Meet Ruby

Ruby hit the streets of San Francisco at sixteen and quickly fell into the rhythm of life as a punk. She experienced it all: living in squats, panhandling, going to countless punk shows from the Fab Mab to the Deaf Club, the I-Beam, and more.

She was also one of many who dove headfirst into drugs and lost herself there for a while. Coming out of that reverie, Ruby went back to school to study forestry, got arrested trying to save the redwoods, headed North to work on fishing boats, then came back south to Seattle where she owned and operated three fine dining restaurants. She also started a roots-Rockabilly band and toured the world.

Over the years, she kept in touch with some of her old punk friends; those who survived. Every now and then, they would reminisce about those lost years. Ruby wrote Bag of Tricks after one of those sessions, and someone listening in said, “You need to write this sh*t down!” Most of what she wrote is based upon events that really occurred- whether to Ruby herself or to one of her cohorts- though Ruby took liberties and changed some details, because she could.