My artist, partner and friend Luther Allison died very suddenly, one album short from breaking through the roof, receiving a Grammy and giving Buddy Guy and Robert Cray a serious run for their money.

At first sight, his passing stole the fruit we so long worked for minutes before harvest time. With time passing, I realized that actually the path was the way. It did not matter as much how long it lasted – it was actually important that it happened while it lasted. It's not about if we ever got there.

It's about the quality between you and your fellows while you walk. I never had a similar, quite as close, trustworthy relationship with another artist. And I consider myself pretty close friends with most of my fellow artists. But it kind of set a human standard that I will never want to miss, am grateful for and never will compromise, really. I don’t care how profitable a project potentially could be – if it's not worth spending my personal precious lifetime working on it, it's a waste of time for me.

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Well, that was the last question I posed to Thomas, and I can't think of a more appropriate place to end. It tells you a lot about the man and the label, and perhaps explains why they are having the success they are in signing quality performers. In 2007 Jeff Healy will be joining their roster as he makes his long awaited return to blues from his foray in jazz music, and we can look forward to new releases from Bob Brozman and Candye Kane and others as well in the new year.

I'd like to thank Thomas Ruf for taking the time out of his hectic schedule to answer my questions and for putting such obvious thought into his answers. It's not often we get to hear from the people who are responsible for producing the music we love and even less frequently do we get such candid answers.

If there were more people like Thomas Ruf working in the music industry, people who can remember that's it is about the music first, not about celebrity and fame, I think we'd be hearing a lot more about the songs, and a lot less about divorces and who's sleeping with who. Since that's not likely to happen in the near future I guess we should just be grateful that there are people like him still involved in the music industry.