Our guest on this episode is the well-traveled, well-spoken, and unapologetically outspoken musician Mark Rubin. From co-founding the influential Americana trickster band The Bad Livers to being a leader in the contemporary klezmer scene, Mark’s storied career strands weave together perfectly in this latest release, The Triumph of Assimilation. We talk about the new album, his experiences as a Southern Jew, the intersectional fascism reboot, cultural appropriation do-nots, and Yiddish songwriter/poet Mordechai Gebirtig. 

Featured music is “It’s Burning,” “A Day of Revenge“,”Royal Street Shuffle” and, just in time for Revenge of the 5th, “The Dark Side Has Doughnuts,” by Mark Rubin, courtesy of the artist. 

FOLLOW MARK AND PRE-ORDER HIS NEW ALBUM
https://www.jewofoklahoma.com/

LEARN MORE ABOUT MORDECHAI GEBIRTIG

At Home with Mordechai Gebirtig
https://ingeveb.org/texts-and-translations/at-home-with-mordecai-gebirtig

"Our Town is Burning" and "A Beam of Sunlight"
https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/language-literature-culture/yiddish-translation/our-town-burning-and-beam-sunlight

Mordechai Gebirtig Memorial (link is to English translated page from original Polish)
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=https://mordechaj-gebirtig.pl/&prev=search&pto=aue

Wiki Page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Gebirtig

P.S. SARAH AND JOY WERE REMEMBERING THAT THING ABOUT THE COLOR BLUE CORRECTLY! 
https://www.iflscience.com/brain/when-did-humans-start-see-color-blue/

Episode 26: Playing in Parables with Mark Rubin

Brian Hirsch chats with Mark Rubin on Green Morning Radio on WORT-FM on 5-10-22

Mark Rubin Interview on WORT-FM 5-10-22

Live on the air 1/21/1991, KUT 90.5fm "Folkways" hosted by Dan Foster

Steve James, banjo guitar, mandolin
Gary Primich, harmonica
Mark Rubin, tuba
Danny Barnes, tenor banjo

"Keep it Clean," "Shotgun Blues," and "Shake it and Break it."

On Folkways 1/12/1991

Steve James, Gary Primich, Mark Rubin and Danny Barnes, live on Austin radio station 1991

“Memo About the Warrant” as performed on public radio's premier word game Says You!, recorded live in Chimacum, WA on Sunday, April 7, 2019 and later broadcast on NPR stations nationwide. Entire Says You! episodes are available by downloading free from iTunes, or you can download for pennies on their website. https://www.saysyou.net/listen-now/

To locate the episodes from Chimacum 2019,  search for these titles: SY 2313 and SY 2314. I appeared as musical guest with the support of Eric Bogart and Stringology, a local group which features Terianne Stratton on ukulele and Tracy Grisman on upright bass.

I’m grateful for the support from the other members of the band, as well as the rowdy live audience in the high school auditorium, and all the folks at Says You! Radio who laughed along with this word-play song in a classic country music format. 

The song was used as ‘filler’ while the word game contestants puzzled over their quandaries and stations across the country cut out to air local station id’s. The live audience responded well, and you can too since the archived episodes are all available in the Says You! archives. 

Download free from iTunes, or visit their website to download for pennies. ‘Memo About the Warrant’ appears at 36:40 during episode SY 2313, which first posted on May 9, 2019. https://www.saysyou.net/listen-now/

Many thanks also to Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen who first aired this song on the March, 28, 2018 Bradcast, a great syndicated program out of KPFK in Los Angeles. Ari Berman was the guest that day, and they finished by playing the song. Brad graciously offered to post text of the lyrics on his indispensable BradBlog. Right after the song first aired, they both laughed, and Desi exclaimed: “Wow, that was like Gilbert & Sullivan and Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie all rolled up into one!” 

Lyics: https://bradblog.com/Docs/MemoAboutTheWarrant_Lyrics_MattSircely020418.pdf

The following day, I placed the lyrics in a twitter thread, with separate tweets threading the song line-by-line. To this day, I keep thinking to myself: “What would Woody Guthrie do with twitter?” #WWWGDWT ? 

https://twitter.com/mattsircely/status/979460754364497920?s=20

Cover Image: Painting by Tracy Grisman - www.oldtimeyart.com

Memo About The Warrant - Live on Says You! Radio

Music is the language of all human beings and those who speak this language are welcome wherever they go.


Steve James, Gary Primich, Mark Rubin and Danny Barnes, live on Austin radio station 1991

Mark Rubin

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