When Claire Ruland was 12 years old, she bought her first guitar — an acoustic Ibanez — for nearly $400, and she bought it using money she earned from selling handmade soap.
“I made it all in my house,” she said. “I made bath bombs, soap, bath salts, all of the fun stuff.”
Ruland looked up to her older brother, Alec, who was “really good” at playing guitar, she said.
“As I got older, I would sneak into his room and steal his guitar. I would play it and teach myself.”
That’s when she decided she needed her own instrument and started her soap business to pay for it. Now 22, she still has that first Ibanez.
After graduating from Aledo High School, Ruland moved to Waco to enroll in the Music Industry Careers program at McLennan Community College. She was initially planning on attending the University of North Texas to study music, but her voice teacher in Fort Worth suggested MCC.
“She said, ‘I think you should go check it out,’” Ruland said. “Then I went and toured MCC and met all the teachers and I just liked it way better than anything else I had done. I was like, I have to go there.”
Ruland started the program with an emphasis on songwriting, but then switched to vocal performance. She performed in several student bands during her time at MCC, but her favorite, by far, was the jazz band, which was led by faculty member Clark Nauert, who recently retired after teaching at MCC for 39 years.
“I love MCC so much,” Ruland said. “I would say the thing I enjoyed the most was probably the professors. They love what they do, and they all have real-world experience. It really did feel like a sense of community there. I really liked all of the people I met and getting to play music with them.”
Ruland is quick to name her primary musical influence:
“Definitely Ella Fitzgerald. I love her songs. I really like her scatting style. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from her, especially vocally. She can teach me a lot just by listening to her. She’s just a genius.”
In addition, Ruland is also inspired by vocalists Melody Gardot and Nina Simone.
Along with keyboardist Shane Hall — who is also an MCC music faculty member — Ruland frequently played Segovia Wine Bar, Blaine’s Restaurant & Wine Shoppe and Lounge ‘93 in Waco, and has already played some gigs in the Metroplex following her move to North Texas.
Ruland uses her Ibanez guitar to write her own songs, but she hasn’t released any yet.
“I’ve written tons of songs, but I didn’t start writing jazz until I hit college,” she said, “so I don’t have a lot of jazz songs under my belt. I’m trying to write some more jazz and then hopefully I can put everything together and put it out.”
An Emerging Artist
Claire Ruland’s gigs in Waco might be fewer for the foreseeable future. Last month, she started school at the University of North Texas, studying advertising and brand strategy. After graduation, she hopes to work with a big music company but also has a desire to work with emerging artists, helping them grow in their careers “like how I did for myself,” she said. For Wacoans who want to follow her musical journey and be notified of her performances in town, “I do a lot of my stuff on TikTok,” she said. “I post videos of me playing, and post videos of all of my show dates.”
