When Ruthann Baler steps onto the stage at Amazing Things Arts Center in Framingham for her afternoon concert on March 25, she’ll officially be celebrating the release of her new CD “Rivers and Trains.” But a recent conversation with the Boston-based folk-pop performer about how music has been such a big part of her life hinted that she could unofficially use the show as another notable celebration.
But let’s let Baler, 58, a guitarist-pianist-singer-composer-harmonica player, tell it in her own words.
“I was always writing music. It wasn’t something that I set out to do, it was just part of who I was before I realized what I was doing. I would be humming a song, and my mother would ask, ‘Where did you hear that?’ I would say, ‘I heard it in my head.’ That was when I was around 8. Melodies just kind of came to me.”
Do the math. She was 8 then. She’s 58 now. That’s a half century of creating music. Baler isn’t sure if there were any specific influences that got her going, but she does recall that her father was always playing records by the likes of Judy Collins, Glen Campbell and Peter, Paul & Mary. When she was later choosing her own records, they would be by Dan Fogelberg and Seals & Crofts. There were piano lessons at 8, then a move to guitar at 11.
“My father had an old Harmony guitar lying around the house, and I would just stare at it,” she recalled. “I would pick it up because I was intrigued, then I started fooling around with it and teaching myself.”
And she was regularly writing poetry and songs.
“When I was 17 I won an award for songwriting,” she said. “It was a Certificate of Merit for National Achievement in Original Songwriting from the Scholastic Writing Awards. It was for a love song, called ‘We Are a New Day.’ I remember two teachers asking me to play it at their wedding, and I did, but I would never play it today (laughs).”
The songwriting has continued, as has singing and playing, often at open mike shows. Amazing Things Arts Center has been a favorite place for her. Along with those open mike nights, she’s been there as an opener and, in 2009, as a feature performer to showcase her first album “Life on Mars.”
Asked if she considers the new “Rivers and Trains” to be a big departure from that one, she paused, then said, “I think there’s a fuller sound now. ‘Life on Mars’ is a little more stripped down. ‘Rivers and Trains’ shows a bit of how I’ve evolved as a songwriter.”
Another pause, then, “I don’t know, I think you might have to ask somebody else.” (laughs)
The new one certainly goes in lots of directions. Baler is backed by a full band and has lots of guest vocalists harmonizing with her. And the songs range from the sad but hopeful “Dance with Grace” to the poppy title track to the full-out rock of “Walk Down.”
At Amazing Things this time, she’ll be singing the leads, playing guitar and harmonica, and will have her six-piece band behind her, which includes her lead guitarist son Sam, along with all sorts of friends helping out on instruments and vocals.
“There will be a lot of moving parts,” she said. “The reason is that’s how the songs were created. When I went in to make the album, I wasn’t thinking about doing a show, I was thinking about each song.”
Though she prefers to keep the set list a surprise, it’ll undoubtedly come mostly from her two albums.
“But,” she said, “I will be performing at least one unreleased song.”
Ruthann Baler has a CD release show at Amazing Things Arts Center in Framingham on March 25 at 3 p.m. Tickets: $15; students & kids, $10. Info: 508-405-2787 or ruthannmusic.com
Upcoming Concerts and Club Dates:
March 24:
Jazz drummer extraordinaire Billy Cobham leads his Crosswinds Project in a show featuring tunes from his 1974 album “Crosswinds” at The Center for Arts in Natick. (8 p.m.)
The Texas/New York quartet The Last Bandoleros merge Tex-Mex, country, and rock ’n’ roll at Café 939 in Boston. (8 p.m.)
Boston-based Celtic music Ensemble Fellswater plays music from their new album “Skipping Stones” at Amazing Things Arts Center in Framingham. (8 p.m.)
Brazilian singer-guitarist Carlinhos Vaz fronts his group of singers and players performing his original Brazilian folk and pop music at Ryles in Cambridge. (9 p.m.)
March 25:
There’s rock and pop and blues and jazz and more with The Nickel & Dime Band, The Hi-End, Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers, and Fur Purse at the Midway Café in Jamaica Plain. (3:15 p.m.)
Because they’re always changing genres, it’s hard to know what of Montreal (whose new album is “White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood”) will be playing at the Paradise in Boston. Mega Bog opens. (8 p.m.)
March 28:
Singer and multiple-instrumentalist Dinty Child plays at Lizard Lounge in Cambridge. (10:30 p.m.)
March 29:
Boston-based rock-blues-roots group The Wolff Sisters (with sisters Rebecca, Rachel, and Kat) & the Last Cavalry have a record release show at Atwood’s Tavern in Cambridge. Ian Fitzgerald opens. (10 p.m.)
March 30:
Singer-string player Sam Avidon comes home to Massachusetts to play songs from “The Following Mountain,” his first album of original compositions, at Club Passim in Cambridge. (7 & 10 p.m.)
Erik Hall AKA In Tall Buildings has a release party for his new pop album “Akinetic” at Café 939 in Boston. (8 p.m.)
Folk-rockers The Kennedys visit The Burren in Somerville. Tory Silver opens. (7 p.m.)
Boston-based acoustic duo Crowes Pasture – Monique Byrne and Andy Rogovin – play selections from their newest CD “Edge of America” at Amazing Things Arts Center in Framingham. The Lied To’s and Sparrow Blue! open. (8 p.m.)
Ed Symkus can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.