Danny Barnes "if I was you, I'd get this..."

Danny took time out his his touring schedule to scribble a few thoughts about my debut solo release "Southern Discomfort," now available on iTunes and CD Baby:

bad livers, 2000

"mark rubin is a very smart and talented fellow. i feel we are like brothers...that grew up together in a van, driving around the US. i've been really excited for him to put out these great songs because he's got a lot to say with his art and he has a great vision for it. we all have to just keep putting the music where our mouth is and keep putting stuff out, there's really nothing else to do. or that can be done, we have to keep working and improving. he sounds really great here and has a good eye for the overall effect. if i was you, i'd get this."

Keep up with Danny at his blog and check out his cassette Only label Minner Bucket Records.

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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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Slaid Cleves on "Southern Discomfort" "Delightfully disturbing, or disturbingly delightful?"

I don't have the kind of finances that allow me to hire a publicist to "work" the release of my solo CD, I just have myself and my friends to rely on. But that doesn't really worry me, because even if I did the whole music industry is so confused right now I could just be setting the money on fire for all I know. When I started out making music, we were entirely on our own with no infrastructure or roadmap, making venues where we could find them and printing up our own 'zines. We didn't get our music out to everybody, sure. But we got it out to the other music freaks, just like us, and that's who we wanted to be connecting with in the first place.

When the internet came along, we jumped on it (Bad Livers had a website up in 1993, before I had a browser to even see it.) It was a great tool to communicate directly with our fans and circumnavigate the normal channels that were, and are, frankly toxic to good music making.

Oh how the times have changed, and the disruptions of the web based economies have made what once looked like a great way to connect appear today to be a swampy morass, with its once flowing pipes now choked with pap and dreck and the good stuff seemingly just as hard to access as ever. Sometimes it feels like its built that way on purpose.

Good thing I have such great friends who I'm hoping with turn their friends on to my music. Slaid Cleves is one of those friends. I sent him a copy of my debut CD, with trepidation as Slaid is a wonderful storyteller and songwriter and this was my very first songwriting effort. Here's his response:

"Hey Mark,

Great job, man.  That's one to be proud of.  I don't know if you were looking for quotes, but it certainly did inspire a few:

That's the least boring album I've heard in a long time.  Jam packed with sweetness and angst, it's delightfully disturbing (or maybe disturbingly delightful).  One thing it's not is subtle.  Recommended for any roots music/Americana fan who's been a little bored lately."

Thanks Slaid!

(I have another really great review from my pal Papa Mali, but that's going to be published in the Austin Chronicle soon!)

Here's me backing Slaid singing a Don Walser tune at the Broken Spoke:

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