John Kruth is a singer

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

/songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

/multi-instrumentalist best known for his highly energetic “Banshee Mandolin

Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

” style of playing. He is also proficient on guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

, harmonica

Harmonica

The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...

 and various flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

s. Kruth is also a music journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

.

Kruth’s first biography, Bright Moments – The Life and Legacy of Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Rahsaan Roland Kirk was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...

was first published in the U.S. and England in 2000 by Welcome Rain Books. Bright Moments was translated into Japanese and published by Kawade Shobo in 2005. His most recent biography

Biography

A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

, To Live’s To Fly - the Ballad of Townes Van Zandt

Townes Van Zandt

John Townes Van Zandt , best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American Texas Country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet...

, was published by Da Capo Books in March 2007.

John has eight albums to his credit. His latest CD, Eva Destruction, was released in December 2007 by Crustacean Records. In November 1997 Kruth performed at 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....

 as a soloist for composer John Coriglian on the Moroccan folk oboe called the ghaita, commonly played by the Master Musicians of Jajouka. He has also performed with playwright Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...

, poet Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...

, Patti Smith

Patti Smith

Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....

, performance artist Laurie Anderson

Laurie Anderson

Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...

, producer Hal Willner

Hal Willner

Hal Willner is an American music producer working in recording, films, TV and live events. He is best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles...

, folksinger John Prine

John Prine

John Prine is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.-Biography:...

, as well as Violent Femmes

Violent Femmes

Violent Femmes were an American alternative rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, initially active between 1980 and 1987 and again from 1988 to 2009...

, the Meat Puppets

Meat Puppets

The Meat Puppets are an American rock band formed in January 1980, in Phoenix, Arizona. The group's original lineup was Curt Kirkwood , his brother Cris Kirkwood , and Derrick Bostrom . The Kirkwood brothers met Bostrom while attending Brophy Prep High School in Phoenix...

, King Missile

King Missile

King Missile is an American avant-garde band that has been led in various disparate incarnations by poet/singer John S. Hall since 1986. Currently, Hall performs with a new version of the first incarnation, King Missile ....

, Peter Stampfel, Rick Danko

Rick Danko

Richard Clare "Rick" Danko was a Canadian musician and singer, best known as a member of The Band.-Early years :...

, Garth Hudson

Garth Hudson

Eric Garth Hudson is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist. As the organist, keyboardist and saxophonist for Canadian-American rock group The Band, he was a principal architect of the group's unique sound...

, James Belushi

James Belushi

James Adam "Jim" Belushi is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is the younger brother of comic actor John Belushi.-Early life:Belushi was born in Chicago...

, Steve Buscemi

Steve Buscemi

Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...

, Eric von Schmidt

Eric Von Schmidt

Eric "Rick" Von Schmidt was an American singer-songwriter and Grammy Award recipient. He was associated with the folk/blues revival of the 1960s and a key part of the East Coast folk music scene that included Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.-Background and associations with Dylan:Von Schmidt's father,...

, Stan Ridgeway, Bob Neuwirth

Bob Neuwirth

Bob Neuwirth is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and visual artist. A mainstay of the early 1960s Cambridge, Massachusetts, folk scene, he subsequently became a friend and associate of Bob Dylan alongside whom he appears in D.A...

, poet Bob Holman, Die Kreuzen

Die Kreuzen

Die Kreuzen was a rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin which was formed in 1981. The name is broken German for "the crosses", and was picked up by the band from a German Bible...

, Cyberchump

Cyberchump

Cyberchump is an electro-organic duo created by multi-media artist Mark G. E. and musician Jim Skeel. The band members live in different cities and have made a point of long distance collaboration utilizing the internet...

 and members of Camper Van Beethoven

Camper Van Beethoven

Camper Van Beethoven is an American alternative rock group formed in Redlands, California in 1983.An eclectic band, Camper Van Beethoven mixes elements of pop, ska, punk rock, folk and alternative country, as well as various types of world music. Their aggressive musical pluralism created a...

.

In 2006, John traveled to India where he studied mandolin and performed with Carnatic mandolin virtuoso U. Rajesh.

Kruth is a Professor of Music at Manhattan College and the College of Mount St. Vincent. In the past, his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

, The Progressive, Frets, and Signal to Noise. He is currently a regular contributor to Rave (India), Sing Out!, Wax Poetics and Fretboard Journal

Fretboard journal

The Fretboard Journal is a quarterly magazine for guitar, mandolin, and stringed instrument players. In the same vein of other "coffee table magazines" such as Gastronomica, The Surfer's Journal, and the Rodder's Journal, it boasts high-end production values and exclusive photography in each issue...

. He spent much of his early career in Milwaukee, but now lives in New York City.

Discography

• 1987 – Midnight Snack – Hopewell Records (with Violent Femmes)
• 1989 – Greasy Kid Stuff – Chameleon Records (with Brian Ritchie)
• 1989 - Final Vinyl - Chameleon Records - (song Boomerang appeared on picture disc with John Lee Hooker, L7 and Bill Ward)
• 1992 – Banshee Mandolin – Flying Fish Records
• 1994 – Blind Bear - Dupah Disc (song on children’s compilation Shrimp Whistles)
• 1995 – Midnight Snack – Spit Records (re-issue of 1987 release)
• 1995 – The Cherry Electric – Weasel Disc
• 1996 – Toast – Weasel Disc (with Jonathan Segel and Victor Krummenacher)
• 1998 – Last Year Was A Great Day – Gadfly Records (with Gordon Gano)
• 1999 – Moon Dog Girl – Sparkling Beatnik Records (with Elliott Sharp and Jonathan Segel)
• 2000 – Everywhere You’ve Never Been – Label M/Smiling Fez Records (with Frank London)
• 2001 – Harry and Albert – Electronic Music Foundation (song on State of the Union compilation produced by Elliott Sharp)
• 2002 – Share The Failure – Smithsonian Folkways Records (song on Fast Folk compilation)
• 2004 – Songs from the Windy Attic – Smiling Fez Records
• 2007 - Eva Destruction - Crustacean Records (with members of Violent Femmes, Plasticland and Die Kreuzen)

John Kruth has appeared on recordings by James "Blood" Ulmer, Sex Mob, Reptile Palace Orchestra, Lambchop, Die Kreuzen, Tiny Lights, Brian Ritchie, Gideon Freudmann, Christine Lavin, Lillie Palmer, Rod Mac Donald and The Mercy Seat.

Books

• 2007 - To Live's To Fly -The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt - Da Capo Books, NYC. 236 pages.
• 2005 - Bright Moments – The Life and Legacy of Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Japanese edition published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha, Tokyo, Japan. 400 pages.
• 2000 – Bright Moments – The Life and Legacy of Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Welcome Rain Books, NYC. 400 pages.

Poetry and Short Prose include

• 1992 – "Like Jazz" – Spanfeller Press (illustrated by Joe Ciardiello
  Joe Ciardiello
  Joe Ciardiello is an artist/illustrator. He was born on Staten Island, NY in 1953. He is a graduate of the H.S. of Art & Design and earned his BFA from Parsons School of Design and the New School, in 1975...
  
  )
• 1992 – "Little Bullets" – Barefoot Press (illustrated by Marvin Hill)
• 1989 – "The Bayou Stomp" – Jackalope Press (illustrated by Marvin Hill)
• 1989 – "The Horrorscope" – Jackalope Press (with collages by the author)
• 1988 – "The Perfumed Firecracker" – Jackalope Press (illustrated by Lane Smith)
• 1986 – "Bed Crumbs" – Jackalope Press (illustrated by Gary Panter)
• 1984 – "Exorcises" – Jackalope Press (illustrated by Henrik Drescher)
• 1983 – "Modern Heaven" – Jackalope Press (illustrated by Randall Enos)