Rising out of Columbia, Missouri like a great bird, Rutherford is a quintet with sweeping vision and great goals. Rutherford plays rock music - sometimes heavy, sometimes mellow. From fluid flows to dramatic changes, Rutherford uses pop hooks, guitar riffs, flourishing drums and sonorous trumpet as well as soaring singing harmonies to create epic autobiographical cinema-in-sound. They are funky. They are passionate. They are thunderously engaging.

Rutherford is fronted by Ruth Acuff and Jeff Mueller, who provide the songwriting and the lead vocals. They also swap bass and guitar from time to time. Edward Watson plays trumpet, Pat O'Driscoll is on lead guitar and backing vocals, and Jason Cook is on drums. Jeff, Eddie, and Pat all played together in the groupo Dev Namo before Rutherford's creation. Jeff and Jason played together in Mah Jones before that. The funk and arrangements of Dev Namo meet with the rock/jam of Mah Jones and then combine with Ruth Acuff's dramatic songwriting to create amalgamation that is at once familiar yet unique.

Rutherford is currently working on their debut CD entitled 'Mapping Out Chaos' with Wil Reeves from Bockman, and expect to release it in summer of 2005, followed by some national touring.Rutherford has shared the stage with Bockman's Euphio, Speakeasy, Joe Stickley's Blueprint, The Station, Split Lip Rayfield, Amsterband, Spookie Daly Pride, The Doxies, Stendek, The Make Believe, Nova Lunacy, Two Gallants, Javier Mendoza Band, The Ham, Echelon, In Thicket, PsychoSis, Sea of Red, The Mathmatics, and The Passion.

Rutherford has performed @ The Blue Note, Mojo's, Eastside Tavern, Cherry Street Artisan, and The Music Cafe, all in Columbia, MO, as well as Camp Zoe in Salem, Mo and Blake's on Telegraph in Berkeley, CA.