Free at Noon Flashback: Ruen Brothers debuts All My Shades of Blue at World Cafe Live

Ruen Brothers | photo by Senia Lopez for WXPN | www.senialopez.photography

The weekend kicked off with a Free At Noon set from The Ruen Brothers, siblings Henry and Rupert Stansall out of Scunthorpe, England. The brothers wore matching bolo ties over button up shirts, crossing midwestern cowboy with 60’s greaser. Their music is nostalgic rockabilly, twanging with grit. The brothers shared a mic, trading harmonies with faces at kissing distance. Colin, who Henry dubbed their “third brother from Detroit,” played drums, pausing between songs to adjust his black plastic eyeglasses.

Midway through the set, Henry told a story about a nightmare trip during their tour. The band was flying to Nashville when the plane was grounded in Chicago due to a tornado, and they were forced to stay in a grimy motel on the edge of the city. “You know those old 70’s cop thriller shootout movies where they chase the bad guys to the motel and he gets held up? It was just like that. I’m not lying, there were squad cars parked out front,” he said, eliciting empathetic nods and laughter from the audience. The band then launched into “Motor City,” a song that sounds like it should be on your cross country road trip playlist.

Ruen Brothers’ debut album All My Shades of Blue debuts today via Ramseur Records. Give the title track a listen here, listen back to the full performance below, and see them tonight at MilkBoy. Details on the show can be found at the XPN Concert Calendar.

Setlist
Aces
Walk Like A Man
Make The World Go Away
Unknown
Summer Sun
Motor City
An Evening Dreaming
All My Shades of Blue