LEWISTOWN - Anyone who has experienced live musical entertainment almost anywhere locally in the past 20-some years is likely to have heard Chris Ruble.
The country/contemporary gospel musician has played just about every local fair, festival, pageant, program, party, church, carnival or competition that features live entertainment, and has a fan base that is so supportive that he is constantly invited back for encore performances.
Ruble, who has been performing live since he was 4, just released his first full-length all original album, called, "Chris Ruble."
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Sentinel photo by BRADLEY KREITZER
Chris Ruble performs at the Mifflin County Youth Fair Friday night in Reedsville.
He wrote the music for all 12 songs on the CD, and co-wrote the lyrics with Loren Ferster, of Reedsville, Briana Tyson, a friend from Nashville, Michael Waltman, of York, and his wife, Jade Ruble.
An accomplished keyboard/pianist and guitarist as well as vocalist, Ruble plays much of the music on the CD, with some help from a guitarist from his band, The Chris Ruble Band, and one other musician.
The first single on the album is "Parking," which Ruble calls "a fun, upbeat summer anthem," he hopes people will hear on the radio.
Another song, "Sweet Tea," was inspired by his wife. The song "talks about Southern girls and how there must be something in the sweet tea that makes them the way they are." Ruble's wife mentioned the idea, and it "just ran from there."
The process of writing a song is, for Ruble, "here, there and everywhere. I have a voice recorder I use when anything pops into my head. I find a way to get away for a moment and record the musical or lyric idea because I have learned over time that you will probably forget exactly what it was you were thinking," he said.
"Most everything can be inspiring, but the thing that inspires me the most is life and love and how magical it all comes together," Ruble said.
The song "Change," on the CD "is one of those songs that just came quickly to me and was written in under two hours. I had the idea for the music, and then the lyrics just started to flow," he said. The song is about "going out and finding that spark and the drive for something different and better in your life by taking the chance," he said.
"There are times when I will purposely sit down and work on writing, and sometimes it comes, and others, it doesn't. For me, it's when a song hits me, that's when I jot down as much as I can, and after that happens two or three times, a song is done."
After spending most of his life performing before live audiences, Ruble decided to release an original CD "because I've always had a love for writing music, but have never given the community and fans a chance to really dive into that area of my career. This was a way to show that I'm not just out there doing cover music, that I do have my own stuff," he said.
The process of writing the songs and recording the CD took about a year to complete.
Ruble is an Indian Valley High School graduate, and received a college degree in music industry. His parents are Jim and Karen Ruble, and his sister is Jimi Ruble.
Although he still lives in the Lewistown area and works for part of the year at Penn State, he said his eyes are on Nashville as "music is becoming more and more full time."
Ruble gives a lot of credit for this success to his family and his fans. "To my wife, parents, sister, family and friends, the support and love are always there and always solid for me," he said. "I thank you and love you all so much.
"To the fans in this area, I want to thank you so much for always being with me every step of the way. There are a lot of exciting things coming on the horizon, so it should be a fun ride."
The CD is available at Ruble's live shows, local businesses, through his website www.chrisruble.com, and at CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon MP3, Rhapsody and Spotify.
Ruble is scheduled to perform Sept. 3 at the Juniata County Fair, Sept. 15 at the McClure Bean Soup and Sept. 26 and 29 at the Bloomsburg Fair.
