Southern Discomfort

Feature by Paul Brody

Mark Rubin

Description:
Southern Discomfort explores the conflicted narrative of a Jewish bluegrass musician
living in the American South. Mark Rubin, storyteller and songwriter takes us on a
journey from his childhood in Oklahoma to his present home in New Orleans, via Austin,
Texas.
Plucking his bass, wrestling with Southern and Jewish traditions, and steering us across
the Louisiana flatlands, Mark tells of his spiraling struggles to find a sense of place and
belonging between cultures. His humor and song, his rabbi, and his memories of his
long-dead father lead him to accept his contradictions and settle in New Orleans.

English version for WTJU, Virginia

German version for WDR, Cologne
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O-tone: In Mark Rubins home in New Orleans.

Mark: My friend, Brian Marshal, said that if you want a description of what folk music
was: Its music that people play because they dont want to be left out of the fun.
Music: Key Chain Blues
Mark: This is a true story here. Every word of its true, I swear to god.
Singing:
Well, the mortgage gal she got me on the phone
She took another key off the key chain
Said you dont make enough for to carry your loan
Take another key off the key chain
Well Mr. Rubin the sheriffs down there and all your crap is on the yard
Take another key off the key chain
Well to date, theres seven point seven million of you now
So dont take it so hard
Take another key off the key chain
I had a Key chain, key chain
Well I used to make them jingle and I used to make them sing
I had a Key chain, a key chain
And now I reside in a box
Paul: Heres Paul Brody. Welcome to my feature, Southern Discomfort.
O-tone: Car Radio.
Mark: Dont come to New Orleans and try and tell us how things are going to happen
around here. Were certainly not going to go and tell you how to do it.
Show me what you got.
Paul: Show me what you got, is the first thing Mark Rubin said to me when he picked
me up from the airport in New Orleans. Since most of Americas music, be it pop, jazz,
rap, or country is rooted in the South, I chose to visit him.
Mark is the bass and tuba player from the bluegrass band, Bad
Livers, but hes also a Southern style storyteller, songwriter, and plays banjo, violin, and
sings. Mark Rubins as tall and wide as a grand acoustic bass, and no matter what
instrument he plays one cant help but admiring the Hebrew letters and depiction of
David beheading Goliath tattooed on his left arm

Mark: Here we are on my block. This is the home that were staying in here right here.
A beautiful old 20s set-up. The bottom part right here is what they refer to in New
Orleans as a basement though, as youll notice, its above ground.
Paul: I put my suitcase down in a room brimming folk instruments. Dwarfing them all, in
the middle of the floor, is Marks bass. Mark invites me to come with him to Fritzls
European Jazz Club to hear him play with the Charlie Fardellas Band.
O-tone: Clubs sounds.
Fritzls Jazz Club is filled with German memorabilia: posters of Berlin, Octoberfest, and
Jaegermeister. Before getting on stage, Mark shows me a painting in a dark corner
facing the bandstand.
Mark: Hey Paul, take a look at this, man! No, you can see it if you're a costumer. You
can only see it if you're on stage. Come here. Look. What do you see. Yep, that's right.
A three by five portrait of field Marshal Erwin Von Rommel.(Laughs))
O-tone: Bass solo, clubs sounds cross fade to Bourbon Street Sounds
Paul: During the set I decide to take a walk down Bourbon Street. Live music spills out
of every second club, from Cajun to Rap. And between them are discos, strip joints, and
stairwells leading to darkness. The waitress who let me stay in the jazz club despite not
having any cash walks by.
Paul: Hey, excuse me. I dont mean to bother you?
Paul: In most clubs, if you didnt have cash or couldnt pay they would show you the
door. I thought that was unusual that I didnt get kicked out.
Waitress: Thats alright. This is New Orleans. Its all about the music. Theres more
music on this one street then there is in some entire cities. I mean at the end of the day,
when youre going home and walking down Bourbon Street its a little different. It smells
like beer and...vomit. (Laughs)
O-tone: Street sounds fade.
Paul: Were back at Marks house with his bass unpacked. Mark Rubin recently moved
to New Orleans from Austin, Texas, his home of twenty-five years. But were going to
start with his childhood home of Oklahoma. Oklahoma is the buckle of the bible belt and
flat as a pancake.
Mark: Thats all you really need to know about Oklahoma. Its got more manufactured
trailer housing than any other place in the United States and it has more tornados!
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Musik: Bass solo

Mark: Now this is what a category three tornado sounds like: (bass solo) A category
three you can get away from. But in 1976 though, I experienced a category five. Now
category five hit Still Water right about the year before we left. Everything seemed ok
and it was like that (bass solo).
Mark: Oh ya, its coming! And then it got. (bass solo)
We actually had to go jump into one of those old fashion bomb shelters. Back in the
50s we were all so scared of Ivan blowing us up, right, and so a couple people on the
block had a bomb shelter. That was the deal, we had to run to their house.
Mark: And it was (bass solo).
Holy cow, oh my god. Well, I hope the Simpsons are...I hope they got room in their
place. Know what I mean? Oh my god, here it comes!
Then you got in to it and it just stopped. You could get into the bomb shelter and it was
just still. It was like a stillness you could taste. And then you would hear the loudest:
(bass solo).
Mark: For about five minutes solid it felt like the whole world was coming apart. And
then youd come out of the shelter (bass solo) and youd look around and go, Wow,
what happened? There were twelve houses. When we got out of the shelter houses
were completely disintegrated standing next to houses that didnt even have a broken
window. The capriciousness of tornados teaches you all you need to know about
nature.
(Marks banjo Interlude)
Paul: We relax on the expanse of white porch to continue our talk Southern style.
Marks house is just off of Elysian Fields, where Tennessee William's Street Car Named
Desire takes place. Children play, a summer thunderstorm rolls through, and the
wooden rocking chairs creak like old bones. I learn that Marks family immigrated from
Belarus through Galveston Island, Texas, the Ellis Island of the South. His father found
work as a Hillel teacher and administrator at Oklahoma State University.
Mark: I mean, if you move to a small town in Oklahoma, as my parents did. When they
showed up, the ladys axillary of the local mens club showed up with a welcome wagon
and a fresh baked pie. You know, thats what folks do. Being raised observantly Jewish
in a monoculture like Oklahoma, which was engaged in the systematic disfranchisement
of minorities. Right? This is why this has been such a struggle for me is that I was a
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Jewish kid living in Oklahoma, having a Jewish private life, almost like a secret little
thing we did on Friday night. You know, like, this is the one piece of connection that you
have with this culture, and, yes, its true, Mark, the whole rest of the week youre going
to be surrounded by people who have a different world view. I would tell you point plank
that I longed for what I saw in other people where they woke up in a Baptist house, in a
Baptist town, in a Baptist county in a Baptist state.
Music: Oklahoma State Marching Band Theme Song.
Mark: So we have a football chant for the Oklahoma University. And the team is called
the Sooners. Theyre called the Sooners. And our cry is boomer sooner. (Sings)
Boomer sooner. Boomer sooner. A boomer is a wealthy person who has sent
indentured servants to go and stake this land. A sooner is someone who snuck ahead
of the land run and stole the land. So literally the collage football team might as well be
called the thieves. And the fact that there is absolutely no irony in that what so ever, if
youre a sensitive person at all whos not automatically born into the dominant narrative,
itll drive you completely nuts.
O-tone: Marks tuba line.
Mark: So this idea of why did I choose the instruments that I did, it has almost nothing
to do with expressing myself. It has to do with, how can I be functionary to these people,
and valuable to these people. You know, they put up with the little Jewish kid because
he played bass. Nobody else wanted to do it. I mean literally.
Music: Hot Nut Riveters (with Mark) Im Just a Lad from Way Down South.
Mark: In the South, self-sufficiency is paramount. That men are supposed to be able to
fix their own house, fix their own plumbing, shoot a deer, dress a deer, fix their car- this
idea of thats what a definition of a man is. Theyre able to do all of these things without
anyones help.
This is counter to the Jewish narrative because Jews are always... you got to have ten
men for a minyan. (Jewish prayer session)
Right? Nothing happens without help. So how do you integrate into the society? Well, Ill
give you one example: One of our neighbors made a fence. And theres a saying in the
South, Good fences make good neighbors.
So my father says, John, I saw you put that in. That was less than a day. Impressive
guys. That was really great.
He goes, Could I get you to put in a fence for me? Ill pay you a fair. And I remember the
neighbor going, Ill show you how to do it.
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And I remember my dad going, Oh, common. Look what happened to the last Jewish
carpenter. He made a joke of it, made a jest. And even though it was really curious to
our neighbors that those Jews over there dont build their own, my fathers thought was
correct. He said, They like this. In fact, employ him, make him feel good about it. Like,
thats how a good fence built a good neighbor.
Also, as my father said, The guy who builds your house is less likely to burn it in the
pogrom. (Laughter)
Paul: To learn about Southern culture, I figured Id try doing some of it. So before
coming to New Orleans I asked Mark to send me an mp3 of a typical country song for
me to try playing on trumpet. Mark send me the song, Today I count my treasure and
reluctantly agreed to give me bluegrass lessons.
Mark: I send you that recording over a week ago. You got that tune down?
Paul: Well, ya. I had to pack and I was kind of busy in Berlin but I did write it out.
Mark: Dude, I asked you if you had the tune down! You have...you have a piece of
paper with notes on it.
Paul: Ya, ya, I wrote it out.
Mark: I come on, man! What does that have to... (sigh) Man, what do notes on a page
have anything to do with music?
Paul: Well, whatever, thats just the way I...
Mark: Have you ever seen music stands set up at a bluegrass jam?
Paul: Ive never been to a bluegrass jam.
Mark: Well, theres your problem, pal. I mean, the only thing Ive ever used a music
stand for is to hold your beer so you dont have to lean over on stage to pick up the
beer.
Paul: Ya, Im kind of comfortable with...
Mark: Look, man. Look, man, let me take you to a bluegrass jam. Theres one here in
Treme. Its right down the street. Wanna go?
Paul: Uh, ya. Thats what Im here for.

Mark: Lets go tonight, man. Lets go tonight.

O-tone: Rusty door closing at High Low Lounge. Bluegrass jam with Mark on
vocals.
Paul: As I finish my first Louisiana beer Mark says we need to go. After a short sleep
were in the car by...
O-tone: Cut to inside car going to Austin
Paul: Its 4 in the morning in New Orleans.
Mark: Ya. We have a hundred miles yet to go through Louisiana and then well have
another two hundred-fifty miles to go through Texas before we start our recording
session. Over there, my friend. Fields of rice. Rice and crawfish. Oh, by the way, this is
KBON. Were going to enjoy this radio for while we can because as soon as we hit the
Texas border this is all going to disappear.
O-tone: Paul and Mark: Aint going back no more...
Paul: The morning sun follows us Westbound, setting the Louisiana flatland aglow.
Every conversation about music leads us to lifes struggles and every personal issue
leads us to music.
Mark: There was a German band that I admired when I was a kid called einstrzende
neubauten. Do you know this band?
Paul: Ja. I played with them. Im on a CD with them.
Mark: Im telling you right now, thats my reality. If you come and sing me happy songs I
wont know what to do with that because I didnt have that in my life. I didnt have
comfort. I didnt have a sense of place or belonging. You know, thats why Im attracted
to bluegrass music because I find in it that it has that raw raggedness that also
possesses a great beauty in itself.
Music: Bad Lovers, Lumpy Beanpole and Dirt
Paul: Raw raggedness that also possesses a great beauty. When his father died, Mark
moved to Austin to dig into the traditional music scene and to rise to fame with the band,
Bad Livers. This is a song Mark wrote for the group, Lumpy, Beanpole, and Dirt.
In the year 2000 the Bad Livers broke up, but its bluegrass with a punk attitude was
memorialized in the Austin Music Hall of Fame.

Mark is still very connected with the country music scene there so were driving back
from him to record his first solo album.
O-tone: Studio noise and musicians.
Paul: We arrive at the recording studio, which is the garage of a suburban house thats
been sound proofed and filled with instruments.
Before I even stretch my legs Mark's already unloaded the
tuba, bass, banjo, guitar, violin out of his car. And, of course, his bag full of new songs
and stories.
O-tone: Studio noise and sound engineer.
Music: Why Am I Trying to Kill Myself.
Why am I trying to kill myself?
How come Im doing it again?
I know I am mentioning, kill myself
over and over again.
Well, your joints they are cracking
From the pounds you are packing
And your waistline is making you blue
All the drinks before noon
And the pills and the booze...
(Fade under spoken voice)
Mark: The song that I was really worried about because it was so naked and so raw, I
sang it at a bluegrass jam and two of my best friends, who are really wonderful
musicians, they heard me sing it and they were totally moved. So I had this awesome
opportunity to have the instrumental and vocal talents of two of the best bluegrass
musicians in town on it.
But the song is called, Why am I trying to kill myself? Because it was very obvious I was
constantly doing things that were going to kill me. Either kill me mentally, kill me
socially, kill me professionally, or kill me, period. And all of these behaviors that I was
engaged in were, from any perspective outside of my own, could easily be seen as
forms of suicide.
O-tone: Song ends. Studio noise and musicians joking around. Cross fade to New
Orleans street.
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Paul: Back in New Orleans, I stroll down Frenchmen Street. Its the polite version of
Bourbon Street. There are no strip clubs and almost all the bands are comprised of
young musicians from the North who have come to live in the birthplace of jazz. I see
the waitress from Frizels Jazz Club.
O-tone: Waitress: How was your week in New Orleans.
Paul: I just got back from Austin. That bass player used to live there before moving here
just a few months ago.
Waitress: Thats funny because certainly after Katrina a lot of people left and a lot of
people went to Austin. But now I think its getting really expensive there for musicians
so, you know, theyre starting to come back.
O-tone: New Orleans street music from a cafe
Paul: After recording on over a Thousand albums as an Austin based sideman, Mark
Rubin moves to New Orleans and finds inspiration to reinvent himself as a
singer/song writer. What does New Orleans mean to him?
Music: George Lewis playing, A Closer Walk with Thee
Mark: I talked to my psychologist. I talked to my good friend and rabbi. And he kind o
looked at me in the eye and he said, Well, where is it that you go where youre not
mad?
It was really quick. The thought was immediately New Orleans. These trips that I made
down here to New Orleans with my father. These kind of dad and lad trips we call them.
I remember distinctly being at Jackson Square and seeing a black gentleman out on the
street playing the tuba all by himself. And I remember my father being so charmed by
that, taking out a ten dollar bill and putting it in his tip jar. That was a lot of money back
then. You know, in the back of my mind, Ive said it over and over again. That image of
the guy standing on the street corner playing the tuba in New Orleans. That was what I
aspire too. Its kind of what my whole careers been built towards I guess, in some
respects.
I knew for a fact that I would never retire. No musician really retires. But I did think that,
for me, my ideal situation would be to live in New Orleans and walk to work and play
music in the streets and in the clubs.
When I hit that wall in Austin, when I talked to my rabbi, whod lived here in New
Orleans, thats when it came to me. You know, the hard times that people are
experiencing everywhere, its always been hard times here. And the fact of the matter is
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that its a place where a poor person can live with dignity.
A local musician said, what he loved about this town is that he had these two friends.
One was a musician and he was so broke he could barely make ends meet. But when
he died he had a second line (a parade) for him that stopped traffic for miles and miles.
When a rich man passes away here, unless of course hes really contributed to society,
they kind of pass without mention. So the prettiest dancer, the tambourine player who
has the most fun, the person who made everybody smile- those are the pillars of society
here in New Orleans.
Music: Seriously (from Austin session)
Music fades during instrumental:
Paul: My intuition was write, to talk with you. Anything else? I think were good. Were
very good.
Mark: I have one thing to say: boil three minutes, no salt. (Laugh) Yall come back now,
ya hear.
Paul: Heres Paul Brody. Thanks for listening to my feature, Southern Discomfort.
Engineer: Jens Troendle. Music: Mark Rubin, Sean Tracy, and Paul Brody.
Music fades back up:
First you take a little hit
Then you take another toke
And then friends everyday
I seem to smoke smoke smoke
I promise you friends I got a problem with dope
Cuz Ive been smoking too much weed.
Seriously. Seriously.
Paul: (Blows air though trumpet)

End of excerpt

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