SPOTLIGHT: Savanna Ruth Digs Deep In “Everything We Made”
SPOTLIGHT
SPOTLIGHT
☆ BY ABBY SLAP ☆
Photo by Miles Kalchik
SAVANNA RUTH WOULD LIKE TO REINTRODUCE HERSELF—After spending years performing under the stage name Burr Oak, the singer-songwriter is back with the singles “Everything We Made” and “In Your Orbit” in anticipation for her new album Baseball Diaries.
“Everything We Made” is an angsty autopsy, reflecting on a relationship on the rocks after the decision to open it. While speaking with me, Ruth likened her confessional lyricism to “letting these random people listen to my diary entries.”
This inclination towards reflection is perhaps rooted in the folk music her dad played for her in the car as a kid. The brutal honesty of Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac and Liz Phair meets contemporary relationship woes as Ruth sings, “I never said I was opposed to trying it,” before becoming the other woman in her own relationship. While the song’s vibrant emotional world will be no surprise to Burr Oak fans, the sonic landscape is new territory for the seasoned artist.
Her latest single, “In Your Orbit,” out September 15, expands the moment of the breakup, allowing the album to capture the complexities of non-monogamy. Ruth sings of an electric fling at the beginning of her relationship’s open stage, a woman who “feel[s] just like the sun.”
Ruth credits producers Scott Lucas of Local H and Blake Smith of Fig Dish—whom she describes as “old rockers” from the Chicago punk scene—for a shift towards more guitar-heavy arrangements that buoy her words. The resulting sound, Ruth said, is one that “I could play in my car and just be rocking out to.”
The full band-feel of “Everything We Made” and upbeat drums of “In Your Orbit” will make for an incredible, embodied experience live. Ruth is currently rehearsing for her upcoming fall Baseball Diaries tour with Hollow Bastion and album release show at Chicago’s Color Club on October 23. The album will expand on the relationship and resulting breakup recounted in “Everything We Made,” turning the painful moment into one of radical self-examination.
