CD Review - Sing Out! Magazine, USA, Summer 2009 issue
DAVE RUCH, The Oldest Was Born First (Dave Ruch)
The traditional songs and tunes of New York State have been largely overlooked by folk music aficionados. Enter Dave Ruch, a traditional musician who travels throughout the northeastern U.S., spreading the music of the Empire State. He is a fine instrumentalist, and his vocals are strong and engaging.

Dave has supplied a massive amount of information about each selection. He even supplies some theories about the migration of the tunes, making the notes part reminiscence and part factual exploration.

Some of the selections found on The Oldest Was Born First are common to the repertoire of many players, but Dave presents the New York variants. For example, “Cabbage Head” is a well-known Child ballad familiar in some areas as “Four Nights Drunk.” The New York version is a bit less suggestive, but no less amusing.

One of my favorite songs, “Wisconsin”, is from the Stevens family in Wyoming County. It is an odd love song between a wife and her dreamer husband. The husband is tired of farming, and wants to move from the farm to the newly opened western frontier. His wife finally convinces him of his folly when she tells him the Indians will burn their cabin and kill his entire family. Not very politically conscious in a contemporary sense, but remember, the song is from the 1840s.

There are a number of canal songs, including “The E-ri-o Canal,” an amalgam of two traditional sources, and “Oh Dat Low Bridge,” a canal song written for the stage in 1885.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that “Rickett’s Hornpipe” is a New York tune. It’s been played by dance fiddlers in the state for almost 200 years. Ricketts was a circus performer who danced a hornpipe on the back of a galloping horse; even more remarkable was his replacement when he was no longer able to accomplish the feat: a man named Durang!

Dave Ruch has created a fascinating recording, which presents traditional music in an informative and highly entertaining fashion. Good job.
— Tom Druckenmiller