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Mike Rud: Miniatures

By Dan Bilawsky

What to do, what to do, what to do? That question must always be swimming around the mind of the creative performer. And for those who reap some sort of critical success with their work, it's magnified, as the listening public, no doubt, also ponders the next move. When faced with this endless sea of choice, many in said position try to outdo their previous successes, going bigger and broader in scope or retreading over the ground of their prize-winning ...

Mike Rud: Notes On Montreal

By Dan Bilawsky

Do you have to be intimately familiar with a specific locale and its literary representations and intimates in order to appreciate music that's inextricably linked to it? Guitarist Mike Rud's Notes On Montreal raises that question, but it's a question that can never truly be answered. For it's up to each individual artist to find a way to appeal to in-the-know audiences while also catering to a broader segment of people who may know little or nothing about the place(s) ...

Mike Rud: Live From Lotusland

By Stephen Latessa

Canadian guitarist Mike Rud is a player of great touch and lyricism. Live From Lotusland features nine tracks recorded at CBC studios in Vancouver from 2002-04. The music within is highly melodic and inviting, featuring musicians who are clearly at ease with each other.

Ray Brown's great “Blues For Junior is given a magnificent reading as a duet for bass and guitar. Russ Botten's bass lopes along amiably like an elephant trudging through the heat while Rud's guitar ...