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Justin Rutledge with Jenn Grant
Gateway
Thursday, October 21 - Thursday, October 21

More in: Folk / Country

If you haven’t heard Justin Rutledge’s newest CD, The Early Widows, you might be in for a shock. Sure, stylistically, Rutledge still delivers powerfully evocative images, but there’s a twist, here: He plays the electric rather than his usual acoustic.

Yep, Dylan did it, too. So, how big of a change was it for Rutledge?

“To be honest with you, that was one of Hawksley (Workman)’s initial ideas,” says Rutledge, who hired Workman to produce The Early Widows. “When I started working with him, there were a few key elements that he wanted to change on the production side of things, the treatment of the songs, and the first thing he said was to put down the acoustic guitar.”

Rutledge obliged, opting for only a few acoustic elements in the recording. Still, he’s quick to point out that the switch didn’t signal a major change in his direction, nor his delivery.

"It's not a dramatic leap," he observes. "Predominantly, I have written acoustically based songs and, you know, I just trusted (Workman). And it ended up working really well, it was a really nice shift and overall it changed the vibe of the record."

While the record’s vibe may have changed, one thing has remained in Rutledge’s repertoire: his novelist-esque commitment to his lyrics. This isn’t an accident — he once pursued a degree in English literature at the University of Toronto. Since then, he’s maintained an avid interest in literature and poetry — in fact, he majored in modern poetry. How much, then, has his educational background influenced his songwriting style?

"It's affected my writing to the point where the words have got to exist — they have to be able to live outside of the music,” he says. “They have to stand up on their own as words on a page. That's kind of my standard if they can do that."

 And Rutledge achieves that standard with Early Widows, featuring some of its lyrics in the opening paragraphs of his website. And while those lyrics are plenty powerful, Rutledge says it’d be wrong to consider them autobiographical.

"I know a lot of songwriters who'll say, ‘Yeah, I put all of myself into it and I'm totally vulnerable,’” he says. “But you know, I tend… I guess I tend to lie a lot. For the most part, I don't feel emotionally exhausted after writing a song. This batch of songs, in particular, they're not about me or anything involving my life."

Autobiographical or otherwise, each song still reflects Rutledge’s careful attention to his craft — something that earned him the distinction of being elected Now Magazine’s singer-songwriter of the year in 2006. Ironically enough, however, his songwriting reputation has spawned several literary opportunities.

"Through songwriting, I've actually gotten to meet some of my favourite writers,” he says. “(I’ve) been involved in some artistic realms that maybe I wouldn't actually have gotten had I continued my English degree."

One such example is Toronto-based Michael Ondaatje, most famed for penning The English Patient. Their relationship began when Ondaatje asked Rutledge to write a song for one of his plays; their collaborative work has extended to “Be a Man,” the opening track on The Early Widows, which features both Rutledge and Ondaatje’s lyrics.

And, while Rutledge has received plenty of wide-ranging opportunities in his career — and he continues to evolve — his performance remains engaging, whether it’s electric or acoustic, literary or musical.