ALBUM: Gypsy Blood (1987)
MVC RATING: 4.0/$$$
Straight ahead rock guitarist singer-songwriter who has a mountain in Birmingham, AL, named after him. No, no scrap that last one about the mountain. Turns out that was named after a geologist named Ruffner in the 1880s.
Mason Ruffner sounds a little like Tom Petty and his guitar playing a little like Petty’s Heartbraker bandmate Mike Campbell. Add a pinch of New Orleans and Boston bluesman George Thorogood and you’ve got Ruffner.
Ruffner is a more than accomplished musician and is in my estimation underrated. “Gypsy” is the guitar -driven hit here. “Baby I don’t Care No More,’ is a rollicking piano guitar piece that sounds like it’s coming straight out of a New Orleans bar. Wikipedia points out that he played with Bob Dylan and Dylan mentioned him in Dylan’s memoirs
“Ruffner played in Bourbon Street clubs like the Old Absinthe Bar. He was a regional star, had a high pompadour, a gold tooth smile with a tiny guitar inlaid,” Dylan wrote in Chronicles: Volume One.