Michigan’s masterful multi-instrumentalist plays Traverse City on Saturday and a 75th birthday bash at Ann Arbor’s The Ark on April 2. The Local Spins interview with a beloved musician and collaborator.

The Joy of Musical Diversity: Peter Madcat Ruth has long embraced that approach. (Photo/Anna Sink)
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Many musicians of a certain age say their lives changed when they heard The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, taking up guitar and turning to rock ‘n’ roll.
Not Peter Ruth. While his world changed forever around that same time, it was a different sound and a different medium.
“I heard Sonny Terry on the radio, his harmonica and guitar duo with Brownie MacGhee,” recalled the Ann Arbor musician. “I said, ‘I have to do that.’ I’ve been playing since 1964.”
Ruth was 15 at the time, and over the years since, his “Madcat” harmonica work has graced more than 50 recordings. They range from the blues he embraced as a youth to jazz with the legendary Dave Brubeck, the futuristic worldbeat of Muruga Global Village Ceremonial Band and the outright funk of George Clinton.

Fiirst Inspired by the Blues: Madcat (Courtesy Photo)
Scattered in that discography are his recordings as a bandleader and with bands featuring various Brubecks, such as Chris Brubeck’s Triple Play with Ruth and Joel Brown.
To celebrate his illustrious career and his 75th birthday, The Ark in Ann Arbor will host an all-star gathering of musicians on April 2, including Ruth’s C.A.R.Ma. Quartet and special guests Rachael Davis, Seth Bernard, Shari Kane and Nashville harmonica virtuoso Buddy Green. General admission tickets are $30 and available online here.
Just ahead of that, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (March 23), he’ll bring his diverse C.A.R.Ma. Quartet to The Alluvion in Traverse City for Ruth’s first performance in Traverse City in more than a decade. Tickets are $20 in advance online here; $25 at the door.
The C.A.R.Ma. Quartet features Ruth on all manner of instruments, including harmonica, ukulele, guitar, jaw-harp, penny-whistle, kalimba and vocals, alongside John Churchville on drums and tabla, Brennan Andes on bass and Dan Ripke on guitar and vocals.
“We’ve been together three years now,” says Ruth. The band drew from the Ann Arbor band Sumkali, which blended Indian music with jazz, funk and rock. With Churchville incorporating tabla into his drumkit, the result is a sound Ruth says its wholly original.
C.A.R.Ma. came about in the wake of Sumkali’s breakup after it had been booked to play a concert for Cadillac’s Gopherwood concert series. When the pandemic made a live show impossible, the band was asked to send in a video.
“John said, ‘We’re sorry, the band broke up. Paul Brown (who helms Gopherwood) said, ‘Can you put something together and send a video?’” That’s when the quartet formed, at first to do just that one-off. It turned out to be much more.
“We had so much fun doing the video that we had a band,” says Ruth. The timing proved ideal, as his previous band, the Madcat Midnight Blues Journey, had also broken up in the wake of COVID. “I wasn’t looking for a band, but it fell in my lap,” he says.
EMBRACING DIVERSE INFLUENCES AND THAT ‘MADCAT’ NICKNAME
The band’s sound is hard to define, combining elements of all the different music he’s been exposed to over the years. “It doesn’t fit in boxes well. There are lots of influences – Americana, rock and roll, jazz, world music, blues – it’s all part of the mix,” Ruth says.
Churchville’s tabla, which is played by hand, along with his regular kit played with sticks, make for a unique sound. “He’s been studying tabla for close to 30 years. It’s a sound unlike any other, yet tabla is so versatile. It can be played on an old-time Appalachian country song.”
Ruth’s career has been marked by good fortune and an openness to styles beyond his first love, the blues. In the ’60s he was a student in a huge high school in Chicago. “Hardly anyone was listening to the blues. I was crazy about it. Most were listening to The Beatles, The Beach Boys. A few of us (blues lovers) found each other.”

Jelling: C.A.R.Ma. Quartet (Courtesy Photo)
He says that’s where he picked up his permanent nickname. “They (blues greats) all had nicknames – Muddy Waters, Pinetop Perkins, Hound Dog Taylor, Howlin’ Wolf. We made up names for each other. It was a joke name among a small group of friends.”
When he joined Chris Brubeck’s band New Heavenly Blue, the band’s drummer also was named Peter. So to differentiate between them, Ruth dug out his old high school nickname. And it stuck.
“I moved to Ann Arbor in 1970 and since I didn’t know anyone, I was introduced as Madcat. It became my stage name.”
That also led to his working with Chris’ dad. “In 1973, I did my first show with Dave. In ’74 I went on the first tour with Dave around the U.S. and Europe. I was in the right place at the right time.”
Since then, he’s established himself as a consummate performer and frequent collaborator with other musicians and bands, including The Schrock Brothers, who play Holland’s Park Theatre on April 20 and Grand Rapids’ SpeakEZ Lounge on May 1 as part of the Local Spins Wednesdays series.

The Schrock Bros (Photo/Andrew Rogers)
Ruth also was named Harmonica Player of the Year in 1997 by The Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica and won a 2006 Grammy Award as a featured soloist on William Bolcom’s “Songs of Innocence and of Experience.”
“Madcat is not only a Grammy Award-winning legend on the harmonica, he is also a gem of a person and a pillar of the Michigan music community,” said Chris Good, one of the organizers of the 75th birthday bash.
“I am extremely excited about this show. It will be an eclectic mix of American roots music, blues, jazz and world music, plus music that doesn’t fit in any particular category,” said Ruth, noting that he first hosted a birthday concert at The Ark when he turned 50, then again at 60 and at 70 (with a host of special guests, including Billy Strings, Joshua Davis and Seth Bernard, among others).
“I didn’t want to wait until I turn 80, so I’m having a 75th birthday concert at The Ark,” he said.
So what keeps Ruth going after all these years? He still enjoys it.
“I’m loving the sounds, the music, the songs. Sharing music with people. I’ve played in 49 states and 13 foreign countries. I don’t play for a lot of people, but it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. … I plan on continuing to play music for a long time.”
VIDEO: C.A.R.Ma. Quartet, “Mellow Down Easy”
VIDEO: Madcat & Kane, “Mighty Long Time”
VIDEO: Madcat at 70, “Trouble in Mind”
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