Allison de Groot and Rich Ruth have announced a self-titled collaborative album, due 2nd October on Western Vinyl. Lead single Nervion, the album’s opening track, is out now.
The collaboration started simply enough: Ruth was going to produce a solo record for de Groot. Over roughly a year in his Nashville studio, the plan fell apart. The two began composing together, and what emerged belongs to both of them. De Groot’s banjo runs through looping and delay, and the rolling figures pick up a krautrock-like momentum before Ruth’s synthesizers take over.
On Nervion, Spencer Cullum’s gorgeous pedal steel and Rich Ruth’s sustained, distorted electric guitar soar over arpeggiated synths, Allison’s banjo, Patrick M’Gonigle’s violin and Parker James’ vibraphone. Acoustic tradition and electronic texture are inseparable from the first note. The results are both cinematic in scope and beautifully immersive, as you can hear on Nervion.
De Groot, from Winnipeg, is best known for her duo with fiddler Tatiana Hargreaves, whose two albums earned recognition from the IBMA, the Canadian Folk Music Awards and the JUNOs. She won the Steve Martin Banjo Prize in 2024. Rich Ruth is the recording project of Nashville multi-instrumentalist Michael Ruth who has released three solo albums, most recently Water Still Flows on Third Man Records in 2024. He’s also a third of Shrunken Elvis, the trio he shares with pedal steel guitarist Spencer Cullum and guitarist Sean Thompson.
Cullum contributes to several tracks while violinist Patrick M’Gonigle co-wrote several of the album’s pieces and plays throughout. According to the album’s press, the final push to complete the album came in the form of a deadline they set for themselves: a surprise live debut of the material at Big Ears Festival.
Allison de Groot & Rich Ruth (October 2nd, 2026) Western Vinyl
Pre-Order the album here: https://lnk.to/degrootruth