Jax Singer-Songwriter Chris Rudasill’s Solo Effort is Full of Deep, Ruminative Melancholy

Taken from Blood on Blood, the debut EP from local singer-songwriter Chris Rudasill, “Carver’s Gap” is a worthy and rolling ballad that sounds submerged in a deep pool of ruminative melancholy.

That’s not to say there isn’t hope at play. Over parallel finger-picked acoustic guitars, Rudasill sings lyrics sketching out some bucolic, ethereal place “Where the wind and snow calls me home” and “No one sees you there/floating through balsam air.” Whether Rudasill is laying down an allegory or a certain travelogue surely depends on the listener’s headspace. At midpoint, the arrival of strings interpreting Rudasill’s vocal melody, then blooming out briefly into countermelodies, with the same strings coaxing Rudasill’s voice and guitar to song’s end, all sound both weirdly surprising yet wholly expected.

Rudasill, a former chief member of The Dog Apollo and currently performing with Joel Bernkrant as Evil Sons, worked closely with producer Ben McLeod (BRM Sound, All Them Witches) to create the five songs of Blood on Blood and that concentrated effort is evident. To frame Rudasill’s style, his vocal lines decay with the same breathless weariness of Elliot Smith, yet the perpetual yearning of the outsider looking inward (and carefree choices in harmony and instrumentation) also invokes the mid-sixties work of Arthur Lee and Love. “Carver’s Gap,” and the rest of Blood on Blood, is a good and worthwhile late-summer investment of time and money, that is somehow indicative and totally unlike, the current crop of Northeast Florida musicians. 

Stream “Carver’s Gap” and Blood on Blood are available on all streaming platforms. Follow Chris Rudasill on Instagram.

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