Mark Rubin and his Folk Music
Handbag Full of Folk Music with Mark Rubin
Mark Rubin is a great American folk musician. On stage, he’s a force of nature. Off stage, he’s an expert in American Folk traditions. Following in the footsteps of Pete Seeger and Carl Sandburg, he is a collecter of songs and regional history. He is equally at home as an advisor to the Smithsonian Institute and camp director for the Folk Alliance International as performing with bands such as the Bad Livers and Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars.Originally from Stillwater, Oklahoma, Rubin moved to Austin, Texas in the 90’s to help form the legendary trio, the Bad Livers. The band caught the folk music world on fire by putting a punk attitude in bluegrass. They crossed genre boundaries by playing acoustic music at rock festivals and punk music at country venues.Pulling on his family roots, Rubin traverses from country music to klezmer, playing festivals such as the Ashkenaz in Tornonto, Warsaw Singer Festival, Yiddish Summer Weimar, and the Cracow Jewish Culture Festival. Some of the groups featuring him are Frank London’s Brotherhood of Brass and the Boban Markovic Orkestar. In 2011 he was featured discussing klezmer music and performing in The Broken Sound, a documentary film about Alan Bern’s Roma-Klezmer Project, The Other Europeans.In 2014 Rubin recorded his first solo album. It was created in collaboration with a radio documentary project about him, sponsored by WDR in Cologne, Germany. The recording features him as a songwriter as well as an interpreter of traditional material. On the album, he sings and plays bass, violin, tuba, mandolin, and banjo. The album features a number of Austin folk musicians who have collaborated with him in the last years. In the documentary, he speaks about the idiosyncrasies of Southern American culture in relationship to his musician’s lifestyle.In 2013, as a silent protest to Austin’s rampant gentrification, Mark Rubin moved to New Orleans.To learn more about Mark, please visit his web site at: www.markrubin.com
Mark Rubin meets Violettes by Becky
In June of 2014, I met Mr. Rubin, and he just loved our Violettes Music Purses and gig bags. As articulate as he is, we recorded his spur of the moment heartfelt presentation of them. See the video below. We are happy that he endorses Violettes By Becky!************************************************************************************************************************************************************