Biography

Gary Rue, Musician and Composer

1812 Tide of War

Singer and composer Gary Rue learned to play guitar, by ear, starting at the age of 8. His father, a violin player, loved to have his son accompany him on guitar while playing classic jazz and pop standards.

His new album, 1812 Tide of War, commemorates the bicentennial of what has often been called America’s Second War for Independence, a conflict that firmly rooted the free republic, United States of America. For the lyrics, Rue teamed up with writer and historian Donald G. Shomette who spent more than three decades researching and writing about the War of 1812. The album is published by a Lexington, Maryland creative arts enterprise, Millstone Landing Productions.

A graduate of the Hartford Conservatory of Music, Rue previously studied jazz and composition with legendary jazz musician Jerry Mahoney at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Passionate about song writing, he furthered his studies of musical arrangement through the University of California, Berkeley. Delving ever deeper into his craft Rue began to study in workshops hosted by such jazz giants as Joe Pass, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Larry Coryell, and many others.

His early years of touring with such legendary acts as The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Chuck Berry, and others, exposed him to other musical styles. Though he started out with jazz, he found his niche in bluegrass and true Americana when he played with an up and coming country artist named Jeff Miller. On that tour, Rue fell in love with the pedal steel guitar. Soon afterwards, he joined forces with the Blue Grass Magicians and began a long-term study of the 100-plus year history of the genre, to achieve mastery of this American art form.

Rue plays acoustic guitar, electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, banjo and dobro. Recently, Gary Rue played lead guitar, and vocals for the Smoke Creek Rounders, and launched his solo debut CD, American to
Me. Today, he is serving as the front man for "Gary Rue and the 1812 Project," a live performance organization which he founded in 2011.

Gary Rue’s other venue credits include, among others, The Birchmere, Oxford Ale House in Boston, University of Connecticut, and an East Coast tour with the Ricky Carr Agency.

To Interview Gary Rue Contact: Kimberly Hartke, Publicist 703-860-2711, 703-675-5557