer based in Los Angeles, California.-Early life:...
, Sara Bareilles
Sara Bareilles
Sara Beth Bareilles is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She achieved mainstream success in 2007 with the hit single "Love Song", which brought her into the number one spot on the Billboard Pop 100 chart. She has sold over 1 million records in the United States alone and has been...
, Joshua Radin
Joshua Radin
Joshua Radin is an American recording artist, songwriter and actor. He was born and raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and is of Swedish, German, Polish, Russian, and Austrian descent. He studied drawing and painting at Northwestern University, following his college years with stints as an art...
, Gary Jules
Gary Jules
Gary Jules is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his cover of Tears for Fears' third single "Mad World", which he recorded together with friend Michael Andrews for the film Donnie Darko. It became the UK Christmas Number One single of 2003...
, Brett Dennen
Brett Dennen
Brett Dennen is a folk/pop singer and songwriter from Northern California.-Biography:Brett Dennen attended UC Santa Cruz from 2000–2004, where he was a student at Kresge College....
and Colbie Caillat
Colbie Caillat
Colbie Marie Caillat is an American pop singer-songwriter and guitarist from Malibu, California. She debuted in 2007 with Coco, which included hit singles "Bubbly", "Realize", and "The Little Things". In 2008, she recorded a duet with Jason Mraz, "Lucky", which won a Grammy. Caillat released her...
.
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 GlobeThe Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
that her solo work tends to be more personal, whereas The Paper Raincoat's songs are more imaginative, involving fictional characters. Their debut EP (Safe in the Sound) was featured as an iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
Indie Spotlight Artist. In the fall of 2009, they toured the U.S. as support for Vienna Teng
Vienna Teng
Cynthia Yih Shih , better known by her stage name Vienna Teng, is a Taiwanese American pianist and singer-songwriter based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Teng has released four studio albums: Waking Hour , Warm Strangers , Dreaming Through the Noise , and Inland Territory...
, and their music was the subject of CNET
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
's 'The 404' podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
. The album "The Paper Raincoat" was released in October 2009.
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 LevyAdam LevyAdam Levy is an accomplished jazz guitarist and singer-songwriter. Levy has recorded with Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman, Sex Mob, and Amos Lee, and has released several solo albums as well. is his latest....
" (2009, self) - "A Common Case of Disappearing" (2011)
The Paper Raincoat Discography
- "Safe in the Sound" EP (2009, self)
- "The Paper Raincoat" (2009, self)