MIKE + RUTHY: news •

"Great, Gorgeous - Mike + Ruthy successfully bring folk music to a new place 

while holding on to the timeless traditions of the genre, namely, the telling of a story." -Kingston Freeman

"Mike + Ruthy’s musicianship bears the mark of veteran brilliance"   - Chronogram

“Some of the best songwriting of their generation”  - High Times

“Seemingly descended not just from one famous folkie, but the entire folk tradition itself.”

- Willamette Week

“Gorgeous acoustic music which exceeds a genre such as folk or singer/songwriter.  

Two perfectly connected musicians who belong to the absolute top.”   - Moors Magazine

"One rockin', blissful voice.  A musical duo not to be missed!" - The Valley Voice 

"Infectious new folk rock."  -Boston Globe

"Mike + Ruthy channel Woody Guthrie."  - Journal & Courier

"Million to One is overstuffed with timelessly catchy and beautifully melodic pearls" - Chronogram

"Mike + Ruthy have been blending their voices for over ten years and Million to One is the best they’ve ever sounded."  - Out of the Box, WHRV

“While many folk-rock and Americana bands simply copy their influences, Mike + Ruthy have succeeded in mixing the new with the old seamlessly . . . Million to One breathes a love and respect for folk music with each track.”  - Performer Magazine

"While still 'roots' music, Mike + Ruthy's Million to One reveals . . .  a late '50s and '60s folk-rock style that had such a huge influence on everything that followed"  - Vintage Guitar

"Replete with banjo, fiddle and pedal steel, Ungar and Merenda showcase a natural chemistry shifting between catchy pop tunes, bluesy rock numbers, lush soul songs and hushed folk ballads.  Million to One is a milestone achievement for the New York-based duo . . . remarkably eclectic songwriting." - The Wire

 

"Mike + Ruthy offer breathy, rich Americana . . . a beguiling new album."  Time Out New York 8.8.10

[FOLK] The debut disc from Mike & Ruthy might be called the first post-Raising Sand folk duo album. Like that surprise 2009 hit by Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, Million to One features roots and pop savvy wedded to clean but moody production, in service of solid songs, all delivered with a disarmingly laid-back yet tensile feel. It's the ideal vehicle to launch the next stage of the careers of Michael Merenda and Ruth Ungar, late of the Mammals, a leading folk group of the aughts that excelled at freshening up folk tropes for a younger audience. The married couple's voices blend smoothly while retaining individual character, as does their reliable instrumental interplay. State-of-the-art folk music starts—well, continues—here. 

:: Between Rock and a Folk Place ::

"Million to One is overstuffed with timelessly catchy and beautifully melodic pearls"

Some say folk rock was born January 20, 1965, the day a group of folk musicians-turned-Beatles fans calling themselves the Byrds entered Columbia Recording Studios in Hollywood to record “Mr. Tambourine Man,” a then-unreleased Bob Dylan song. (Interestingly, the quintet’s leader, Jim—later Roger—McGuinn, had already played solo acoustic versions of Beatles songs in coffeehouses.) Others cite July 25, 1965, the date of Dylan’s infamous “electric” appearance at the Newport Folk Festival, as folk rock’s big bang. But that performance, which also featured some of the singer’s earlier acoustic tunes, can itself be seen as the culmination of the genre-blending experiments he’d begun the year before, which led to ’65’s Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. And, of course, there were other electrified folk-ish acts—the Beau Brummels, the Searchers—who’d had similar ideas around the same time. In any event, folk rock seems to have been a natural occurrence, a phenomenon of traditionalist-visionaries, with an exact birth date that’s hard to pin down. And the current between its twin tributaries has only gotten blurrier over the last 45 years. Today, in an era when most “folks” play rock, where does one stream end and the other begin? Nowadays, it’s rock itself that’s the true folk music: Young musicians generally start out by learning something like “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” not “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” So does folk rock really even exist as such anymore, when the majority of its practitioners lack the roots-repertoire foundation it originally evolved from? Or does all of this lexicographical analysis even matter?

“It matters on iTunes or CD Baby, I guess,” guitarist, banjoist, and singer Mike Merenda says with a shrug. “Not to us, though. But I don’t like to call us folk because a lot of people still think of Peter, Paul & Mary when they hear the word folk—and that’s not us.” Much agreed: The rich sound Merenda and his wife, the fiddler, guitarist, and singer Ruthy Ungar, make as Mike and Ruthy is thankfully devoid of the cloying, A Mighty Wind-like cutesyness that tainted so much of the postwar folk boom. (The Serendipity Singers, anyone?) The couple have released three albums of their timeless, acoustic-based music—the duet-oriented The Honeymoon Agenda and Waltz of the Chickadee (2008 and 2009, respectively) and the new, full-band Million to One—on their own Humble Abode label.

“Well, you do have to pick a category when you sell your music on those websites, though, and when you pitch it to press and radio people,” says Ungar, her brow furrowed with thought as she folds laundry at the kitchen table of the pair’s West Hurley home. “But with the new album, ‘folk rock’ does seem to make sense because of the sound,” she continues, keeping her voice down as the couple’s two-year-old son Will naps in the next room. “It has drums, electric bass and guitar, keyboards, and some samples, along with [the duo’s own] acoustic instruments and harmonies.”

Those harmonies. Heartbreaking. Gorgeous. As pure and eternal as the wind that carries them. In fact, with the way the couple’s voices climb and curl together one can’t picture them ever not having sung together. “I’ve always loved singing harmony, even if it’s just with some song on the radio,” says Ungar. “Mike’s voice is very breathy and mine is really strong, so it was a challenge at first. But I think that’s part of what makes us sound different than other duos.”

Fittingly, Merenda and Ungar’s musical union is itself a bridging of the rock and folk scenes. Merenda grew up in New Hampshire, where he played in alternative and ska bands while at college. Ungar is deeply steeped in traditional music, being the daughter of Saugerties master fiddler Jay Ungar and folksinger Lyn Hardy. (The couple regularly appears with the Jay Ungar and Molly Mason Family Band.) But although as a child she played music with her parents for fun, Ungar’s goal in her teens and twenties was a career in theater. By 1998, however, when she met Merenda in New York and the two formed insurgent string trio Rhinegold with mandolinist Carter Little, she’d come home, so to speak. It was clear from the start there was something special between her and Merenda—though it’s hard to say which came first, the music or the romance.
“To me Mike and Ruthy fell in love first and their music just naturally follows that,” says Little. “They just have this organic harmony about them that’s part of everything in their lives; their family, their music, the way they relate to other musicians. And with the audience. There’s a very pure ease of expression, very special and soulful.”

Named for the threesome’s favorite cheap beer, Rhinegold lasted long enough to record a homemade CD and scratch out a notch in the East Village “anti-folk” scene. The couple’s next chapter began in 2001, when Merenda met another folk-reared musician at a Massachusetts music shop: Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, the grandson of Pete Seeger himself. The young banjo and guitar player invited Merenda and Ungar to a party and jam session, where it immediately became apparent to all that they needed to start a band. Thus was born the revered alt-Americana group the Mammals, which later also included Mike’s brother, Chris Merenda, on drums. The outfit pushed the limits of the musicians’ own backgrounds by injecting new energy into old-timey music and giving a down-home treatment to Nirvana and Morphine songs (“We were also listening to the Pixies and Sonic Youth a lot,” says Ungar). The Mammals released four fine albums and became a festival favorite in the US, Australia, and Europe. But eventually the members determined they each needed some room for personal evolution.

“After seven years of touring and all the stresses that come along with being a self-managed band, we decided to give it a break to focus on our families as well as the music we were all interested in making independently,” Merenda says. “I think we’re actually much closer friends now that we’re not touring than we were when we were deep in the thick of it. Touring is a ferocious beast of a way to live your life.” He adds that the Mammals are currently assembling a live DVD as they remain open to an eventual reunion.

When Ungar and Merenda got married in 2006 they chose to celebrate by making their first record as a duo instead of taking a trip, a move that resulted in the appropriately named The Honeymoon Agenda. With covers of the Velvet Underground and Tom Waits and some occasional distorted electric guitar among its mainly intimate acoustic tracks, the disc continues the style-spanning efforts of the couple’s work with the Mammals and won praise from the indie press. A tribute to their newborn son, the lullabye-esque Waltz of the Chickadee is more of a return to their low-key folk roots, although, according to Merenda, the pair had by that time already written and recorded a third, more rock-leaning album that they were burning to release. Their only problem was finding the necessary funds: Having a child of course meant the new parents had to take time off from performing, their main source of income.

The solution? Kickstarter.com, an arts-funding platform that allows supporters to underwrite specific projects by musicians, writers, filmmakers, artists, and other creative individuals. The two musicians produced a short video pitch—with an admittedly impossible-to-resist, two-year-old Will in the lead role—which they posted on the site, along with a donations goal of $5,000. They were blown away when the target was not only met, but exceeded, within one week, resulting in the appropriately named Million to One. “It’s challenging enough to try to make it as independent artists,” Ungar says. “But during a recession? That seemed like the greatest test. So the support completely filled our hearts. And we really hope the people who contributed [receiving signed advance copies of the CD for their assistance and, with premium-level donations, private house concerts by the duo] know we see them as collaborators.”


With a supertight band that also features drummer Craig Santiago, bassist Jose Ayerve, and the guest fiddle of Jay Ungar, Million to One is overstuffed with timelessly catchy and beautifully melodic pearls: the chugging “Rise,” the pedal steel-weeping “End of Time,” the delicately listing “Goodbye.” And the record’s pair of raunchy barroom stomps, “Covered” and “Be the Boss,” proudly smack of mid-’60s Dylan. “The songwriting, singing, and production are all first rate,” says erstwhile Dylan sideman and Americana trailblazer David Bromberg. “The term ‘folk rock’ isn’t one that I’ve heard lately, although you can’t listen to this CD and not realize that folk rock is exactly what it is—and very good folk rock.”

But, much-appreciated endorsements from their elders aside, Mike and Ruthy feel a stronger affinity for the current “freak folk” underground, which is home to acts that reference the psychedelic folk of the late 1960s. “We’re most smitten with Vetiver [a group formed in San Francisco and now based in Hudson],” says Merenda. “We like a lot of different music, but mostly what we like is when musicians sound genuinely like themselves. It’s fun to play a banjo and sing old songs about chickens and whisky, but at the end of the day that’s not my personal experience. The freak folk and anti-folk scenes are more in line with a rock ’n’ roll ethos, in my opinion. The irony, of course, is that rock ’n’ roll came straight out of folk and blues, so we’re really just chasing our tail here, right?”

Right. And in the case of Mike and Ruthy, it’s an exhilarating chase indeed.

Mike and Ruthy will headline the O Positive Festival with Tracy Bonham on October 9 at Keegan Ales in Kingston. Million to One is out now on Humble Abode Music. www.mikeandruthy.com.

RECORD REVIEW: Mike and Ruthy
Million to One
By: Emma Dessau

When an album manages to capture a different and distinct sound with each track, the extraordinary talents of its artists, both as a team and individually, are displayed. On their newest release Million to One, Mike + Ruthy, former members of The Mammals, demonstrate their love for folk music by paying homage to the numerous forms it can take. The album varies from the indie-rock harmonized opener "End of Time" to songs featuring Mike or Ruthy alone on lead vocals, such as "Who's Who," a honky-tonk style tune sung primarily by Mike. While many folk-rock and Americana bands simply copy their influences, Mike + Ruthy have succeeded in mixing the new with the old seamlessly, calling to mind the proficiency of Yo La Tengo in their heyday.

Not only does the married couple operate magnificently as a musical talent to be reckoned with, but their combined DIY mentality and drive made Million to One a shared project between Mike + Ruthy and their fans. The band created a petition to raise money for their biggest release to date on Kickstarter.com and asked their fans to help them reach a fundraising goal of $5,000. They had no problem quickly meeting and doubling that number and thus released Million to One on their own record label, Humble Abode Music, which is no small feat considering the economic times.

Million to One breathes a love and respect for folk music with each track. It is impossible not to appreciate the hard work that went into what is Mike + Ruthy's highest stakes release. Their efforts will not go unappreciated and their beloved and supporting fans will not be disappointed. (Humble Abode Music)

Married musical couple Mike + Ruthy, composed of Durham native Mike Merenda and folk descendent Ruth Ungar, have been known to local audiences since their days in popular folk collective The Mammals. They’ve now released three full-length albums as a duo, and they’ll come to The Stone Church in Newmarket on Saturday, Sept. 25, with perhaps their strongest to date.
Released in July, “Million to One” has a quicker, peppier pace than Mike and Ruthy’s 2009 release “Waltz of the Chickadee,” but it retains the duo’s down-home folk spirit, replete with banjo, fiddle and pedal steel. Ungar and Merenda showcase a natural chemistry throughout the disc’s 12 original tracks, shifting between catchy pop tunes, bluesy rock numbers, lush soul songs and hushed folk ballads. The album is a milestone achievement for the New York-based duo, reflecting significant growth in their remarkably eclectic songwriting.

The local CD release show begins at 8 p.m. on Sept. 25 at The Stone Church, 5 Granite St., Newmarket, 603-292-3546. Massachusetts-based singer-songwriter Heather Maloney will open the show. The door charge is $5.

"One blissful rockin’ voice, a musical duo not to be missed."

Mike + Ruthy’s ‘Million to One’ great, gorgeous

Folk music is a tricky thing — there is an inherent need to be aware of the past and traditions — but if you move forward, like any real artist is prone to do, skeptical eyebrow-raising ensues, with the incessant questioning, “is this folk?” There is a fine line between respecting the past and moving forward, and those that do push ahead are sometimes ostracized, until, of course, time passes and it too becomes traditional.

With “Million To One,” the fine line is obliterated, and a new one drawn, as Mike + Ruthy bravely, and more importantly, successfully bring folk music to a new place, while holding on to the timeless traditions of the of the genre, namely, the telling of a story.

Mike Merenda and Ruthy Ungar met in 1998. A New Hampshire native, Merenda had played rock and ska while Woodstock fiddle Unger leaned towards roots. After joining in music and marriage, they’ve played along side Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews and John Melloncamp, and released several of their CDs, as well as with the Mammals.

Recorded close by at the renewed, bustling Dreamland Studios, as well as the long gone and much missed Allaire Studios, “Million To One” was produced by Mike + Ruthy and recorded and mixed by Frank Moscowitz. They are featured along with bassist Jose Ayerve and drum shaman Craig Santiago, with pedal steel by Charlie Rose and piano and organ from Ken Maiuri, fiddle giant Jay Ungar even chimed in.

Here the sound is edgy but not over-the-top. “End of Time” is 1960s rock, while with “Covered” they sing about a world “covered in sin” in a bluesy style. “Rise” would be at home on a Mary Chapin-Carpenter record, and “Be the Boss” echoes early electric Dylan. They return to their roots with “As My Eyes Run Wild,” as pure folk as you can get while in the title track “Million To One,” Merenda sings “All of my worries are gone” and you believe him. There’s no doubt this radio ready track could so be a hit.

This is a great, gorgeous record, and that it comes from nearby makes it even better.

Visit www.mikeandruthy.com.

Mike + Ruthy and friends will appear at the Tinker Street Cinema Sunday at 8:30 p.m. for the Music at the Movies series. “Million to One” is set for release on Tuesday.

David Malachowski is a guitarist, producer and freelance journalist living in Woodstock. The Freeman seeks CDs by local artists or artists appearing locally for review. Please send all CDs (please no CD-Rs or demo CDs) to Daily Freeman c/o Preview, 79 Hurley Avenue, Kingston, NY 12401.

Mike Merenda and Ruthy Ungar met, fell in love, and married while they were members of the Mammals, a folk band that was based in old-time music, but stretched the boundaries of the genre with an approach that added bluegrass, rock, and blues to the template. They were mostly acoustic, but eventually added a drummer and started moving toward mainstream pop. When the Mammals went on permanent hiatus, Mike and Ruthy stepped out as a duo and, with Million to One, their third album, they indulge their more folk-rock tendencies, at times even rocking out, albeit with a folky restraint. "Who's Who" sounds like the Rolling Stones on one of their country side trips. Ruthy's fiddle plays credible lead guitar lines, and the duo's "Who's who" refrain echoes the "who hoo" from "Sympathy for the Devil." Mike spews out a Dylanesque lyric full of incomprehensible word salad. Other strong rockers include "End of Time," a straightforward investigation of a relationship hovering between pleasure and pain with the duo delivering a whispered vocal while a decidedly un-country pedal steel guitar gently weeps in the background; "Covered," a thumping blues with a hint of gospel and fine harmony vocals; and "Be the Boss," a 4/4 rocker with ebullient call-and-response vocals and a muddy piano mixed in to give the track a vintage sound. Most of the songs deal with love in its various guises and show off the duo's winning lyrical and melodic style. "All the Way Down" is a jazzy soft rock tune with warm harmonies, humorous lyrics, and cheerful chiming guitar. "On the Road" is about the life of a traveling band, but without the usual rock angst. Its cheerful pedal steel and the sunny vocals give the tune a feel of contented melancholy. The quiet vocals on "That's What I Call Love" are almost lost in the mix, but the rippling guitars and the long sustained notes of the electric bass complement Ruthy's moody muddled vocal. Grace notes from a glockenspiel and the syncopated thump of a bass drum drive "Summer Sun." It wraps up the album adding an exotic hint of Middle Eastern modality to its undulating rhythm.

"Their sublimely twined voices evoke silken clouds stretching low across a sky . . . Mike and Ruthy’s musicianship bears the mark of veteran brilliance"

"Part of a wave of new bands that are hip and edgy, but embrace acoustic instruments, songs with stories, songs with meaning, not just techno-blabber aimed at an instant-gratification society that shuns depth."
- Poughkeepsie Journal

“Gorgeous acoustic music which exceeds a genre such as folk or singer/songwriter. Two perfectly connected musicians who belong to the absolute top.”

“Some of the best songwriting of their generation - literate, political, melodic, alternately angry and satirical and sensual."

I Got You Babe

Nothing is quite so innocently charming as an amorous singing duo. From Sonny and Cher to Johnny and June, the history of popular music is littered with matrimonial musical mates. So it is that we reintroduce Hudson Valley-based duo Mike and Ruthy, formerly of alt-folk darlings The Mammals. Their 2008 debut, the aptly titled Honeymoon Agenda, was well received by numerous regional press outlets — including this one — for its striking collection of harmony-laden, indie-tinged Americana. The pair’s latest effort, Waltz of the Chickadees, mostly picks up where that disc left off, except for one thing: It’s even better. Fall in love all over again this Thursday, June 11, at The Skinny Pancake in Burlington.

"Everything else starts from music like this."

A Family Affair - Mike and Ruthy Waltz into the Red Door with a new CD.

The folk tradition runs thick with Ruth Ungar Merenda. Her father Jay Ungar and stepmother Molly Mason have been playing music together since the late 1970s and are highly respected acoustic string musicians. Her mother Lyn Hardy is another accomplished singer-songwriter and guitarist in the folk and country vein.
Ruth has carried on the family tradition with her husband and long-time musical partner Michael Merenda, a Durham native. The couple, known jointly as Mike and Ruthy, just released their second album as a duo, “Waltz of the Chickadee,” which they’ll introduce to the Seacoast with a show on Friday, June 5.
Many of Ruth’s family members perform on “Waltz.” Jay Ungar plays fiddle and mandolin on certain tunes and Molly Mason plays bass on several tracks. Lyn Hardy adds backup vocals on a couple of songs. Mike and Ruth both sing and play guitar, while Ruth adds fiddle and Mike also plays banjo. A number of close friends pitch in other instruments, like drums, violin and cello.
The intimacy of the musicians comes across throughout the album. Most of the songs are warm and soft, with banjo strings plucking and upright bass thumping, evoking the feel of a household gathering of close friends and family. Generally more laidback and less peppy than Mike and Ruth’s former band The Mammals, the music feels, as Ruth puts it, “more like sitting on the front porch having a beer than down at the barn dance.”
That should make for appropriate listening at The Red Door in Portsmouth, where Mike and Ruthy will play a CD release show on Friday, June 5. They’re no strangers to the venue, having performed in the Monday night Hush Hush Sweet Harlot music series more than once. Many other Seacoast fans will remember the pair from their numerous area shows with The Mammals.
But Mike and Ruth’s musical affiliation actually began long before The Mammals became national staples of the folk and bluegrass scene. In fact, they played music together the very first time they met in 1998, at the home of a mutual friend in New York City. Ruth, a native of Woodstock, N.Y., moved to the Big Apple after graduating from Bard College, where she studied theater. “Some of my friends were introducing me to their new roommate, and that was Mike,” she said.
Despite her musical upbringing and family background, Ruth had mostly given up music at that point in her life. But when Mike picked up a guitar and started to play, she was compelled to harmonize. “It inspired me to get my dusty fiddle out of the closet with its rusty strings and see if I could play a little bit,” she said.
Just as Mike helped reawaken Ruth’s musical passion, her old-timey folk and country proclivities rubbed off on him. Growing up in Durham and attending Oyster River High School, Mike had played in a number of rock and ska bands and was tuned in to the indie scene coming out of UNH. He graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine with a degree in creative writing before moving to New York and meeting Ruth, who helped carry him in a new musical direction and got him hooked on banjo.
“We definitely learned from each other,” Ruth said.
Within a year, the pair had gathered some friends and formed a band called Rhinegold (“Named after the beer, I will admit,” Ruth said). The group was active for about a year before Mike and Ruth fled the high rents of New York and settled in western Massachusetts. There they met musician Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, grandson of legendary folk icon Pete Seeger. This trio would form the foundation of The Mammals.
“That band really just took off,” said Ruth, who still seems amazed at The Mammals’ early momentum. The band also recruited Mike’s brother, fellow Oyster River grad Chris Merenda, on drums, deepening the already rich family ties.
The Mammals would release six live and studio recordings and repeatedly tour the nation with shows as far and wide as Florida and California (not to mention at least two shows at the Mill Pond Center in Durham). They even traveled to Denmark and Australia.
“We had a lot of fun in that band,” Ruth said. “We had to like forcibly decide to not do Mammals gigs in 2007 when I got pregnant and we needed to slow down a little.”
It was toward the end of The Mammals’ tenure, in the fall of 2006, that Mike and Ruth got married. Instead of traveling to an exotic island for a honeymoon, the newlyweds stayed home and recorded their debut Mike and Ruthy album, 2008’s “The Honeymoon Agenda.”
“It was sort of a way of redirecting our honeymoon funds,” Ruth said, noting that their friend José Ayerve produced the album for free as a wedding gift.
Mike and Ruth took advantage of the disc to record some of their all-time favorite folk songs by artists like Etta James, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. “Waltz of the Chickadee,” however, is composed mostly of original tunes by the two songwriters, plus a couple of covers by folks like Woody Guthrie and Dave Van Ronk.
Whereas The Mammals’ breed of bluegrass was upbeat and dancy, evoking a festive sonic atmosphere, Mike and Ruthy’s new disc is mellower and rootsier, with a personal touch augmented by the family participation.
“I think the songs are really strong because they’re all really close to the heart,” Ruth said. “The themes tend to be birth and death, things like that, that seem really intense, but the whole record is gentle.”
Now living in upstate New York with their 1-year-old son William Puck, Mike and Ruth have managed to find songwriting time between their household chores and parenting duties. Each of them wrote a song for Will on the new album, and the baby has provided renewed inspiration for their music. Ruth said parenthood has caused the couple to “look at the world through slightly more grownup eyes, but also through little kid eyes,” and that perspective has permeated their songwriting.
Though they’re still touring in support of “Waltz of the Chickadee,” Mike and Ruthy have also written enough material for a third album, tentatively called “Rise,” which they hope to complete by the end of the year. Ruth said that disc will be more of a dance-happy, full-band effort, reminiscent of their work with The Mammals.
Although The Mammals are “hibernating,” as their Web site explains, Mike and Ruth remain active in other projects, as well. Ruth is a member of the female vocal trio Sometymes Why, and both of them still occasionally play with Tao Rodriguez-Seeger. They even performed with Tao and Pete Seeger at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in April, and again at Seeger’s 90th birthday bash in Madison Square Garden in May (the evening’s lineup also included Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp and many others).
But Mike and Ruthy are currently focused on the family front, and part of that family is on the Seacoast. Mike’s parents still live in Durham, and Ruth said she looks forward to performing again in the snug confines of The Red Door. But she warns fans not to be late—they’ll only be onstage from 8 to 9 p.m.

The Red Door is at 107 State St., Portsmouth, 603-373-6827. Visit www.mikeandruthy.com.