I received most of the impetus for my music taste from my father, someone who from adolescence was very well-versed in the music world and to this day keeps up with what’s going on. He gave Charli xcx’s BRAT 4 stars on RateYourMusic! This is to say that I did not inherit much of my music taste from my mother. There is nothing wrong with her taste, in fact I very much dig a number of Kansas songs and the occasional Doobie Brothers jam. However, one group that did make their way down the pipeline from my mother’s ears to mine is Guster.
Guster began as a trio of friends from Tufts University in Massachusetts with a couple electric guitars and bongos. The first handful of Guster releases are marked by this bare bones aesthetic, making the most out of quite a simple formula. I commend percussionist Brian Rosenworcel for his painfully striking hand-drumming method, as he did not play on a kit using sticks until their 4th record!
As one might expect, the group evolved and turned more or less into a full-blown electric and alternative rock outfit, adding a fourth member, Joe Pisapia, for their fifth full-length, 2006’s Ganging Up on the Sun. It is right around this point in Guster’s career that I begin to lose interest in their work, as I think they started to run out of steam, so to speak, losing a lot of the charm that made their first four records really stand out. The songs nor the arrangements were ever necessarily spectacular, but I do love early Guster for their undeniable songwriting prowess. They can write a hook like no other group around them at the time. Though there is one particular song that stands out from this record as one of the greatest they ever wrote.
“Ruby Falls” is about as close to an epic that Guster ever got. The track clocks in at just over seven minutes and features a dreamy extended trumpet solo that covers about the second half of that runtime. The song starts with a somber, fingerpicked electric guitar figure. It’s a simple and beautiful chord progression and harkens back to the band’s glory days with their uncanny ability to craft pop songs whose total was greater than the sum of its parts.
The song bursts into a lush instrumental palate from here on out, featuring some quite emotive guitar leads and one of Rosenworcel’s most compelling traditional kit-based performances. Brian also wrote the lyrics to the song, which stand out and match greatly to the heartbreaking musicality of the track.
“Tonight
Where do we go from here?
The road through Ruby Falls has reached the end
And now we’re digging in the sand
They’re promising that help is on the way”
There is a sense of finality to the attitude of the lyrics here, perhaps that of a relationship, or perhaps more sinisterly, a human life. It’s hard to ignore the references to the afterlife in the second verse of the track. The track’s words are abstract enough to allow listeners to create their own interpretation, but they are beautiful nonetheless. Rosenworcel had written some of the band’s lyrics before, most notably on the track “Amsterdam” from 2003’s Keep It Together, maybe my favorite Guster song since I was a child. His prowess for poetry is displayed here in greater effect than any effort before or even after. I don’t know what Ruby Falls as a landmark represents to Brian, though its deep emotional connection is palpable and moving.
The lush, romantic instrumental hints at this sense of lost and longing. The track’s music and lyrical content works in magnificent harmony. I have to mention again the song’s closing trumpet solo, performed by Neil Rosengarden, supplied with haunting backing vocals repeatedly and comfortingly urging the listener to “sing along.” The track is cinematic, creating a deep atmosphere that I can’t help but to describe as “woodsy.” This song is connected in some way to nature and the outdoors through its titular Ruby Falls, and the band does a great job of communicating and evoking this in a powerful way.
“Ruby Falls” is beautiful. Guster is a comforting band with a number of weird connections. They were one of Kesha’s favorite bands growing up and there exists a video online of her joining them onstage singing a rendition of their song “Happier.” The people who love Guster love them because they radiate warmness and a sort of hope. Despite its subject matter that may figure to point to the contrary, “Ruby Falls” is one of their most comforting songs. Its themes of loss are accented by a sort of peace, a feeling of acceptance and that everything is going to be okay. Things are rough right now, but it won’t always feel like this. As George Harrison said, all things must pass. As I say, it’s best to play them out with a trumpet solo.
Listen to “Ruby Falls” here.