Philly Singer-Songwriter Jesse Ruben On Moving to Nashville, and His Pint-Sized Fan Base


Philly-bred singer-songwriter Jesse Ruben will be back in the area Tuesday night for a show at The Ardmore Music Hall. He has produced four albums: Aiming for Honesty (2008); The Ones That Matter (2012); Thoughts I’ve Never Had Before, Part 1 (2012); and Part 2 (2012). Ruben’s four albums were produced independently of major record labels. “I’ve worked with some big companies in the past, never really found a perfect fit,” Ruben says. “I’ve been fortunate to do this full-time and make a living.”

The song, “We Can,” from Thoughts I’ve Never had, Part 1, has garnered quite a following from an unlikely audience. “Without my doing anything, a bunch of schools have adopted it as their theme song for the year,” he says. Because of it, Ruben has picked up gigs at elementary schools throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Ruben, who now lives in New York City, previously followed his musical passion to Boston, where he attended Berklee School of Music, and then to Nashville. “It was a pretty cool experience because the music scene is so different in Nashville,” Ruben says. “Even in NYC and L.A., people do a lot of different things. In Nashville, there’s just a ton of songwriters. It’s really easy to be around people who are so talented.”

Jesse Ruben performs with Nathan Angelo at The Ardmore Music Hall on Tuesday, April 22th, at 6 p.m. For tickets, go here