Ruby’s Revival: James is Back as a Solo Artist
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Sturgeon Bay songstress Ruby James isn’t afraid of being afraid. Fear is a feeling the Americana-inspired artist embraces as she makes her return to the stage.
“I’m all up for doing things that scare the s#%* out of me,” James said.
That includes playing shows at big-name Door County venues after putting her solo sets on the back burner for over a decade. When her former funk powerhouse WiFEE and the HUZzBAND took off in 2012, that project became her focus, and her solo sets became fewer and further between.
WiFEE and the HUZzBAND, which James fronted, broke up in 2019. Then came the pandemic, which pushed James into a management position at Donny’s Glidden Lodge in Sturgeon Bay. Her husband, Tim Zellner, owns the restaurant and needed help when COVID-19 shut down the county, so James stepped up.
Post-pandemic, James played a handful of shows, some with rock band Sinners and Saints, while still working at Donny’s. She worked at the restaurant until Zellner’s son moved from New York in 2023 to take over for her.
“I retired from the restaurant business on New Years’ Eve,” James said. “Since January, I just dove back into [music.]”
Part of that dive involved James reacclimating herself to writing music. Unlike many songwriters, James doesn’t usually start with the lyrics; instead, she bases songs around melodies or chords she loves, adding the words later on. That step of the process tends to be trickier for her – especially now, because isn’t dealing with as many of the personal hardships that used to inspire her songs.
“I definitely am having writer’s block because I’m in a happy marriage,” James said. “It seems like the best songs I’ve written have all come from heartbreak and really hard times.”
While she gets back into her songwriting stride, James has an arsenal of previously-unused songs to work with, including tracks she penned as early as her college days she first learned guitar, learning to write songs as she did so. Before that, she was classically trained in piano, an instrument she’s relearning now.
Classically trained in piano, she played her first live show in 1996 in her Los Angeles, California hometown, six months after starting guitar lessons. In the early 2000s, she put together the band that would later become her namesake, Ruby James.
“That’s really where I grew up as a musician, cut my teeth, learned to play a lot of cover songs, started playing five nights a week,” James said.
As her career took off and she started touring, James gained a large following on MySpace. That’s how Chris Aaron, a late blues musician who was heavily involved in Steel Bridge Songfest, discovered James and got her to come to the former Sturgeon Bay music festival in 2007.
She started coming back year-after-year, later attending other Steel Bridge Creative Foundation events like Love on Holiday and Dark Songs. Along the way, she made lasting connections with locals, took a job at Gordon Lodge in Baileys Harbor so she could remain in Door County, and became a permanent resident in 2013.
James’ first solo shows back in the saddle will be held at the Tambourine Lounge, a venue in the arts-incubation center, the Tambourine Collaboratory. The building’s group of co-owners includes pAt mAcdonald and melaniejane, who organized Steel Bridge Songfest and got to know James over the years.
“That just feels like where I should start,” James said. “They’re the reason I’m here.”
At the April 5 and 6 shows at the Tambourine Lounge, a brand-new band will back up James, made up of Mike Underwood, Jason Goessel and Greg Rotek, an original member of WiFEE and the HUZzBAND.
Before the Tambourine Lounge show, James played a few songs at the venue’s originals-only open mic, WRiTERS’ NiGHT. She also played an acoustic set during a group show at the Kress Pavilion alongside Dorothy Scott, Katie Dahl, Cathy Grier and Jeanne Kuhns on March 22. She described both shows as “terrifying” for different reasons – the open-mic show due to the intimate size of the venue, and the group show because she had never done an acoustic performance by herself before.
If leaving her comfort zone is a necessary step for James to get back onstage, reconnecting with her own style is too. Her current view of herself as a musician is split between a singer-songwriter who backs up her heartfelt tunes on the piano, and a rock-n’-roller whose high-energy performances are backed up by a full band.
“I imagine my new incarnation is going to be a mix of both,” James said.
Both of James’ shows at the Tambourine Lounge start at 7 pm. Door County singer-songwriter Eric Hagen will open the April 5 show, while Nashville troubadour Amelia White will open the April 6 show.
Tickets cost $20; visit steelbridgecreativefoundation.org/calendar to purchase them.
The Tambourine Lounge is located at 59 N. 2nd Ave in Sturgeon Bay.
