Datri Bean grew up in a small town in windswept Wyoming, the child of a single mother of three girls. The day her neighbors moved, they gave Datri’s mother their upright piano. Datri was five years old, and her life was forever changed by this event.

Years later, Datri stumbled into the home of an elderly piano teacher from Brooklyn. After an abrupt interview and audition, in which Datri nervously fumbled through the piece, Datri was accepted as a student. Datri’s friendship with this extraordinary woman had an enormous affect on her music and writing. This piano teacher would become one of Datri’s closest friends and would later be called “Ruby,” in the title track to Datri’s new album.

Comprised of thirteen originals, these are love songs from the perspective of a happy marriage: thoughtful, vulnerable and intimate. There is the unmistakeable flavor of pre-war jazz, but also klezmer and indie pop– a quirky, modern reinvention that is a cousin of the work of Hoagy Carmichael and Billie Holiday, but also of Randy Newman, Tom Waits, and Andrew Bird.

Co-produced with Andre Moran, Ruby is full of uncommon musical textures: the riotous klezmer-meets-back-porch America opening track, “Small Things;” “Foolish,” a ukulele-sousaphone duet; a full blown Dixieland band on “My Neighbor Willie;” bass clarinet, baritone, trombone and sousaphone on the ballad, “Mustard Greens;” a cello-saw duet on “Milky Way.”

Datri Bean is a nationally touring artist and has been honored by Kerrville, Telluride, Sisters and Rocky Mountain Folk Festivals for her songwriting. On the heals of the release of “Ruby,” she will tour the West Coast and Northeastern United States, Europe, and Japan. Datri sings and plays piano, ukulele and accordion.

Currently, Datri lives in a tiny shack in Austin, Texas with her husband, three cats, and a flock of unruly chickens. When she is not recording or touring, she is leading the Minor Mishap Marching Band– a 25 piece renegade brass band, Bourbon Street meets Budapest: fun, loud and in the streets. Datri writes most of the music, and she is the band leader, conductor, accordionist, and singer (through a megaphone, of course).