On music and poison.

Our Sages teach us that The Torah (the Law) is much like water: It is essential for nurturing the tress that give us shade, and the fruits and vegetables that sustain us. But like water it makes no distinctions, as it also feed the hemlock that will kill us. It is then our duty to identify the difference and educate others so that they thrive and not perish.

But is that not also the case with Music? Can a human truly exist without it? For all it's powerful connective and healing powers, it too can be fashioned into a tool of division and hurt. So we are obliged to always be in the process of learning the differences, and speaking out to warn our fellow humans when we encounter the poisons.

Had my fill of jousting, yes sirree...

Today I shuttered my Facebook account. No one asked me to, nor did anyone even recommend it. I simply decided that good it brought me was far and away not worth the ill it created in my brain.

My brain, like many others, is in the process of trying to kill me. Why should I help it?

So, when I feel the need to share, share here I will. If you have a comment, feel free to send it to me. I appreciate thoughtful debate. Which is why I shuttered my Facebook account.

Ok, that's it. Carry on

Language is in the news again today. *sigh*

May I add this perspective to the "English Only" debate?

My Mother and her ESL Class, OSU 1971

From my experience, all culture springs from language.

Be it music, or poetry or even the practice of your faith, it is all tied to rhythm of the language of your family and community raised you in. When you lose your language, even your accented English and your slang, you will surely lose your culture eventually. The folks who insist in "English only"* are in this respect spot on; no matter what they contend, their agenda will eventually rob you of the very essence of what makes you, you.

Lingua Franca, the language of trade? That's still English mostly, worldwide. It's the language of money and people who value money will want to learn it. But should they lose their language in the process and all that goes with it, they will lose more than any amount of money will ever be able to buy. And America is a democracy right? Where the majority speak Urdu, should not the savvy Capitalist retailer learn Urdu to service the trade? My own people have been pulling off that handy trick for centuries.

My Father's International Students at OSU, 1971

So using only the language of native Texans may I state, sin embargo, la cultura siempre prevalecerá cuando hablamos nuestra lengua materna. Rodina je kdo mluví česky doma děti jednolodní, kteří tančí polka. Et les gens qui parlent français cadien tendance à avoir des enfants qui ne peuvent cuisiner un repas complet en un seul pot noir. Najszczęśliwszych ludzi, których znam języka polskiego w domu i odtwarzać muzykę z krewnymi.
Aber der Grund, niemand spricht Deutsch, weil sie ihre Sprache zu sprechen aufgehört und jetzt gibt es tatsächlich wenig bis gar keine deutsche Kultur in Texas heute. מייַן אייגן קולטור ריזיידז אין די אָפּפאַל קענען פון געשיכטע דאַנק צו די צילגעווענדט באַזייַטיקונג פון אונדזער מענטשן פון אונדזער געבוירן שפּראַך. צי ניט לאָזן דעם פּאַסירן איר!

Finally, I'll share with you Marc Savoy's posted essay on the subject from an entirely different perspective; you live here in French speaking Louisiana and you DON'T speak French?:

*(ironic that this country can't even create a language of its own and still uses the language of the Colonial oppressors, right?)

"Adios Land Signs" (an ode to 2012)

Jamming. Music played just for the simple joy of the doing of it.

Who it is or where it happened isn't important. It happens all the time everywhere you go. If you just stop and listen.

Traci Lamar Hancock RIP

Traci Lamar Hancock lost her battle with ovarian cancer today. 

If you are not familiar with her and her work you may be forgiven for not knowing what a great loss this is for the musical community of Texas and Austin in particular. The influence of the Hancock Family is legendary centered around Tommy X Hancock and the Hancock family band, the Texana Dames. 

They were in the middle of everything good when I first moved to Austin, and unlike many established artists I met when I was first starting out, they were as friendly and generous as can be. It was the indication of a family, both genetic and by choice, based on love in its purest form.

I met Traci years ago when she got up and sang a wonderful Ranchera with Santiago Jimenez, Jr., who really hated when people wanted to sit in but admitted to me she was one of the best vocalists he had backed up, quite the feat for a gringa from West Texas. (Frankly, I assumed she was Mexican!) Her wonderfully powerful voice, backed by her ever present accordion, coupled with her love of the regional music of Texas added an authentic Tex-Mex tinge to the Dames sound and for a good long while was the soundtrack for the city.

Austin isn't like she used to be and "new" Austin and the newcomers didn't really snap to old line acts like the Dames, for whatever reason. Like for many of us, the work started to trickle and then dry up. Then the diagnosis came. (Here's a photo play of Traci and the Dames entertaining the cancer ward just this last Christmas.)

She had to struggle through her illness for several years now without insurance and the effect has left her family more than a little bit strapped. If you feel moved and if you have the means, please see about making a contribution to defray the many expenses that the family is now burdened with. Follow this link to make a donation.

Peace and love.

May her memory be a blessing to us all.

Email addresses and the advance of History

I entered the internet in 1993, stumbling UK record distributors' Bad Livers page on a Mosaic browser while at my day job at the University of Texas. By 1994 I had an AOL account and soon after switched to local provider called Real/Time Communications. I set up my email address  - mdrubin (at) bga.com then and that's been my address ever since. I own markrubin.com and used that as a mirror address until hackers goofed me and I had to drop it.

I was informed that the new corporate owners of Real/Time have decided to no longer support the bga.com address (much like the time they installed an aggressive spam blocker, didn't tell me and I didn't get any emails for over 2 weeks.)

Therefore, friends and associates, you will no longer be able to find me at the email address I've carried for nearly 18 years. I have switched to a Gmail account and my prefix is "texasrubinchik".

That is all.

If you must buy, buy local!

Howdy Friends! 

 

It's that time of year again so may I direct your attention to the many fine releases we have available here at Mark Rubin Industries. 

 

Even if you don't do business with us, we implore you to seek out and support your local, community owned businesses when making your buying decisions this gift giving season. 

 

Thanks and Happy Holidays!

Great Romanian Accordionist playing "Live"

Here's a little introduction to Lăutari accordionists.We'll start with probably the most famous and influential,Fărâmiţă Lambru. He had a great singing career as well, but it was accordion that first made him famous. "Melodii lautaresti"
And this short Sirba:

And here's a cameo in a Romanian film:

Here he's probably just playing along to a track, but no matter, its "live" of a sort:



I'm sorry to make you suffer a whole minute of Zamfir on the pan pipes (which he rocks BTW) so that you can see the great Vasile Pandelescu at work :

Really and truly I've been checking out Viorel Fundament a lot lately, so dig :

Here's a more modern approach to the music from two of the hottest Young Bloods on the scene,
Ionică Minuneand Marian Mexicanu :

Here's Emil Kroitor, ex-Moldova now living in Tel Aviv. He has been described to me by every Moldovar lautari I've encountered as the greatest of them all. He collected and in some cases composed the vast majority of tunes that are played by lautari today.


Just found this cat, and he can really throw down in the rustic school. Mighty!:

This still remains one of my favorite performances, entirely give it's circumstances! :

RIP : Gil Scott Heron. Great American Poet.

Here's our musical setting of the great Gil Scott Heron poem "Whitey on the Moon."

From the Atomic Duo's performance at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC, May 16, 2011.

Don Walser - Just Me and My Old Guitar - Just Released

Produced by Mark Rubin (Bad Livers, Atomic Duo) and mixed and mastered by Gurf Morlix, this is the only recording of Don just by himself, singing his songs and telling the true life stories of the times and characters that made up his lyrics.

{To order online now, click cover art}

In 2004, Don's hands started to cramp and go numb on his gigs and it became apparent that they were soon going to gave up on him completely to where could no long even strum his guitar. So, with a intern pal (Jake Zuckerman) we set up a field recording session in his living room with a handful of microphones and a now obsolete recording format and just let the tape roll. Don lived inside of his songs and they became real to him every time he sang them, and we felt it was important to document the man and his stories in as natural and unvarnished a manner. The pain of his singular Gospel composition the "Crucifixion," the youthful joy in knocking over "Pappy's Simmon's Privy," and the heart breaking recounting of his early life with his bride Patricia ("Times Were Never Easy,') so painful a memory he couldn't get through a take without breaking down and crying.

For many years, these tapes sat in a box under my bed. It took a long time for me to even bring myself to listen to them. A few record labels contacted me about releasing it, but the contracts I was offered were jokes; I give them Don's music and they take his publishing rights all for releasing a CD. Don't think the big guy would have swung at that pitch, so back under the bed they went.

But with the urging of his friends and family, especially long time admirer Gurf Morlix, we are pleased to share that day with you all. Simply intended to be anything but a little souvenir to his fans and a peek into the life of the "Pavarotti of the Plains," and "God's Own Yodeler." We hope you will find as much joy in listening as we did that day sipping lemonade in his front room in South Austin.

Photo courtesy Al Walser. Cover design Jeff Brosch.

The Objectives of Objectivism

I'm not normally pointing out political opinion blogs, the world of culture and the cultural arts are my usual balliwick, but this recent essay really struck a chord with me.

Stranger still it was penned by Michael Gerson, a former GW Bush speechwriter and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, who's conservative bonafides are iron-clad and not the guy I'd be apt to agree with. But here he is, distilling for me just what it was about Ayn Rand's philosophies that troubled me so. I couldn't put a finger on it, but Objectivism and the fast-paced trend to resurrect it, just seemed plain wrong. But when debated on the point, and you'd be surprised how many normally sensible people have fallen into the Galt cult, I would get flustered and inarticulate. I literally couldn't believe anyone would support such an obviously selfish and self loathing philosophy.

Hooray however for Mr. Gerson, who has so simply and plainly encapsulated the crux of my distress. In this opinion peice for the Washington Post, he likens Rand's fantasies of the worthy elite as boring as and and as predictable as a petulant teenager's adolescence. He further summarizes Objectivism's "principles," in his words, "on the back of a napkin."

He notes:
"Reason is everything. Religion is a fraud. Selfishness is a virtue. Altruism is a crime against human excellence. Self-sacrifice is weakness. Weakness is contemptible.

“The Objectivist ethics, in essence,” said Rand, “hold that man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself.”

Gerson is, like myself, bewildered at the promotion of Rand's ideas especially given her hatred of the Everyman (the little guy that Reagan claimed to champion,) and of the religious, who she thought were idiots.

He concludes:
"Conservatives have been generally suspicious of all ideologies, preferring long practice and moral tradition to Utopian schemes of left or right. And Rand is nothing if not Utopian. In “Atlas Shrugged,” she refers to her libertarian valley of the blessed as Atlantis.

It is an attractive place, which does not exist, and those who seek it drown."

I'll drink to that.

Atomic Duo @ Folk Alliance Conference, 2011

The Atomic Duo, aka my old pal Silas and I, traveled north to Memphis to attend the Folk Alliance Conference. Our goal was to come meet some folks, pun intended, and see if anybody else likes what we do as much as we do.

As it turns out, lots of folks do! Had a wonderful meeting with Si Kahn, who has been an inspiration for many years, and picked up quite a few pointers from him. Saw lots of truly amazing and talented acts; Jerron Paxton, Two Man Gentleman Band, Betse Ellis and every single band who performed at the Steam Powered Preservation Society's informal showcases, (follow the link to hear two live tunes from us.) Got quite a bit of jamming in with friends old and new. And saw soooo much good music being made by genuinely nice people that it puts to lie the tired yarn that "there's no good music today."

Here's a few little highlights:

First up, from a "Rooted Traditions" showcase hosted by roots guitar maestro Andy Cohen, we were asked to perform only tunes by our "masters." We chose Gil Scott Herron (w/ our jugband rendition of "Whitey On The Moon") and this lovely little Scott Joplin gem, "Scott Joplin's New Rag."

And here's the first tune from our formal showcase, the world debut of Silas' new composition "Trickle Down."

Here's the lyrics (all rights reserved, c Silas Lowe.):

Verse
My mother raised me up alone
working three jobs at a time
Barely made enough each week
to put away a dime
So I don’t want to hear about
the wealthy’s pain and woes
Cause they ain’t trickled nothing down
to help the working poor

Chorus
They talk about trickle down
but I ain’t seen a drop
They say they worked the hardest
for all the things they got
But they don’t know the pain to raise a
failing dust bowl crop
It’s time things started flowing
from the bottom to the top

Verse
They trickled all the money
to banks in Switzerland
They trickled all our children
to fight Afghanistan
They trickled all the good jobs
down to Mexico
But they ain’t trickled nothing down
to help the working poor

They talk about trickle down
but I ain’t seen a drop
They say they worked the hardest
for all the things they got
They ain’t lived a lifetime pushing
round a dusty mop
It’s time things started flowing
from the bottom to the top

Verse
The pressure sure is building
and something’s gonna crash
the credit cards are all maxed out
and no one uses cash
Things had best start changing soon
cause the bottoms gonna blow
and they won’t like what boils up
from the starving poor

They talk about trickle down
but I ain’t seen a drop
They say they worked the hardest
for all the things they got
But they don’t hungry child whose
crying just won’t stop
It’s time things started flowing
from the bottom to the top