Shinyribs chimes in on "Southern Discomfort"

There are few people in music that I've known longer than Kevin Russell. Way back in the late 80's, he lead the Picket Line Coyotes in Shreveport, then Dallas where we neighbors. I had just joined the brand new Killbilly and both bands found ourselves playing together often, even sharing a booking agent for a time. When Dallas seemed to lose its steam, we we both landed in Austin around the same time where I founded Bad Livers with Danny Barnes and not long after he got his Gourds rolling. Always close by, always doing something cool. 

I always tried to doing something musical with my buds, and he had me come and play on his first solo outing for Sugar Hill Records when he was still transitioning as "Kev Russell," not fully Shinyribbed yet. Even took me to Holland to play a festival, where the show was running late and I played the tuba for three tunes; to date the furthest I've gone to be paid so well to do the least. Years later I've played a few dates with him in a fun acoustic trio version of Shinyribs before he found his current groove and recorded another record. He's expanded into more of a rock and roll show these day and has released a fine CD "Okra Candy" you should check out. Seems like he's on a roll lately and it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. However he took time out from his mighty busy schedule to listen to my debut release and here's what he had to say:

"Mark Rubin has created a masterpiece of American dark humor and grief. A bucket of personal history thrown into the wagons,mixed with the southern subterranean gravy of love and loathing. Since leaving Austin for New Orleans he has somehow managed to position himself as the Godzilla of Gypsy Juke N' Tuba Two-Step."

Thanks Kev!

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The first of a Trypich of planned recordings for 2013.

I've got 3 recording projects that I plan to have released this year. Ok, ok, call it making up for lost time. I had planned on directing my creative efforts on more Atomic Duo releases and touring, but when I was let go from that project, I kinda dropped all the balls I had up in the air, personally and professionally. It was time for a deep breath as it turned out, and through the process of recovery and reassessment, I was happily introduced to a community of musicians and players who have been very inspiring, encouraging and actively supportive. Everything happens for a reason I guess, so I'm very happy to have gone through the BS if this is what it can look like on the other side.

Sean Orr & Texas Gold @ Ginny's

In an effort to honor old friendship and long standing mutual appreciation, my first release is a no-frills, nuthin' fancy picking session with one of my oldest musical companions, fiddler Sean Orr. No foolin', Sean and I have been passing ships in the night since the days when we played in different combos that would find themselves gigging at the Samurai Sake House in OKC, OK. Ran into him again when I was playing with Killbilly in Dallas and he was with Cowboys & Indians. Then I ran into him the first week I moved to Austin to find that he was now in Bastrop. Since then, together we've played the stages of the Calgary and Winnipeg Folk Festivals and even a date at the Kennedy Center. We've played Arabic music together, and we've played Polish dances. Can't say there's another cat outside of Danny Barnes that I've played a wider mess of music with, and I've got plenty of recordings of us, but very little with Sean.

2000-2008

Sean and I did put out a traditionalist Texas Swing EP many years ago which was for whatever reason pretty much entirely ignored, but evidently spawned other local groups who seem to be doing pretty well with it at the hipster clubs on the Eastside of Austin where brown people used to live.

When we released "DANCE" back in 2006, we worked hard to get onto the "Western Swing" Festivals, but were uniformly turned down, sometimes quite bitterly, being told that the music of Milton Brown and Cliff Brunner was in fact NOT "Western Swing," but if we added a drummer and wore matching outfits, it would still be "Jazz." That experience lead up to proposed and as of yet unrealized recording project in conjunction with Cornell Hurd (of the "we liked your band but you need to keep your shirts tucked in" Cornell Hurd Band) working title "A Tribute to Rayond Seifert and Asleep at the Wheel: Popular Wheel tunes played in a Texas Swing Style OR 30 Years in and Those Poor Yankees Still Can't Get the Beat Right, Bless Their Dear Hearts." But alas, time moves on and there are in fact much, much better things to do.

original artwork by Howard Rains

Which leads us to this release: "Sean Orr & Mark Rubin present Texas Fiddle - Okie Guitar" for which we have started a modest Kickstarter campaign. Please take a moment and visit this link and consider helping us get this made.

The second proposed release is with songwriter-harmonica player Sean Tracey, and will consist of mostly original material that our former band mates didn't like, rescue our tunes from releases we don't own and cover about a half dozen Bad Livers numbers that I've worked out on claw-hammer banjo and fiddle, currently scheduled for November. Soon after, I plan on releasing the very first "Mark Rubin" release, which is currently in production, working title "The Triumph of Assimilation." Details to follow as they become realized.

Note to my musico pals: Barnes is right, MAKE and don't second guess yourself.

Bless you all for even reading this.

Forward!