Artist Information:

Label: Independent Release

Genre: Jazz

Hometown: Tucson, Arizona

Spin If You Like: Etta James, Laufey, Norah Jones

Lara Ruggles to release joyfully queer new version of jazz standard “Someone to Watch Over Me”

On Friday October 10, Tucson songwriter Lara Ruggles will release a new rendition of the jazz standard “Someone to Watch Over Me”, sung entirely using non-binary pronouns. 

Ruggles released her most recent album, Anchor Me, in November 2024, and her album release tour took her to 22 cities throughout the Midwest, South, and West Coast earlier this year. It was during an extra day in Nashville that she recorded “Someone to Watch Over Me,” assembling an all-star band including guitarist Freddy Jay Walker (voted Tucson’s Best R&B artist of 2024), drummer Jordan Perlson (Kaki King, Hiromi, Matisyahu, Snarky Puppy), and bassist Tim Marks (Jewel, Taylor Swift, John Oates, Lionel Richie) for a live recording session in songwriter/engineer Andy Beckey’s home studio. The final track is a live version of one continuous take, and the release will be accompanied by a video of the recording session. 

Ruggles hopes that “Someone to Watch Over Me” will be the first song in a larger album-length project recording new versions of old classics and jazz standards from an openly queer perspective. This project is a joyful protest against the increased discrimination faced by queer and trans people as a result of the current administration. 

The idea for the project was catalyzed by Ruggles’ time in Hawai’i as an artist-in-residence with the National Parks Arts Foundation in 2023. She spent time at a weekly jazz jam in Hilo on the Big Island, where jazz won her over in a new way, and started dreaming about learning a set of jazz standards and putting a band together. “The more I listened to playlists of jazz standards, the more it dawned on me that there are a lot of songs sung in third person, which creates a lot of opportunities for being playful with pronouns,” Ruggles says. “So I started singing ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ with non-binary pronouns, and what’s fun about that is I could be looking for someone of any gender. You don’t know if I’m bisexual and open to falling for folks of any gender (spoiler: I am) or if I’m looking for someone non-binary in particular - it could be either or both. And I think that’s a really fun way to offer more representation in jazz music for folks with multiple queer identities.” 

About Lara Ruggles: In 2025, Lara Ruggles toured nationally in support of her new album, Anchor Me. Released on November 15, 2024, Anchor Me has been praised for its “soaring vocals spread across a progressive indie-folk production throughout” (Flex Music Blog) and was #1 most added on the NACC radio Folk chart the week following its release. Raised in the desert outside Tucson, Lara Ruggles’ music draws from her isolated upbringing and introspective spirit. From her early EP Out of an Eggshell (2011) to the electro-pop stylings of her Sharkk Heartt project, Ruggles has continued to evolve as an artist. With Anchor Me, she returns to her indie-folk roots, delivering a vulnerable and heartfelt body of work. Ruggles has shared the stage with grammy winner LeAnn Rimes, spent a month as artist-in-residence at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park with the National Parks Arts Foundation, and won awards for her "Work Fires" music video. She placed 3rd in the Tucson Folk Festival's 2025 Stefan George Memorial Songwriting Competition.