Check Out Michael L. Rutushin’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael L. Rutushin. 

Hi Michael, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I front an outfit by the name of Larry Elefante aka Your Uncle Larry aka Uncle Larry from the city of Youngstown, OH. Larry Elefante is a family band. 

We do a little old-school country vibes & we do a little back porch grooves. Sometimes it’s just me, sometimes it’s 12 of us, from solo acoustic tunes to a full band with a booming horn section; we like to keep it upbeat and playful on the job. 

We have quite a bit of a rotating cast if you will, there’s a solid 5 of us that we’ve played with on a continual basis, but the lineup is very often subject to change. 

Rest assured, we are always trying to rope fellow players at the show or from the other bands to get on stage with us and get into it. Gotta keep the family growing as we keep an eye out for some closest and mostest. 

The first album entitled ‘I get sentimental’ was released on vinyl, cd, cassette, and 8 track. It features players from such institutions as Turkuaz, Dopapod, Ghost Light, Elephant Wrecking Ball, ‪Odesza‬, John Brown’s Body, Tongues Unknown, Mama Juke plus many more from along the journey from Los Angeles to Brooklyn and back to Ohio. 

It’s a whole thing… 

Sometimes I get a little greedy about putting people on the records because I just want to play with as many people as humanly possible as the world seems to be giving us plenty of signals that the ship is on fire as well as thinking…so you know, the urgency is on my mind. 

We recently released a Mardi Gras sampler entitled ‘King Cake’ which was recorded remotely over the course of 2 weeks during the height of the pandemic in Feb of 2021. We recorded in bathrooms, kitchens, living rooms, and in some cases…on the back porch in the snow. It was released on Fat Tuesday in Athens at our annual show and I baked roughly 50 king cakes to fund the process. When it’s carnival time, it’s carnival time. We hope to record 4 more songs and press this to vinyl when we can logistically pull it off. 

We are currently working on the next album, which is slowly taking form as we speak and will be sorta shotgun recorded, just like the King Cake EP but with a little more attention and time. It will feature some of the same folks from the previous one but with an even wider and rotating cast of fellow players. Release date…2024? 

We are also currently working on recording a solo album for Kari Ann Rutushin, one of our fearless leaders and musician extraordinaire…more details to come!!! 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road is the road. 

We are learning how to meander our way individually and collectively as we quite literally learn on the job and making it up as we go along. There’s really no other way to put as of now. We love that we really don’t quite know how it’s all gonna turn out, it’s terrifyingly enjoyable and marvelously uncomfortable all at once. 

For example, our last show in Columbus at the Rambling House we swapped out three band members within days of the show due to life as we know it. It’s truly an adventure, and quite frankly, we welcome it. 

Taking lumps, learning the ropes, exploring our influences, tightening screws, unraveling, putting it back together, sharpening our skills, and trying to reach that next level any way we can. 

It’s messy and precarious at most times, but that’s why we love it; it’s all ridiculous. 

I’m rambling on, I ramble. 

I’m a rambler. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am an artist and musician. Though admittedly music has been much more of a focus than art these days. 

You can find my art on Facebook and Instagram: M.Rutushin Art 

I do actual oil paintings from time to time, abstract expressionism but the last decade or so has been sort’ve a bit of sarcastic and playful social commentary, nothing particularly too clever, per se. But people seem to like it, and if you are tempting to encourage me, I simply cannot help myself. 

What do you think about luck?
Luck is luck, and a duck is a duck. Quack 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://larryelefante.bandcamp.com/album/i-get-sentimental-2
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CYfQzljKhBa/?utm_medium=copy_link
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/larryelefante
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/V3q38pDEFgQ
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/larryelefante
• Other: https://linktr.ee/LarryElefante

Image Credits
Darian Wagner
Paul Goon