Fiddler Faces Setback

Robbed at gunpoint in Houston, teen fiddle phenom Ruby Jane Smith needs help toget her instruments back

Ruby Jane Smith in concert
Celeste Photography
Ruby Jane Smith
Photo by Matt Lankes

There are few things more valuable to musicians than their instruments, let alone their lives. Back in September, Ruby Jane Smith was on top of the world, playing the Austin City Limits Music Festival for the fourth time. Since then, the 17-year-old fiddler and her mom, JoBelle, have been trying to raise money for her to record a new CD of her own material, through a creative funding program called Kickstarter.

Last Thursday, the two suffered a major setback, after being robbed at gunpoint after a gig at the Dosey Doe in The Woodlands. They had pulled up to a gated community where they were staying with a friend, and as JoBelle rolled down the window to enter a security code, a man reached through the window and put a gun to her head.

Fortunately they were not harmed, but the thief took their jewelry, purses and cellphones, leaving them stranded on the side of the road. He sped off in JoBelle’s 2004 Chevolet Trailblazer, with tens of thousands of dollars worth of instruments and equipment in the back that Ruby Jane relies on for her music career, including a guitar and her custom made violin and mandolin.

The guitar was recovered after being found outside a dumpster near Mason's Pawn Shop in southeast Houston. On Sunday, JoBelle asked for help on Facebook, looking for people to go with her to Houston to search pawnshops and dumpsters for the other stolen instruments.

"He got almost everything that meant anything musically to Ruby Jane," JoBelle told The Dispatch in Columbus, Miss., where the fiddler is originally from. "It had been a solo show, so all her instruments were there — a violin custom-made for her, her 12-string guitar, her microphones, pedals, harmonicas ... even the Christmas presents I'd already packed to come home to Columbus."

Ruby Jane and her mom have called Austin home for years, and the community is rallying around them in the wake of the carjacking. To show their support, some musicians and friends have organized a benefit for them, while the authorities continue to look for the stolen items. The benefit is this Saturday from 7-10 p.m. at Victory Grill in Austin.

The Smiths are asking people to keep an eye out at pawnshops for the missing instruments. A list of the main items stolen, with pictures, can be found in this article on www.savingcountrymusic.com.

Click here if you’d like more information about Ruby Jane’s Kickstarter campaign or want to donate. The goal is to raise $10,000 to help pay for studio time, a producer, musicians, manufacturing, distribution and publicity.

I know the young lady — who told me back in the fall, “I’m just along for the ride and will continue to work hard and continue to build my music and build my career" — will overcome this setback and won’t let it dampen her enthusiasm for that ride.

To learn more about Ruby Jane Smith, you can check out the interview CultureMap did with her the week before her performance at the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

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income analysis

Texas families need to make this much money for one parent to stay home

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

As the cost of raising a child balloons in major cities like Houston, many families are weighing the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas — not just Houston — that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support a stay-at-home partner and a child, the report found. If two parents worked in the household, necessitating some additional costs like childcare and transportation, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in Houston, however, is somewhat more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $21,868 to raise a child in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts, where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report acknowledges ways families are working to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family