Ruby Joe

Ruby Joe
Ruby Joe circa 1998
Background information
Origin	Huntington Beach, California
Genres	Psychobilly, swing revival
Labels	Sub•Lime
Past members	Joe Baugh Christina Hock Amber Reeves Greg Russinger

Ruby Joe was a Christian band from Ventura, California. Their debut album was cited as psychobilly, but their second played squarely as swing revival due to the appearance of the horn section of Royal Crown Revue. Both were released on Sub•Lime Records, in 1998 and 1999. The bands' name is a combination of the founder's name and that of Ruby's Diner in Huntington Beach, where the band was formed.

Prior to Ruby Joe, Greg Russinger and Joe Baugh played in a band called Strugglefish. Russinger was a youth pastor at Horizon Foursquare Church, Ventura, CA. In 1996 the band gained the bass talents of Amber Reeves and the drumming of Christina Hock, forming an all-female rhythm section. Ruby Joe's debut release, Sinking the Eight Ball (1998), drew upon the production talents of Mike Knott and Gene Eugene. The band's sound wound up being somewhere between the Stray Cats and The Reverend Horton Heat, or "like a rockabilly version of Mike Knott..." Russinger wrote most of the lyrics, addressing issues such as racism, the underground church in China, materialism, temptation, and internal spiritual battles with our sinful nature.

Not all content was well received; three tracks in particular caused the band trouble. "Rock 'n' Roll & My Baby", which deal with New Age spiritualism, and "Death Train", dealing with the victims of the holocaust. Finally Russinger dealt with his own former speed addiction in "Spiritual Heroin", describing how Christ can fill the need created by addictions, which one reviewer described as a "slightly disturbing metaphor." All of this led to trouble with the Christian music establishment; the album was pulled from some Christian book stores and the band disallowed from playing at a Christian music festival.