Richard Ruane is a prolific songwriter based in the little mountain village of Ripton, Vermont. His music has been described as well-crafted, soulful, rootsy, haunting, and intelligently infectious. He has a warm baritone voice and is a multi-instrumentalist, switching from his guitar to banjo (tenor and five-string banjo), mandolin, mandola and even ukulele. Usually he performs as Richard Ruane and Friends with Beth Duquette on vocals; Michael Corn on guitar, dobro, mandolin and vocals; and Mitch Barron on double bass, fretless bass and vocals.

In addition to being a performer, Richard has spent the last ten years as a presenter of folk music, both as the executive director of the Ripton Community Coffee House and as a member of the board of the Middlebury Festival on the Green.

A few years ago he released his first solo recording, "Things That Strangers Say". It was named one of the best Vermont CDs of the year by Vermont’s arts weekly Seven Days. It also continues to get regular airplay on a number of radio stations.

Richard has been actively involved in folk music since his teenage years. In the 1980s he toured the Northeast and Midwest with the acoustic quartet Feast or Famine, writing much of their original music and singing lead vocals on most of their songs. They released the album "Brenon Beacon" on the Philo/Fretless label. Later he helped form a world-beat group called Sundog, again writing most of their original songs and singing most of the lead vocals. They toured throughout the Northeast and released one recording.

When his second son was an infant, he took a break from touring and devoted his energies to supporting acoustic music in Vermont. He helped start the Ripton Community Coffee House and also formed the sound company, Silent Partners, providing sound for numerous concerts, as well as for The Champlain Valley Festival, The Middlebury Festival on the Green, and Middlebury’s After Dark Music Series.

. Visit his website at: www.richardruane.com