Touch by Light: Ethereal Flow of Ruth Blake

Kofi Forson
February 2021

Touch by Light: Ethereal Flow of Ruth Blake

Very few singer/songwriters express that soulful and rich aura in their performances without an overlay of acknowledged celebrity. Ruth Blake is a rare find of that variety of folk musicians who touches a brilliant light with every song she sings. This luminescent glow passes onto the listener. A precious symbol she honors peripherally as a universal muse. The very soul she transfers these songs of healing, which she calls “medicine”. Her artistic vision is more than just compositions of songs needing appreciation. There’s magic at work here. Within the music and lyrics, she manages an interplay of spiritual forces, where light and darkness are represented. The power to build symmetry, “Forge and Flow”. Brilliance of her quest is rooted within folklore, cultures from great lands. Much like William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience”, greatness of Ruth Blake’s songs are highlighted through her evolution, an example of a life lived, experienced, made worthwhile, celebrated. Her “Brave Ships” song and video from an upcoming album gives an insight into her musical and spiritual growth. She dances across the sands of a beach. Somehow enchanted, overcome by a trance. The song itself inspires an ethereal flow.

Kofi Forson: Wonderful pleasure to introduce you to the Arteidolia audience. I want to thank Shauna McLarnon and the Shameless Promotion PR Twitter account for the Dancing About Architecture tweet highlighting the “Brave Ships” song. I also want to thank Dave Franklin for his review of “Brave Ships”. Great insight into the song and who you are as a performer. I certainly echo his remarks and take it levels further and say, “You are the most beautiful sounding and spiritually-touched performer I’ve come across in quite sometime.

Ruth Blake: Wow Kofi, I’m truly touched by your words – quite an introduction, that’s for sure! I echo your thanks to all the people who have contributed to bringing us into communication. It’s a special thing to feel deeply seen, heard and appreciated as an artist.

Forson: I am happy to see how you have evolved over the course of your two previous albums, “Lullabies for Grown-ups” and “Creation”. “Lullabies…” felt like a babe from the womb, nurtured. “Creation” was the evolution. How life forms had moved within you. There is more of a structured standard of song and performance. I listen to “Brave Ships” and immediately there’s an ethereal aura to the song. It shows a lived experience. Your nature having been through the storms you sing about in the song. How did you arrive at the metaphor of a brave ship?

Blake: The term itself is my own but I was profoundly inspired by a particular piece of writing by one of my all-time favorite authors/storytellers Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estés called Letter to a Young Activist During Troubled Times. I’d come across it a few times before but it struck me anew this time, rich as it is with symbolic beacons of hopes set amongst the paradoxes of life, reassuring us heartily that we are seaworthy vessels no matter how ragged our flags have become. And as you say, it resonates for me because even at 37 I do feel my flags have become mighty ragged at times. I think when we commit to fully living, when we take that enormous risk time and time again to follow that whispering voice of the soul, even though it so often leads us straight into the abyss, I think there is something brave about that. It takes courage to live a life like that in a world where staying safe is the norm. What I love about that piece by Clarissa is she says that there has never been a time with so many seaworthy vessels on this ocean of life, and I agree with her. There are more and more people finding the courage to be truly and fully themselves.

Forson: This song continues in your approach to singing and managing of songs as medicine. Something that serves as treatment and remedy for our heartbreaks. More so the defeat we all feel in the life process. Your humanizing of your muse makes the listener draw closer to you. I (we) owe a lot to you for wanting us to feel better, to mold, channel love and emotional health. What is your definition of and the origin of song as medicine?

Blake: I came across the concept of music as medicine when learning about indigenous and shamanic healing practices. I discovered that in certain very ancient languages, they used the same word for the Shaman, healer and musician. They weren’t seen as separate roles. This really struck something deep within me, it resonated. In shamanic traditions, music can be used to put people into trance-states, and in this state healing can occur, perhaps a bit like hypnotherapy. I trained as an energy healer, and the sound healing element came very naturally to me. I do use sound healing with myself and others, making particular tones that have the power to penetrate and affect the energy body. My songs are just another form of this, with the added elements of melody, poetry and rhythm. Some bring the medicine of joy and rhythm, others carry people gently into communion with their pain. When a person allows their soul to sing through them, I believe the tones they create to be healing because they remind people of their own Soul; their own whole Self. Music has such vast capacity to heal, it’s an endless topic!

Forson: Much like a ship, it crosses many rivers and travels through great lands. Tell me about your honoring of land. How the earth you stand on encompasses so much of you and adds to the theory of worship, a god. Nature as God.

Blake: I wasn’t brought up to be religious, but I specifically remember standing on a mountain as an adolescent on a school trip, looking out and being struck by a sense of awe. In that moment I felt this realization that I was experiencing God. The sense of awe in itself felt like God – not that I was beholding God and feeling awe, but in my experiencing awe, I was experiencing God. The awe was God somehow. It was a direct experience that the land inspired in me. It’s not easy to put it into words, but looking back now I can recognize the deep wisdom in its simplicity, and its non-sensical-ness. Later I became interested in Paganism and earth-based religions, and I certainly cultivate reverence and adoration of the earth, but ultimately I’ve always just had a deep sense of awe and I think that’s my spirituality. There’s a word, ‘Pantheism’, which recognizes everything as God. I see God in the sun and the stars but also in human pain and suffering, and even in the every day objects we’ve created, so I can identify with that term. I think the natural world is a doorway back to ourselves, and she’s a teacher more than anything – she shows us truth that we cannot impose our beliefs upon, no matter how hard we try.

Forson: What great lands have you known and how does that contribute to the making of your upcoming “Brave Ships” album?

Blake: I haven’t done a huge amount of traveling in the physical realm, but I’ve worked and trained with various healers and musicians who have either come from, or trained in, China, Japan, Aboriginal Australia, the Americas and West Africa, not to mention the healers who are reigniting the lost traditions of this land. I have experienced indigenous healing music and ceremony that have certainly transformed me. It was through ancient Chinese medicine and Feng Shui that I learned to understand the principals of energetics, and these teachings and experiences have undoubtedly influenced my becoming; my realization of true nature; and therefore of course, my songwriting.

Forson: The video for the song is something to marvel at. The physical setting of a beach and your physical body in motion, basically free and enchanted, dancing, interpreting the space around you with movements.

Speaking of lands, where was it shot, who was the director, and what emotions did you derive from making the video and being in the naturalness of this particular land?

Blake: The video was shot on Sand Bay in Somerset with a dear friend of mine, Paul Blakemore, whose background is principally in photography. I’d say it was a collaboration really, something that just kind of emerged. Paul has this wonderful enthusiasm that can make things happen, and it was his idea to shoot in that spot where grey turns to silver. It was my idea simply to sing and dance to camera and keep everything incredibly simple, and so that’s what we did. I felt quite a number of emotions throughout the shoot. I was delighted to dance barefoot on the sand – I’m usually so sensitive to the cold but strangely it just felt exhilarating! And the landscape in general just felt incredibly inspiring – like nature had conspired to create the perfect scene for the song.

I’ve attended 5 Rhythms dance for several years so I’m fairly comfortable in my skin, but it was certainly a new experience dancing alone whilst being watched by a camera in that way. I was so glad my partner was there in support, showering me in adoration which really helped me to relax and enjoy it. I dipped in and out of self-consciousness – at times I could just completely let go and give myself to the dance, and other times I became self-conscious and then I would lose my flow a little bit.

Forson: Idea for the “Brave Ships” track originated at the home of your friend, Ashley Jenkins. What is the importance of Ashley Jenkins and the Covid-19 pandemic to the making of the “Brave Ships” album?

Blake: Well like most of the songs intended to go on the album, ‘Brave Ships’ itself was written before the pandemic struck. So even though the pandemic has perhaps brought a greater sense of relevance to it, it didn’t actually contribute to the shaping of it. For me the threat of extinction and humanity’s dire relationship with the land was already storm enough!

In terms of Ash, it’s hard to say. There’s no direct link, but I’ve worked with Ash for several years and I begun writing the song at his home, so I’ve no doubt his energy and experience made it into the song. Ash has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and severe scoliosis of the spine, and yet he is so committed to getting out there and living life. He swum a mile to raise money for charity, he co-hosts a community radio show, he’s making a pilot TV show on disability sports. He’s a brave ship I’m glad to have sailing close by.

Forson: I’m expecting the album to reflect on your current evolution spiritually and musically. How much have you grown since the last album? What life contributions and experiences do you reference? Perhaps you can share stories about the making of the album and the musicians you are working with.

Blake: Well I wrote and recorded most of the last album throughout a big relationship and its epic break up, and if I had to sum up the journey I went on I’d say it was one of empowerment, which really comes through in the songs. I found qualities in myself that I hadn’t really got to know before, and I learned a lot about my values and my boundaries. It’s a bit like a coming-of-age album. The new album is really a continuation of that journey – I wrote some of the songs while I was still recording ‘Creation’ so it’s very much a continuation of my journey through life lessons. There are new themes too, in particular dealing with the global crises humanity is facing. I see the Covid pandemic as just another symptom of humanity’s total disconnection with the natural world and our hurtling towards extinction so I’m not especially interested in it in and of itself, but more what it represents as part of a bigger picture, and what it can teach us.

I don’t write albums in a linear way – I’ve got quite a large back catalog of songs and every now and then I will group them into families. Those families keep on evolving until finally I start recording and one gets locked into place! So ‘Brave Ships’ is one of the newest songs on what will be the next album, but it immediately felt like the title track and I knew it was important that I focus on getting it recorded first. Working with Damien Mahoney (from Caulbearers) for the first time has been incredibly rewarding creatively and it’s helped to set the course for recording and shaping the rest of the album. For starters, we’re just brilliant friends and we spend a lot of time in the studio laughing. But also he knows so many top class musicians, which is why we got the likes of Rob Turner (from Gogo Penguin) involved. The whole process is feeling really alive and really dynamic and I think we’re both excited about getting stuck into the rest of the album now.

Forson: I recently tweeted “Genius is the fountain great gods drink from”. I shared with you how I honestly feel you have your very own unique voice. What’s your reference point as a musician? I absolutely love your guitar playing. You are self-taught but you studied with multi-instrumentalist Edward Chilvers. What were your first impressions of musical notes? How then did that lead to composing and writing a song?

Blake: It always amazes me to hear that people love my guitar playing because it’s not something I feel especially confident in. I’m certainly not someone with a disciplined practice regime, which can be massively to my detriment! But yes, I am self-taught on both guitar and piano. My mum bought me a keyboard when I was an adolescent and I first started writing songs then. It was always just instinctive – I found chord progressions that moved me and songs came out. I could read treble clef fairly comfortably because I also learned the oboe, but it didn’t seem to have anything to do with songwriting. In fact I think it’s the songwriting that has taught me how to play, if anything. There’s no greater motivation to practice than having written something you can’t quite play!

Eddie was a big influence in my life because I lived with him for five years, so during that time I always had access to guitars and pianos and he was the first person to tell me I had a real gift for music. He’s a passionate teacher and being around that enthusiasm and encouragement all the time really got me going. He’s quite an eccentric character and quite frankly a bit of an exhibitionist, so he was always pushing me out of my comfort zone, getting me to sing in all sorts of public places. It helped me to break down a lot of inner barriers as I’d kind of lost touch with my musicality when I met him, and I certainly didn’t have any confidence. Sure he would help me out with chords and give me tips and we listened to such an incredible variety of music from Wagner to Meshuggah and everything in between. I wouldn’t want to undermine all the help I’ve received in my life by saying I’m completely self-taught – lots of people have taught me lots of things – but what I mean by that is that I never had weekly lessons or anything like that.

Forson: I love the essence of poetry in your lyrics. Not to bring up the one Blake we know from history, but I love the feeling of innocence and experience in your songs. Can you please talk about how you arrive at the lyrics for your songs? What writers influence your writing?

Blake: My surname is actually Blake because of my paternal grandmother’s love for William’s Blake’s work. It’s a long story but I never knew my grandmother and barely knew my father so there’s something particularly touching for me when people make that connection. I am a huge admirer of Blake’s work and I can feel connected to them through that shared appreciation. I think Blake was one of the great western minds who was able to penetrate western culture and peer deep into the source of truth somehow. Like many of the greatest artists he had the courage to illuminate the darkness when most people didn’t want to look.

As you so beautifully expressed it, I’d say my lyrics do come from some central point where innocence and experience meet, and I think that this is the place where a lot of great art comes from. When I write lyrics it’s like a meditation, it’s a full body experience. I have to feel the music, to speak the sounds and find the rhythms, I allow myself to be empty so that words can fall into the song from some mysterious place, but whilst all that is happening I’m connected to my heart, to my feelings, to the humility of my humanity… and somewhere out of that place lyrics form themselves. It’s a dance really, a dance with God, perhaps, or a dance with myself.

I am an avid reader too so I’m sure there are all sorts of works that have influenced my writing. The most obvious is Clarissa Pinkola Estés, who combines story-telling with Jungian psycho-analysis. Her story-telling has inspired a few of my songs. I’ve read all sorts of philosophy and spiritual teachings, but my favorite thing to read is a great novel.

Forson: Musically what textures are you working with? Do you draw from improvisation, jazz, free form, raga, Middle Eastern, African?

Blake: I think I must draw from the music I have heard throughout my life, but it’s difficult to pinpoint it. Because I don’t have any formal training, I couldn’t describe to you what defines these forms and then mimic them or purposefully utilize them. I think sometimes I just kind of stumble on them. I’ve definitely detected Celtic, African and jazz influences in certain songs, and collaborating with Damien we’re consciously drawing on some of the warmth and groove of 1970s production styles such as used by Neil Young and Van Morrison. At one point I wanted to study classical Indian singing… I hope to get the opportunity to learn and grow and play with all these styles one day.

Forson: The one song of yours I find myself singing the chorus to is “Baba Yaga”. It sets up a premise for the order in your songs. The idea of exorcising demons or demonic spirits. The battle between good and evil. Perhaps I’m being too dramatic here, but there are spiritual forces referenced in your songs. Where does this come from? Is it literary? Books you have read? How did you make this spiritual transcendence; hence, find its way into your music?

Blake: Baba Yaga is a character I came across as a child and then again when I was older in Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves. Estés completely reframes this fearsome witch into a necessary part of a healthy psyche – Baba Yaga represents discernment; one who can burn away that which is toxic or no longer needed within us. To approach Baba Yaga is to enter an initiation process – initiations are a matter of life and death. A part of you will die, but will you manage to live again with fire for the hearth; the fire that will vanquish your inner demons and sustain you in life? This is the reward for your death-risking trials. This song came to me when I was deeply in need of that medicine and it took me a long time to really embody it.

I use symbols in my lyrics, I draw on myth and fairy-tale, nature and nursery rhymes, anything can be used as a symbol. I draw on spiritual symbolism too. I have enquired into many of the ancient religions and I have embraced my own life’s lessons – I’ve learned that humans are wired to experience division and opposites. The human experience is exactly that – we are born to experience division. By contemplating these opposites we glimpse something deeper that lies at the heart of existence, what might be considered the Great Mystery, or God. When I look into life I find it is fractal, I find the same patterns repeating throughout the universe, big versions and little versions of the same thing everywhere. But no symbol is fixed, it is always pointing at something underneath. For example, sometimes I might use the sun as a feminine symbol, sometimes masculine. The moon will meet it in opposition and this balancing will teach us something true about ourselves and about life. Because there is something fiery and passionate about the feminine, something cool and distant about the masculine… And yet there is also something burning with life and movement in the masculine, met with the deep and quiet mystery of the feminine. There is an enormous gift in learning to embrace the paradoxical nature of things and not getting too attached to mono-faced ‘truths’. Can you find the good in evil and the evil in good?

How did I make this transcendence? Well, I don’t know if I have transcended anything. There seems to be something in me that burns for the truth and it is a more powerful force than anything I have ever feared, so I have been blessed with courage, and that courage has taught me not to try to transcend anything, but rather to face exactly what is here now.

Forson: “Breathe” as a song is fitting in this world of pandemic existence. I think I’ve received more meditation prompts past few months to a year than I have all my life. (Laughter) There’s a Nature mother/forecaster present. It’s as if this spiritual leader has the power to summon the children within the song to meet a destiny. What is your opinion of the time we live in of false gods, power of the media, social media influencers? What do you think is the responsibility of someone with celebrity and potential power? Is the goal to use the power for good, or do you think as an artist your mission is to make a case for the art and leave the rest up for interpretation?

Blake: Responsibility is something that I often wrestle with. If I’m not careful I can easily shackle myself in ‘shoulds’. I am responsible for being true to myself in each moment and letting that process remain alive and flowing. I am responsible for doing my best, no more, and keeping my eyes open as much as I can bear. The wonderful Brené Brown says: ‘strong back, soft front, wild heart.’ I love that. Keeping my feet on the ground and remembering that I am both immeasurably powerful and infinitely insignificant; these are attitudes I value highly. I express myself honestly through my art and allow myself to hope that it may change the world, even just a little bit. The world as it is and my desire to change it are both utterly perfect and as they should be. This is all I really know about responsibility at this time.

Forson: Another theme and subject which comes up for me listening to your music, the need for aligning and forming a balance between life forces. It seems you play the role of healer and mediator. That there’s an intervention between the meddling forces and the principal voice yearns for symmetry. Is that your nature?

Blake: I am drawn to balance and symmetry, yes, I would say that is in my nature. Funnily enough, my sun sign is Libra which is depicted by the scales.

Forson: Beauty and fear are two principles I have dealt with in my life. Fear of beauty; not physical beauty but something as simple as a melody. As a child the song “Rose in Spanish Harlem” made me cry. How can a melody be expressed in sentimental terms? I think about the opening chords to the song “How Can I Tell You?” It’s a familiar progression. How do you write a lullaby, or any song in particular, and make it your own, and not get trapped in the obvious?

Blake: I find a song has an inevitable quality and I am simply following it. I just let it come out how it wants to. The music itself leads me towards my own enchantment, my own captivation. If I’m not captivated, then I go in a different direction.

Forson: How influenced are you by art, fine art that is? I find myself often thinking of Chagall when I listen to your songs.

Blake: I’m certainly no expert in fine art, but I am moved deeply by beauty and the expression of the human soul; there are many artists that I love. It must influence me, even if subconsciously.

Forson: Your songs also pull me into the idea of cultures you may have experienced. The word “gypsy” can be offensive to some. I think of Emir Kusturica’s “Time of the Gypsies”. I highly recommend that movie. Getting back to the idea of lands, I value your role as someone who wants to bring peace to this land. Do you feel your songs have the ability to cross all cultures, given race or orientation? Does the overall message carry this through?

Blake: I would love to think that my music could cross cultures in this way, I really would, and I think that it is always within the power of the arts to do this. I think when someone expresses themselves honestly, really honestly, then it will touch other hearts, regardless of any divisions, real or imagined. There is plenty of music from all over the world that moves deeply within me. I think music and dancing are such primal forms of expression, they bypass the mind and we all find ourselves vibrating at the same frequency, dancing to the same rhythm.

Forson: I think about one way to form symmetry and that’s available in work and manifestation. “Forge and Flow”, with it’s “na na na na” refrain is an example of a song that borders that manner of building and “laugh and sing at the sunshine”. That’s transformative. Rhythm and balance. In this song you sing “walk on the earth, meet death and rebirth. That’s Joni Mitchell-esque. “Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow”’s “death and birth and death and birth”. “The Hissing of Summer Lawns”, my favorite. Do you have a favorite Joni Mitchell album? (Laughter)

Blake: Do you know, I’ve never really gotten into Joni Mitchell even though I get compared to her all the time! I always love her lyrics when I hear them but I am shamefully ignorant of most of her work. I tried the album ‘Blue’ a few years back and I couldn’t really get into it. Just recently I heard her song ‘Both Sides Now’ covered by Olivia Fern and thought it was so gorgeous, so I might give that album a go and see if I can finally get to know her.

Forson: I have to admit one mistake I made researching your music was giving into listening to that Joni Mitchell song. I honestly felt I had betrayed you. (Laughter)

Blake: (Laughter) – that’s hilarious. Quite the opposite though – art inspires art, love inspires love, it’s so natural.

Forson: Much of your songs reference the female spirit. In “Excalibur” you sing “mightiest protector, why do I project all my fears on you?” You also sing “Calling the father within me”. What are your interpretations of the masculine spirit?

Blake: Well as I said before, I don’t fix ultimate meanings to symbols, but I will commonly use the idea of the masculine spirit to represent integrity and truth – the vertical plane, spirit coming down from heaven and piercing the earth. In “Excalibur” I was calling on that ‘masculine’ part of myself to have the courage to show up. It was about finding the courage to express my truth in the world and to assert my boundaries, as opposed to the flowing, feeling, all-accepting softness of the feminine. I actually have a very strong masculine quality in my nature, a strong sense of integrity and personal power, but at that time I hadn’t identified with those qualities or got to know them properly.

Forson: I think you at a point in a song refer to light in the father and darkness in the mother. How do the principal sources of the mother and father figure play a part in your songwriting?

Blake: That’s ‘Dissolving’. Yes, I say “Mother Darkness, Father Light I am your child.” I am a child of the darkness and the light, a child of duality. I pray to be at one with these forces within and without, and not to try to deny or fear either one. Again I’m using symbols, inter-playing forces and binary opposites to understand my wholeness, pointing to something just underneath.

Forson: Your song “I Am” is very self-defining. I think of India Arie’s “I Am Light” which is more self-possessive. Yours is more accepting of the nature and order outside of your body, finding and meeting the value in others as well. You sing “Hail to the God in everyone”. I think you also raise the question, “I am, am I?” Is that humility? To question your strength.

Blake: Such a wonderful question! I wouldn’t exactly call it humility, but you certainly could. Maybe it is some kind of ultimate humility. People will always have their own relationship with lyrics and that’s a good thing – I want them to ignite and awaken your own insight.

‘I Am’ was inspired by a Rumi poem, there’s a few lines at the beginning that are almost identical. It is an acknowledgment that we are not separate from the rest of the universe – where does the universe end and I begin? We are all of it; I am all of it… but what is ‘it’ ultimately? If I look for long enough, I find there is nothing there.

Forson: In “Her Calling”, I sense the evolution of the goddess. “She danced it into being”. What is centrally powerful about dances and dancing?

Blake: The whole universe is dancing all the time! It’s all a dance, the interplay of light and shadow, the weaving of one and the other, swirling electrons and magnetic fields. When we dance we are in our bodies and we forget to try and work it all out for a bit. We move out of the mind and experience new connections – connection with sound, with sense, with breath, with passion! And with each other too. We become the dance. The dance becomes us. The whirling dervishes dance to mimic the spinning universe and maintain their sense of center within. What an exquisite practice. Not for me though – I get really bad motion sickness! (Laughter)

Forson: The song “Mirror Light” is literally what you do with every song. There’s a mirroring of your muse. It’s your availability, your presence in the moment, your willingness to embrace. To hug with a song. “If you think I’m beautiful, it’s because you’re beautiful”.

Blake: I like that, to hug with a song. Yes I think a lot of the time I’m trying to give the world a hug. I feel such a grief for the suffering in the world, and so much love! I want people to remember their own beauty, their own love. I don’t want to be put up on a pedestal as some unreachable idea, people are so ready to do that. To put everything they yearn for outside of themselves and strive for it, when really they’re just looking in the wrong place. Don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful to be seen and loved by others and I need that too, I just want people to know their own worth. And I want to do that too – I want to remember when I admire someone that I am equal in beauty in my own way. I can really torture myself by comparing myself to other people! I think when you’ve suffered with low self-worth it can be very tempting to put others on a pedestal but also to let people put you on a pedestal. “Mirror Light” was partly to remind me not to ever fall into that trap.

Forson: Thank you for this opportunity to explore your songs and the enlightenment you bring to the songwriting process. There’s a light in you which travels far. To sit and listen to your music, I am touched by this light.

Blake: Bless you Kofi, it’s been a genuine delight to answer your questions. You’ve clearly dived deeply into my music and into the lyrics, I’m phenomenally touched by that. Also I honor the creative flow in your questioning, there’s such passion and devotion to your own artistry; such sublime curiosity and intelligence. I can’t imagine ever enjoying an interview so much ever again! Thank you.

Forson: There’s a legend in your live performances. What is that process like for you, playing live?

Blake: A legend?! Really?! I find that hard to believe! (Laughter). Live performance is odd for me, a bit of a love/hate thing. It really depends on how I’m feeling on the day, but in some ways I’m still learning to enjoy it, because I feel the pressure of it. It brings all my anxieties right to the surface and the whole process is a meditation to stay present and grounded. But I think it brings a depth to it somehow, it’s true, and I try to be really real with the audience and just tell them what’s going on for me. Sometimes that breaks the pressure because I stop trying to pretend I’m some kind of perfect human. But at the same time I try not to get too lost in the mundane, and to allow myself to move into a state of clarity, to allow myself to be powerful. There are moments of pure, pure magic, when everyone is just bathing in some ephemeral energy that we’ve all created together. People have talked about going into trance states, and tears are not uncommon.

I am getting better at just having fun and being playful with the audience, because I’m actually a very playful person. I love it when I can tap into that and really relax. I remember once I opened with something very deep and there was this magical silence, and I started to play and no sound came out because I had completely forgotten to plug my guitar in. So I stepped back up to the microphone and said very seriously, as if it might be a prayer or something, “have I even plugged my guitar in?” And it was just lovely because we all laughed and kind of tumbled back to earth, playing together. You can’t beat laughter as a medicine.

Forson: Let’s hope the world will soon again be a place to gather in numbers to experience live music.

Blake: Yes indeed! And let’s hope that collectively we will learn from these lessons and co-create a healthier world in which to sing and dance together.

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Kofi Forson is a writer, poet and playwright living in New York City. He blends his love of cinematic art, poetry and philosophy with journalism through in-depth formatted interviews with Neo-Expressionist New York artists, musicians, models, Hollywood celebrity and reviews of books, and art movements like Brexart. He has written for New York Arts Magazine, Whitehot Magazine, Talent, Armseye, Poetrybay, D/RAILED and Gainsayer. 

For more on Ruth Blake you can go to her website→