Published: April 1, 2017
Hubertus’ Jaid Ruffing
ndettmann@conleynet.com
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HUBERTUS — A World War II veteran, Dale Johnson
struggled with alcohol after the war.
What he didn’t struggle with was music,
specifically singing and writing songs.
“Music was his go-to,” said Matt Ruffing,
Johnson’s grandson-in-law.
Ruffing’s daughter, Jaid, picked up on that.
“I remember that no matter what song he wrote,
it was always came from his heart,” she said. “He always had something to get
out there.”
There was also a collection of songs Johnson
wrote and sang that Matt said were inappropriate or humorous.
But the songs that stood out in Jaid’s memory
are the ones that had an important message attached to them.
“I feel like that’s what he needed to do to get
the word out,” Jaid said. “I want to do the same thing.”
Jaid, 12, a sixth-grader at Kennedy Middle
School in Germantown, is a finalist for the Wisconsin Area Music Industry’s
Rising Star Award.
The 37th annual awards show is at 7 p.m. April
23 at Turner Hall Ballroom, 1040 N. Fourth St., Milwaukee. There is a nominees
party at 7 p.m. Sunday at The Saloon on Calhoun, 17000 W. Capitol Drive,
Brookfield, which is free and open to the public.
“When I was nominated, honestly, I didn’t fully
know what it was,” Jaid said. “I’m so lucky. There’s so many kids that love to
sing in Wisconsin and love to do all this. To be nominated, I was super, super
happy. I felt grateful to be nominated.”
Johnson’s music replicated the time period, the
style and theme of Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, but with his twist to it.
One day, Johnson quit alcohol and didn’t have a
sip of it for more than 50 years. When he quit, he turned to music. Some of his
songs were about the struggles of alcoholism and the bad choices one can make
if addicted to it.
“It always had a deep thought to it,” Matt
said.
Jaid, who likes to play country and rock ‘n’
roll, believes it is her calling to carry on her great-grandfather’s legacy.
Johnson died in 2012.
“He really inspired me,” she said.
Jaid was into music seemingly as soon as she
could talk. She picked up her first guitar when she was 8 years old.
“He would like it a lot,” Matt said when asked
what he thinks Great-Grandpa would think of Jaid’s talent. “He’d be real
thrilled.”
When Johnson passed away, he left behind
several piles of notebook full of stories and song lyrics. Jaid wants to
perform them as soon she gets old enough.
“Whenever you play, you can grab someone’s
attention and have them listen to you,” she said when asked what she likes
about being a musician. “You can do so many things to get that one person to
listen. You can tell such a big story and they can remember it from the
melody.”
She appeared to be a natural right from the
start.
“When she was 4 or 5, she’d just makeup her own
songs and just sing them,” Matt said.
She then filled notebook after notebook with
lyrics. Then, when she got a guitar, she put the two together and worked on it
day after day.
She took guitar lessons with Keith
Pulvermacher, who also helped her with song-writing.
“What I would do is I would come up with a song
and then he would help me go over it and co-write it,” Jaid said. “Now I’m
trying to write songs by myself, one every week.”
Her first original song was “Think Fast,” a
song about her great-grandfather. Other songs she’s written include “Actions
Speak,” which is about being confident in yourself, and “Broken Wings,” which
is about overcoming adversity.
Just a year after picking up the guitar, Jaid
recorded her first demo album.
Matt remembers when he and his wife realized
Jaid had a rare gift. It was with the help of Jaid’s first guitar teacher.
“He was like seeing something really weird,”
Matt said. “He said, ‘I’ve been teaching guitar for 35 years and something is
weird here. This isn’t normal, in
a good way.’” Matt and his wife picked up on it
when the teacher was chatty about Jaid.
“He doesn’t say much ever,” Matt said. “Real
quiet, kind of comes across grumpy sometimes. But he was like, ‘This is crazy.’
He was enthused. He’d normally say two words when you talk to him.”
What captured the teacher’s attention?
“He’d tell her to learn something and the next
week she’d come back and have it mastered,” Matt said. “He was just blown
away.”
Her career is on the cusp of breaking through,
with the help of the WAMI nomination and a chance meeting.
Jaid is booked for at least 40 shows this year,
including Summerfest and the Wisconsin State Fair.
About two years ago, Jaid was playing at a
venue, which was attended by country star Josh Thompson’s aunt and uncle. They
told Thompson about Jaid and things haven’t slowed down as she is collaborating
with Thompson on songs. She regularly goes to Nashville to work with Thompson,
a Cedarburg native.
Another one of Jaid’s influences is country
star Miranda Lambert.
“I love the songs she writes,” Jaid said. “Her
motto is tough but independent. I think that is a very good example for girls.
I can relate to her.”
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