Richard Drueding, 66, musician, teacher
Richard Drueding, 66, of Mount Airy, a gifted guitar player, composer, and recording artist, died Tuesday, March 1, of heart failure at the Bucks County Folk Music Shop in New Britain, where he had been a longtime teacher.
Richard Drueding, 66, of Mount Airy, a gifted guitar player, composer, and recording artist, died Tuesday, March 1, of heart failure at the Bucks County Folk Music Shop in New Britain, where he had been a longtime teacher.
He had just stepped outside after teaching a series of guitar lessons and was resting on a bench when he was stricken, said a friend, violinist Robert G. Sanders. "That was his last rest."
Mr. Drueding was known as an outstanding fingerstyle guitarist - a technique that uses all the fingers of the right hand. He was called upon to accompany such icons as folk singer/songwriter Tom Paxton when the latter performed in the Philadelphia area.
"He was just a gorgeous guitarist," Paxton wrote in an email to Mr. Drueding's family.
Some of his favorite venues were the Philadelphia Folk Festival in Schwenksville, and the Mermaid Inn and Roller's Flying Fish, both in Chestnut Hill.
Mr. Drueding performed with the Wanamaker Lewis Trio, evoking "the kind of rousing folk guitar and eclectic repertoire that had its zenith in the days of the Limeliters and Kingston Trio," the Washington Post observed on Feb. 1, 1985.
Mr. Drueding's original compositions and arrangements of popular songs drew from many traditional and modern forms of music.
"His performances combined blues, folk, Latin American, rock and roll, and jazz - all blended with a singular voice," said Sanders, who performed often with Mr. Drueding.
Tom Moon, a National Public Radio music reviewer and author of the New York Times best seller 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die, said that Mr. Drueding "made American music, pure and simple."
"We have trouble in America with people who are fluent in multiple languages," Moon, a former Inquirer music critic, wrote in an email to Mr. Drueding's family. "Richard was that way. I remember before I heard him play live for the first time, somebody described him as a 'folk' artist.
"Then I go, and I'm listening to him and hearing this really expansive harmony, jazz harmony but not straight bebop - his own approach, very clearly defined and more forward-looking than so much modern jazz. And sly, never over the top."
In addition to solo performances, Mr. Drueding performed throughout the region with guitarist/singer Vicente Castaneda, jazz and blues vocalist Zan Gardner, spoken-word artist Sandy Crimmins, singer/songwriter Tom Gala, and more recently with percussionist Jim Hamilton and Moon, who is also a saxophonist, according to Mr. Drueding's obituary in the Chestnut Hill Local.
He also was known locally for his work with harpist Gloria Galante and drummer Stephe Ferraro. Mr. Drueding's most recent recording was on his son Emmett's album Strange Bruise.
"Richard Drueding was a guitarist who seemed to be able to play with anyone in any style or genre," said Lee Mergner, publisher of JazzTimes, in an email to the family. "He was always exploring new modes of expression on his instrument. He had a gift for making the other person sound better."
Born in Abington, he graduated from St. Joseph's Preparatory School. His father, Charles Drueding, was a bronze medalist who rowed crew in the 1932 Olympics. While at St. Joseph's Prep, Mr. Drueding was captain of the rowing varsity eight.
The Druedings owned a tannery in Kensington, where the family also built a hospital for employees. When the tannery closed, its assets went into the Drueding Foundation.
With the foundation's support, the Sisters of the Holy Redeemer founded Project Rainbow, later renamed the Drueding Center. The center provides transitional housing and services to homeless families; Mr. Drueding served on the foundation's board of directors.
A conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, Mr. Drueding did alternative service in a Boston hospital in the late 1960s.
After a year of intense study and practice when he was 24, Mr. Drueding emerged on the San Francisco scene a fully formed professional musician, Sanders said. Two years later, he returned to Philadelphia, where he performed and taught music for the rest of his life.
Mr. Drueding credited John Fahey, Leo Kottke, and Bola Sete as major influences on his musical style.
In 1989, he won the Philadelphia Music Award for his album The Last Wound-Up. Mr. Drueding released other albums - Subterranean with Jim O'Conner, Smoke, Insomniac's Lullaby, and Wissahickon, and he participated in The Wanamaker Lewis Trio and Iowa Summer.
"He was such a neat person - and so damned talented, too. I will always remember his music and his unique guitar work," wrote Gene Shay, founder of the Philadelphia Folk Festival and host of WXPN's folk show, in an email to the family.
Mr. Drueding gave guitar lessons at his home studio, the Mount Airy Learning Tree, and the Bucks County Folk Music Shop for more than three decades. A weekly half hour of private instruction cost $25, but "other arrangements can be made and bartering is welcome," he said on his website, www.richarddrueding.com/.
"He always put himself second. He was the most modest man, and when you played with him, he supported [you as] the person behind the music," Sanders said.
Besides his son, Mr. Drueding is survived by his wife of 39 years, artist Marcia A. Jones; and a sister and two brothers.
A memorial celebration is scheduled for Sunday, March 13, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Mermaid Inn, 7673 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. Burial will be private.
Donations may be made to the Broad Street Ministry Hospitality Collaborative via www.broadstreetministry.org/donate/.
610-313-8102