Flower Whore
Words: Ruby Friedman
Music: Ruby Friedman/Ben Landsverk

I’m not tryna wannabe a queen living a basic dream
I’m gonna wrap you ‘round my finger have you wonder have you linger

We don’t have much hope and we both know we may have only today
Does it matter if I last or if I stay?

Leave ‘em by the door
I’m a flower whore

Why do you keep bringing up my pain and all that’s buried
I told you it’s just me nothing’s wrong with my family move along
Everybody gets beat and hit on when they’re just little kids
My friends had it worse than me
Just give me dope money

Leave ‘em by the door
I’m a flower whore

I don’t know any other way
I tried my best to keep wolves at bay
When night comes and I finally wake
Just let me go or I will break
<floating above her body>
My hands are sewn to bed
The line is flat red
My legs don’t touch
The floor in my head
Don’t come close
Don’t go away
Does it matter anyway?

I’m not tryna wannabe
We don’t have much hope and we both know we may have only today 
Does it matter if I last or if I stay?
Leave ‘em by the door.


Ruby Friedman: Vocals, dying piano
Ben Landsverk: Viola, banjo, piano, acoustic guitar, bowed bass
Scott Healy: Accordion
Mark Pender: Trumpet
Adriana Wagner: Trombone, dying trumpet
Steve Williams: Drums
Drums engineered by Merle Chorunuk, Atomic Sound, NYC

Flower Whore

"Modern vintage sounds that will make you laugh and cry and dance like there’s no tomorrow, Ruby Friedman is an electrifying performer and songwriter"-- KCRW, Gary Calamar  
“You don’t need to know Ruby Friedman’s life story to get a sense of who she is. Just hearing her, and better seeing her perform, tell enough. Her voice and manner are as bold and brash as her flame-red hair. But she’s telling you anyway, with ‘Fugue in L.A. Minor,’ the opening song of her long-in-coming first album, Gem…It’s quite the curtain-raiser, fitting as what follows has some theatrical punch, Vaudevillian in some spots, Brechtian in others. Well, really it’s Vaudeville-y and Brecht-y, not fully either, or any one thing at any time. Bluesy also applies. Jazzy maybe. But brassy, always…another highlight is a last-minute addition to the album, the powerful ‘Ballad of Lee Morse…’ Friedman sings the tale with a kind of force that can only come from someone who sees something, or a lot, of herself in it. It’s part celebratory, part cautionary. And all Ruby Friedman.”
--Steve Hochman, KPCC (NPR Affiliate)
"One hell of a frontwoman with a completely unique and transfixing voice laden with passion... {Gem} is a necessary addition to your music collection." --  POP MATTERS, Sarah Zupko  
"Songs of Quiet Devastation - Gem is full of intense emotion, dark and menacing, full of violent frustration and shattered expectation"  -- MAGNET MAGAZINE, J Poet

Flower Whore

Ruby Friedman Orchestra