About Greg

Greg Rutledge is a keyboard player, vocalist, composer and producer.  Performing and making music since he was four years old, he is equally in command when on stage in front of thousands or in the studio among friends.  As an aficionado of 20th century American music, he is in his element writing and playing in styles from country to jazz, blues to show tunes, rock to ragtime, and funk to folk.

Thanks to an upbringing in a musical household, Greg could identify and hum along to Handel's Water Music Suite while still in diapers.  As a first-grader strolling down Main Street USA, he heard Scott Joplin's rags being played by a tall, friendly looking man and was transfixed; he went home that night, official soundtrack of Disneyland in hand, and taught himself the Maple Leaf Rag by ear.  Before he had all his permanent teeth, he'd stolen his parents Beatles albums and had worn a hole clear through Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, and the White Album.

He became interested in Billy Joel and Bruce Hornsby right around the same time he started getting interested in girls.  And also Dr. Demento.  Lots of Dr. Demento.  Later influences would include Steely Dan, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Floyd Cramer, Stevie Wonder, Glenn Miller, Waylon Jennings, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Bob Wills, Merle Haggard, Benny Goodman, Sam Cooke, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Jamie Cullum.  Currently Greg is hooked on the giants of the jazz organ, in particular Jimmy Smith, 'Groove' Holmes, and Jimmy McGriff.

Greg has been a professional musician since 1996 when, after nearly completing his B.A. in Film Production at Loyola Marymount University, he was asked to join a band.  Since then he has performed at such notable venues as the Hollywood Bowl, Greek Theatre, Getty Center, and Largo in Los Angeles; at the prestigious Steppenwolf Theater, and the historic Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago; at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in New York; and at Mitchell, South Dakota's own Corn Palace.

He has played many festivals across the U.S.: Farm Aid, Merlefest, the KTOM San Francisco Bay Area Countryfest, the Three Rivers Festival, and the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival.  He regrets that he has not yet been invited to Lollapalooza or Bonnaroo.

Radio appearances include NPR's A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor and eTown with Nick & Helen Forster, XM Satellite radio's live performance show Acoustic Cafe, and multiple appearances on KCRW's nationally syndicated Morning Becomes Eclectic program.

Greg has also popped up on TV from time to time, most notably on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brian, and The Late Late Show with Colin Ferguson on CBS.  He has backed up an aging wedding singer, played by Fred Willard, on the Fox sitcom The Wedding Bells, and has contributed to music featured in ABC's Grey's Anatomy and on its soundtrack album.

He has been fortunate to work with some amazing talents in the music community, including producer Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Suzanne Vega, Los Lobos), the wonderful yet indescribable Ditty Bops, Nickel Creek, the urban cowboy Johnny Lee, L.A. jazz singer Elaine Miles, and the Barenaked Ladies.

In Southern California, Greg can be seen regularly as a member of the rock 'n' tonk band Brian Lynn Jones & the Misfit Cowboys.  He is currently producing their second album.

Greg lives in Los Angeles with his exceptionally talented wife Boo, their skeptical-of-aliens cat Scully, and their chihuahua JoJo (the littlest Who of all).