Behind the scenes…or…TMI square dance style….
We’re here to give dance leaders music that inspires them to keep dancing and leading and to keep their clubs and organizations and classes dancing through small crowds and large. Through all the ebbs and flows of this activity. Square/round/contra/folk dancing is healthy and for the soul, the mind, the nerves and the body. It takes the edge off some of the stress that comes with everyday living. A positive activity on many levels mental physical and social. It improves concentration and memory, eye to ear to muscle coordination, not to mention’s hard to do without a smile. It keeps us happier longer and in better health as years go by. It puts us with people when we might not ordinarily get to know and inspires us out of the house when it’s so much easier to stay on the couch.
It’s our aim this music will find its way to putting a smile on people’s faces at your every dance far and wide. The true joy in this business is inspiring happy smiling dancers. From housing the thousands of tapes then transferring and remastering them, the digital scans, the web construction it’s no small mssion so your purchases are greatly appreciated.
This site was originally available in the late 90’s but the time and funding aspect kept it a tough go so it was back burnered for many years. Now we’re looking forward to its long and hopefully useful existence to dancers in the future.
As it says on the homepage, more music will be added regularly until the last one in the vault has been made available.
The person behind the operation and making the site possible is not likely to be found in the news stream yet has been enjoying it since the late ’50’s. Jeff Ruff is the push behind the site and making its contents available. Though not on the calling circuit he’s no stranger to the activity. From his earliest days he’d heard stories of Windsor Records founder Doc Alumbaugh and the great music on the Windsor label that he founded after coming out west in 1950. It was Doc who’d been an early champion of his father, Square Dance Hall of Famer Bob Ruff. Jeff’s been involved on the sidelines with square dancing since the late 50’s.
At only a few hours old he had the good and probably unique fortune of being visited by the whole of Bob’s square dance club who came by to welcome him in. In just a few months he become a regular at Bob’s dances while Bob’s wife Babs helped with everything from extra dancer to working the door to public relations decorations and refreshments. Tagging along with dad gave him a great appreciation of the many benefits of square and round dancing in and a great love of the music that went with it.
Later Jeff danced with caller Lloyd Purdy’s youth group and dance assisted at his dad’s college extension classes teaching teachers how to easily add square dancing to their curriculum. Jeff also danced monthly at Bob Osgood’s contra dances at Sets In Order headquarters to the great sounds of Jimmy Shand. He and Mother Babs took in CallerLab ’94 while accepting Bob’s Lifetime Achievement Award from Bob Osgood. Years before, in the early 50’s, Osgood had brought in Bob as a featured caller on the Sets In Order label and years later chose him to run “Callers Supply” Osgood’s mail order business where everything from replacement record needles to microphone parts and SIO recordings and more could be found in their catalog.
Inspired by the square and round dance music he’d been hearing since nearly day one Jeff became a professional musician under the name Cody Bryant. Some early highlights were playing with Jack Carter, fiddler for the Sets In Order and Sunny Hills labels, and played later with west coast country legend and Windsor & MacGregor session guitarist Joe Maphis.
Jeff was with Bob at MacGregor Studios recording the Fundamentals of Square Dancing series. He’d been at the brainstorming sessions too where Ruff & Murtha recorded ideas on an old Wollensak reel to reel recorder n the family den.
Jeff went on to be the multi instrumentalist and singer for Foy Willing’s Riders of the Purple Sage western music outfit and was staff musician at Disneyland’s Thunder Ranch, Knott’s Berry Farm’s Ghost Town and even the Universal Studios Tour.
He’s played with Glen Campbell and Pat Boone as well as many others. His banjo work can be heard on Back To Future III during the scenes with ZZ Top. His album Big Dose of Country was the inspiration for an episode of Seventh Heaven where he can also be seen on camera as well.
He sang the first dance at tennis star Pete Sampra’s wedding while Elton John sang the closer, and played for Rosanne Cash and Rodney Crowell’s wedding with father Johnny Cash in attendance and singing for the event at the classic Hollywood Hills Hotel.
Jeff trained in the legacy art of analog tape editing and remastering at Only Audio in Burbank CA under the direction of legendary master engineer, sharp shooter and bowling champion Richard “Bullet” Freeze.
He became close friends with Red Simpson, the truck driving singer Capitol recording artist and award winning songwriter. Cody produced an album with Red called Ethel’s Corral.
Starting as house band he later owned and booked an amazing amount of talent at VivaCantina in Burbank CA…a restaurant/music venue that featured two stages, two patios, three dining rooms and two bars where live music was featured 7 nights and 3 days a week.
Today he’s in the studio recording his own music while also putting together a new group to carry the Riders of the Purple Sage banner as well as his other project CampbellFest as well as his Bakersfield themed project “Songs Of The San Joaquin”
This site is inspired by and dedicated to Bob Ruff, Bob Osgood and Jack Murtha and all their efforts to spread the word about square dancing worldwide.
Memory Vault LLC
