Ruby (Catfish album)

Don Walker had been the main songwriter and piano player with Australian rock band Cold Chisel. He was the author of many of their hit songs, but had a lower profile than some other members of the band. When they split in 1983, Walker travelled extensively through the Soviet Union, Asia and Europe. He intended to retire from the music industry.{{cite journal | author = Lesley Sly | title = Catfish Capers | journal = Sonics | issue =March 1989 |pages = 16–19 | publisher = Federal Publishing Co | location = Sydney, NSW}} In 1988 he released his first solo album under the name Catfish. It received some critical acclaim but only reached number 50 on the Australian charts.{{cite web|author=|work=australian-charts.com|title=CATFISH - UNLIMITED ADDRESS (ALBUM) |url=http://australian-charts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Catfish&titel=Unlimited+Address&cat=a |accessdate=28 November 2013|date=}}

Walker later said, "The two Catfish albums were produced by Peter Walker and even though I was feeling my way as a singer, he managed to get good performances onto those albums. And it also took me those two Catfish albums to try and figure out what I should be doing, as far as what kind of songs suit the tales that I have to tell."{{cite web| work= The Brag | title=Cold Chisel's Don Walker is the real bloody deal|author=Natalie Rogers | date=20 April 2018| url=https://thebrag.com/don-walker-real-deal-interview/}} Elsewhere, he said, "In the Catfish albums there are things that make me cringe and there are things that I think are really good. I think the song writing is very good. I think my skills were developed. The limitations on those album have to do with me trying to expand my competency."{{cite news| work= Sydney Morning Herald | title=Don Walker: From the highway to Hully Gully|author=Michael Dwyer | url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/don-walker-from-the-highway-to-hully-gully-20180404-h0ybt7.html}}

After the subject matter of Unlimited Address reflected Walker's overseas travels, Ruby was a return to an Australian setting.{{cite book | author= Michael Lawrence |title=Cold Chisel: Wild Colonial Boys|year=2012|page=239 |publisher=Melbourne Books |location=Melbourne, Victoria|isbn=9781877096174}} Walker said, "I tried to make it a little more light-hearted and less personal. For instance, there's one song which is about a transvestite who picks up a US sailor and cuts him up with a straight razor and there's another which is about three young blokes from a country town who go to a Bachelors and Spinsters Ball, pick up a girl and murder her.{{cite news| work= Sun Herald|date=August 1991|title=Ruby}}

"The Year That He Was Cool" was inspired by a man Walker knew in Grafton. When he was younger, he had been a very popular surfer. "Back then I wasn't so much uncool as invisible," Walker recalled. Meeting later in life, the man reminded Walker of how unpopular he had been. Walker said, "He was right, but he said it nasty, to remind that back in the day I couldn't catch a ball, couldn't catch a wave, couldn't catch anything." The song ends with the character drunkenly vomiting outside the local bowling club. No one recalls or wants to know about the year that he was cool.{{cite book | author=Don Walker |title=Songs |year=2019 | publisher = BlackInc|isbn=9781760641504|page=102}}

"Charleville" was written after a night as the only resident at School of Art Hotel in town.{{cite book | author=Don Walker |title=Shots |year=2019 | publisher = BlackInc |isbn=9781760641566|pages=184}} It was covered by Slim Dusty on his album Ringer from the Top End and soon after recorded again as a duet with Walker.{{cite web| work= The Dwarf | title=Don Walker - Songwriter for the Common Man

|author=Jennifer Land| url=http://thedwarf.com.au/interview/don-walker-songwriter-for-the-common-man}} It later appeared on The Very Best of Slim Dusty, which stayed in the Australian country charts for over 15 years.{{cite web| work= The Music| title=Slim Dusty Sets ARIA Country Chart Record| url=http://themusic.com.au/news/all/2014/08/25/slim-dusty-hits-800-weeks-on-aria-charts/|accessdate=25 August 2014|date=25 August 2014}}

The Canberra Times said, "With Ruby, Walker has been able to continue his impressions of contemporary Australia, without losing the blues-based rock n roll energy, perhaps a little like Chisel would have been if they'd survived into the '90s."{{cite news| work= The Canberra Times | title=Chisel far behind for Walker|author=Michael Bachelard | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/134162190?searchTerm=%22don%20walker%22%20ruby}} The Sydney Morning Herald called it, "a more flowing, rootsy and colourfully textured record, with a vocal strength not evident on the debut album".{{cite web| work= The Sydney Morning Herald | title=Don's Party|author=Peter Holmes | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/120285559/}}{{subscription required|s}}The Age said, "Conjuring up a bleak Australia populated by winos, prostitutes and others, and informed by a sense of violence and alienation, Ruby is a strong album, surely among the most impressive released locally this year. ".{{cite web| work= The Age| title=R.P.M.|author=Larry Schwartzs | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/123322240/}}{{subscription required|s}}

Clinton Walker said, "Catfish boasts a rumbustiously appealing, rootsy sound, it allows Walker to explore possibilities denied in rock, like extended narratives, as he does

in songs on Ruby like the title-track. Then there's cuts on the album like "El Alamein Blues" (based around the fountain in Kings Cross), the laugh-in-your-beer country lament "Charleville" and "Johnny's Gone", which may be nothing more than an excuse for a rockabilly rave-up."{{cite web| work= clintonwalker.com.au| title=The Don|author=Clinton Walker | url=http://www.clintonwalker.com.au/the-don.html}}

Reviewing the re-release, Inpress said, "there's more country, blues, and rockabilly. The romping opener "Johnny's Gone" would be at home on an episode of True Blood. While it doesn't have the absolute command of its predecessor, it's a worthy entry in the cannon."{{cite magazine| magazine= Inpress | title=Re-release me|author=Doug Wallen|date=15 September 2010| issue=1140}}

In 2010, the album was re-released with new cover artwork from the original. The album was remastered by Don Bartley, and the songs "Johnny's Gone" and "See You Again" were remixed by Phil Punch. "Crooked Smile", a song about domestic violence, was partially re-recorded to be noticeably less poppy.{{cite web|author=|work=Entertainment Depot|title=Catfish re-release of two classic albums by Don Walker |url= http://www.entertainmentdepot.com.au/news/catfish-re-release-of-two-classic-albums-by-don-walker/|accessdate=29 November 2013|date=15 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110226093249/http://www.entertainmentdepot.com.au/news/catfish-re-release-of-two-classic-albums-by-don-walker/|archivedate=26 February 2011}} Walker said his previous record label had lost the masters for the album but, "fortunately I have the raw material in the form of original tapes - I have them very, very well stored and looked after - so I could go back to the first principles and put them together. Once I knew I had to do that I enjoyed it a lot. I redid some thing and had some fun with it."{{cite magazine| magazine= X_Press | title=In from the cold|author=Julian Tompkin|date=20 January 2011| issue=1249}}

All songs written and composed by Don Walker{{cite web| work= Trove | title=Ruby [sound recording] / Catfish. | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/34384402}}

{{Track listing

| title1 = Johnny's Gone

| length1 = 2:48

| title2 = Ruby

| length2 = 3:29

| title3 = Jericho Road

| length3 = 4:35

| title4 = Too Long

| length4 = 4:47

| title5 = Crooked Smile

| length5 = 4:28

| title6 = Charleville

| length6 = 3:17

| title7 = El Alamein Blues

| length7 = 4:24

| title8 = The Year That He Was Cool

| length8 = 5:48

| title9 = See You Again

| length9 = 4:25

}}

• Don Walker – lead vocals, keyboards, bass (7)
• Ian Moss – lead guitar (3), rhythm guitar (4), guitar (8), backing vocals (2-3, 6)
• Charlie Owen – lead guitar (1-2, 6)
• Tony Cook – drums (1-4, 6-9)
• Ronald Laster – rhythm guitar (1-4, 6-9)
• David Blight – harmonica
• Paul Robert Burton – bass (1-6, 8-9)
• Peter Walker – guitar (5, 7-8), lead guitar (1, 3-4)
• Sunil De Silva – percussion (2, 4-8)
• Graham Bidstrup – drums (5)

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Category:1991 albums

Category:Warner Music Group albums

Category:Warner Music Australasia albums