'Margaret', An Album and Book Inspired by the Abandoned Scrapbook of Poet Margaret Rucker

Margaret is a multimedia project based around the life and writings of an enigmatic poet–Margaret Rucker–who died decades before the project was ever conceived. Born in 1906, Rucker was the daughter of Bethel Rucker, one of the founding fathers of Everett, Washington. Her story came to light through her scrapbook, which was found by Chicken John Rinaldi in a dumpster in San Francisco 20 years ago.

The book, which traces Rucker’s life and includes her remarkably beautiful poetry, fell into the hands of musician Jason Webley. Webley was so taken by Rucker’s story, and in particular her poetry, that he wrote songs for each of her poems. He recruited musician friends to contribute additional music based on Rucker’s life, creating the full-length album Margaret, and a companion book of the same name featuring writings by Webley and Rinaldi. Webley and friends are now taking Margaret on a 2014 West Coast tour:

Dec 18 – Portland – Wonder Ballroom
Dec 19 – Eugene – WOW Hall
Dec 20 – San Francisco – The Castro Theater
Dec 21 – Los Angeles – Bootleg Theater

poster by Dax Tran-Caffee