A two-time ASCAP/Deems Taylor award winner, John Kruth is the author of such books as To Live's To Fly: The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt, Rhapsody in Black: The Life & Music of Ray Orbison, and Hold On World: The Lasting Impact of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Plastic Ono Band, Fifty Years On. As a music journalist, Kruth's articles have appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, and many others. He is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, and as a sideman he has performed and collaborated with such musicians as Laurie Anderson, Violent Femmes, Patti Smith, and Ornette Coleman.