Robert Patrick 'Bob' Ruddy was born on August 2nd 1941 in King Kirkland, ON. Bob’s love of music began early in life. He grew up listening his father, Basil, playing the fiddle, and Bob taught himself to play guitar. “I used to practice in the outhouse. I’d play the guitar and sing at the top of my lungs, making all of the neighbourhood dogs bark!” He wrote his first song, “The Wild Goose Flies” at age 12 (in the outhouse) and continued writing songs (in more comfortable conditions) for the duration of his life. Bob was the lead singer with many bands over the years and performed at weddings, community events and in bars/taverns/halls throughout North Eastern Ontario.
He loved performing more than anything. In his later years he joined the Quality Time crew and performed with the talented group to raise money for Camp Quality, a special camp for children suffering from cancer - a place to get away from it all and have some fun. He also performed with the Temiskaming CT Scan Choir fundraiser, but often remarked that his voice was too loud to be in a choir. No guff, the man didn’t need a microphone. When karaoke became popular, Bob jumped on that bandwagon and started his own karaoke business. People loved singing when Bob was running Karaoke, but there were always many requests for him to sing his locally famous renditions of Jay and the American’s ‘Cara Mia’, and Roy Orbison’s ‘Pretty Woman’ and ‘Crying.’
Bob shared his love of music with his family and his three children grew up learning to play musical instruments and trying to sing as good as their dad - it never happened. Bob is loved and well known in the area for his powerful voice but his late wife Carol was always his biggest fan, often saying things like, “You sing that song better than Orbison ever did.” And she meant it.
Somehow Bob found himself in the Brantford area and met the smooth talking Jim Allison of Thunderbird Recording. It's beleived that Bob signed with the label in 1976 as he had seven original songs published with Chihuahua Music; 19th Century Man, Calendar on the Wall, I Can't Get to Sleep at Night, Wash Away the Blues, What Have You Done to Me, So Afraid, and Beer Beer Beer. Unfortunately Bob didn't end up recording with Jim Allison after all, but lucky for us one of his songs, "Beer Beer Beer," was recorded by Tommy Jacobs in 1978.
Sadly, Bob passed away at the age of 79 in Haileybury, ON on April 11th 2021. This author appreciates the assistance he received from Bob and Carol's son, James, so we could get the record straight.
Bob Ruddy's legacy - Indelibly stamped on vinyl.
I am Bob Ruddy's youngest son and there is a significant amount of misinformation here. Mainly he was not from Brantford at any time or in any way, nor was he the son of Jack Ruddy. He did write all of these songs and Beer Beer Beer was is only song he licensed. I remember he was disgusted with everything that had happened and never tried to get a recording contract again. He spent his life working 9-5 and playing the "honky-tonks and bars" on the week-ends. If you have any supporting documents regarding his signing with thunderbird and his publishing of his songs I would love to have copies - jamesruddy71 at gmail.com
ReplyDeleteHe is still alive and living in Haileybury, ON
DeleteHey that’s my grandpa and Jim’s my uncle, this is a super cool find, my mourning process has been weird and here I am 1:30 am googling my grandpa and finding this, which is exactly the information I was looking for i appreciate this so much.
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