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Singer-songwriter Ruby Friedman’s new Label 51 Recordings album, Chimes After Midnight, is a powerful collection dedicated to giving voice to "remarkable people who time will erase" and "invisible women" striving to be seen. The album features 10 new compositions, primarily penned or co-authored by Friedman and largely co-produced and arranged with multi-instrumentalist Ben Landsverk. Connie and Graham Yost (creator of hit shows like Slow Horses and Silo) serve as co-executive producers.
Chimes After Midnight follows Friedman's critically acclaimed 2016 album Gem. In the interim, she released the Disney+ featured "Ain't Got Your Money" and the L.A. radio hit "Un4Given." Her song "Fire Down Below" was also featured on the trailer for the final season of Netflix's Peaky Blinders.
The album masterfully blends historical narratives with contemporary relevance. "Honeystomach" explores the mysterious disappearance of 1950s singer-songwriter Connie Converse, reflecting Friedman's dedication to unsung female artists. "Music Row" uncovers the story of Civil War-era sex workers in Nashville, while "The Book Woman’s Daughter" highlights the Pack Horse Librarians of the Appalachians. Friedman also shares deeply personal tracks, including the "dystopian love song" "From the Storm" and "Friday Night Depression," which tackles sobriety. The album concludes with "The Mayor of North Hollywood Park," a poignant requiem for a friend lost to addiction and homelessness.
"Ruby Friedman can blow the house down...But listen closely and dig the nuance. She brings to it all something satisfyingly arcane, complex and so very intelligent. Her Orchestra counts among its players several of the finest honkers and thumpers in this or any town anywhere."
- LA WEEKLY, John Payne
“You don’t need to know Ruby Friedman’s life story to get a sense of who she is. Just hearing her, and better seeing her perform, tell enough. Her voice and manner are as bold and brash as her flame-red hair. But she’s telling you anyway, with ‘Fugue in L.A. Minor,’ the opening song of her long-in-coming first album, Gem…It’s quite the curtain-raiser, fitting as what follows has some theatrical punch, Vaudevillian in some spots, Brechtian in others. Well, really it’s Vaudeville-y and Brecht-y, not fully either, or any one thing at any time. Bluesy also applies. Jazzy maybe. But brassy, always…another highlight is a last-minute addition to the album, the powerful ‘Ballad of Lee Morse…’ Friedman sings the tale with a kind of force that can only come from someone who sees something, or a lot, of herself in it. It’s part celebratory, part cautionary. And all Ruby Friedman.”
- Steve Hochman, KPCC (NPR Affiliate)
"Modern vintage sounds that will make you laugh and cry and dance like there’s no tomorrow, Ruby Friedman is an electrifying performer and songwriter"
- KCRW, Gary Calamar
“The L.A. songstress comes at you like a weather front, a thunder-and-lightning barrage of soul and nerves, capable of wrapping more drama into a phrase than most singers do in their autobiographies"
- Kevin Bronson, Buzzbands.la
