BIOGRAPHY

Joe was born, and then later started playing guitar and writing songs. Joe loves donuts, although he understands they are killing him. Most donut shops (at least in the Bay Area) have crappy coffee, and most good coffee shops don't have actual donuts, but rather scones and crap. Joe finds this sad.

In addition to his solo performances, Joe has been happy to collaborate with other humans, including experimntal guitarist Henry Kaiser, The Spikedrivers (bluegrass), 86(the band)(indie rock), Loretta Lynch (country), and Lucio Menegon (as the experimental/ambient guitar duo Lumper/Splitter)

Joe has been fortunate enough to play with these fine people in swell places such as UK's Glastonbury Music Festival, Nevada's Burning Man festival, The Fillmore in San Francisco (opening for Richard Thompson), the Shoreline and Sleep Train Amphitheatres, and an empty parking lot in Berkeley. All of these places were fun, but the only one that had a decent donut was Glastonbury. The Brits know how to make a donut.

Joe is a member of the Immersion Composition Society, a group of upstanding citizens dedicated to QUANTITY songwriting. An obsessive tinkerer, Joe builds original instruments out of found objects and contact microphones, which he plays in addition to guitar, lap steel, mandolin, charango, drums, bass, Hammond organ and piano. Joe still thinks College Music Journal (CMJ) sucks for replacing Loretta Lynch's legitimately charting (on KALX) first CD with it's own pay-to-play compilation CD in the charts, even though they feebly claim it was a clerical error. My ass.

Joe lives in Oakland, CA, likes to write about himself in the thrid person, and was bi-polar when bi-polar wasn't cool.

DISCOGRAPHY

Joe Rut: Injured While Faking Own Death (2010)

Joe Rut: The Challenge of Four-Track (2008)

Joe Rut: Stop-Gap Measure (2006)

Joe Rut: All Music is Folk Music...Some Folks Is Just Fucked Up (2003)

JoeRut: Genuine Wood Grained Finish (1999)

WITH OTHERS:

Lumper/Splitter: Lumper/Splitter (2005) Guitars, manilpulated objects

Loretta Lynch: Loretta Lynch (2003) Guitars, vocals

Loretta Lynch: Concrete and Ether (2007) Lap steel

86(the band): Hooray for Music (2003) Guitar, lap steel, vocals

86(the band): Thank You (2005) Guitar

86(the band): True Life Songs and Pictures (2001) Engineer

Joel Murach: Greetings from the Middle of Nowhere (2003) Guitars, backup vocals, engineer

Joel Murach and the Low Rollers: Lucky One Way (2009) Engineer, bass, organ

Jeremy Brown: This Year in St. Louis (2001) Engineer, guitars

Val Esway and El Mirage: Lovers, Losers, Liars (2005) Guitar, lap steel

Val Esway and El Mirage: Pretend to Believe (2007) Slide guitar

Okie: Okie (2002) Bass, guitar, engineer