– British-born, Louisville-based duo Ruen Brothers – siblings Henry and Rupert Stansall – today share “The Cabin on the Hill,” the third song unveiled from Awooo, their highly anticipated fourth full-length album and second for Yep Roc Records, out October 17.
Of the song, they offer: “The Cabin on the Hill” is introverted and psychological, one of the darkest offerings from Awooo. Match strikes were used as a unique source of percussion, to set the scene of a candle lit cabin shrouded by a sense of impending danger. The epic crescendo surrounding the guitar solo was influenced by the soaring string and choir swells in Disney’s “Feed the Birds” which has a comparable darkness and unusual lyrical topic. The crescendo adds drama to a quiet and lonely setting to stress the building frustration of solitude and insanity. The song feels like a hark to their fan-favorite original, “Summer Sun” and takes instrumentation ideas from all of the songs on Awooo.
Self-produced, arranged, mixed, and mastered by Rupert, Awooo follows a meticulous sonic philosophy. With an immersive production, the album features Henry’s intimate vocals captured on a vintage ribbon microphone, layered with precisely crafted arrangements that expand from sparse beginnings—vocals, a three-stringed acoustic guitar, and a 1930s kick drum—to sweeping cinematic crescendos.
Crafted for misty nights and quiet introspection, Awooo refines the Ruen Brothers’ distinctive blend of conceptual songwriting, orchestral grandeur, and folk minimalism. Written and recorded during a solitary winter in Kentucky, the album captures the hush of cold nights and the eerie glow of moonlight, drawing inspiration from Frank Sinatra’s In the Wee Small Hours and Only the Lonely, mid-century Americana and classical compositions. Awooo is not just an album, it’s an experience—a whisper in the dark, a lone howl at the moon, a deep exhalation in the cold of night.
Sea shanty motifs drift through songs like “Sticks & Stones” and “Can You Face the Water?,” while “Sitting at the Station,” inspired by cold nights waiting on train platforms in northern England, “was written in all of 15 minutes over a phone call, as if it were jotted on a notepad,” Rupert said. The album’s nocturnal aesthetic is further enriched by a dynamic range that rejects modern loudness in favor of warmth and spaciousness.
Previously released tracks from the album include: “Desert Showers,” a melancholic, solitary journey that drifts from lonely days into romanticized dreams, inspired by the brothers’ time living and recording in California, the song captures the joy of the rare rainy days that reminded them of their native England, and the reimagined version of the tried-and-true “Mama Don’t,” a traditional song dating back over a century to the campfires of Cow Cow Davenport and later popularized by J.J. Cale.
Aesthetically, Awooo is inspired by their father’s monochromatic storm etchings from art school, the set of the 1939 film The Hound of the Baskervilles, and atmospheric settings imagined during their songwriting process. Drawing on these influences, the brothers handcrafted a clay mountainscape to photograph for the album’s artwork, attempting to visually create the world in which the songs live.
In support of the album, the Ruen Brothers will embark on a 20-date fall tour, with stops in the Midwest opening for Tophouse, the West Coast opening for The Bones of J.R. Jones, and an East Coast headline tour, culminating in a hometown show on November 29 following an opening slot at The Caverns in Pelham, TN, for Will Wood. A complete list of tour dates is below, and tickets are available here.
Over a decade-long career, they have garnered a dedicated fanbase with “their distinctive sound, balancing mid-century rock traditions with noir-ish lyrics and a style rife with a David Lynch-ian theatricality” (AllMusic), and have toured with Orville Peck, Café Tacvba, George Ezra, Tom Odell, Greta Van Fleet, and Nikki Lane, as well as performed on stages at Coachella, Glastonbury, Bonnaroo, The Great Escape, Austin City Limits, Edmonton Folk Fest, and Shaky Knees.
Raised in the industrial steel town of Scunthorpe, England, the brothers first honed their craft playing old-time rock ‘n’ roll, country, and blues in working-class pubs, developing a deep appreciation for vintage sounds and traditional songwriting. Their breakthrough debut, All My Shades of Blue, produced by Rick Rubin, showcased their knack for fusing golden-era influences. Subsequent projects, including the cinematic Ten Paces, solidified their reputation as artists who create transportive worlds through music. In 2023, Ruen Brothers moved to Kentucky, bringing them closer to the source of their musical influences, from the Everly Brothers to Jean Ritchie.
Ruen Brothers Tour Dates:
September 17 – Elevation at The Intersection – Grand Rapids, MI ^
September 18 – Park West – Chicago, IL ^
September 19 – Atwood Music Hall – Madison, WI ^
September 20 – Wooly’s – Des Moines, IA ^
October 3 – Albino Skunk Music Festival – Greer, SC
October 4 – Black Mountain Jamboree – Monticello, KY
November 10 – Pearl Street Warehouse – Washington, DC
November 12 – MilkBoy – Philadelphia, PA
November 13 – Mercury Lounge – New York, NY
November 14 – Warehouse XI – Boston, MA
November 16 – Beachland Tavern – Cleveland, OH
November 17 – Lager House – Detroit, MI
November 19 – SPACE – Evanston, IL
November 20 – The Bur Oak – Madison, WI
November 22 – The Caverns – Pelham, TN *
November 29 – Whirling Tiger – Louisville, KY
^ w/Tophouse
* acoustic duo / opening for Will Wood
Awooo Tracklisting:
1. Can You Face the Water?
2. Mama Don’t
3. Sitting at the Station
4. Poison Down the Wire
5. Desert Showers
6. Transatlantic Nights
7. Roses in the Desert
8. Sticks & Stones
9. The Cabin on the Hill
10. Bonfire
11. Seeing Ghosts
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