​Mark Rubin, Jew of Oklahoma (from the album Dispatches from a World Gone Mad

​Mark Rubin, Jew of Oklahoma (from the album Dispatches from a World Gone Mad

​Mark Rubin, Jew of Oklahoma (from the album Dispatches from a World Gone Mad available as a self-release) (by Danny McCloskey)
Lying claim to a musical persona as the Jew of Oklahoma, as well as title a release Dispatches from a World Gone Mad. Mark Rubin delivers his most recent album. Before delving into the sounds of the album, a back story for Mark Rubin will help with an understanding of both the ‘who’ and the ‘what’. With a passion for humankind as big as his persona, Mark Rubin has been a fixture of music for three decades, producing many Roots artists as well as co-founding Bad Livers (along with Danny Barnes) in 1990. Bad Livers were a band that blurred the lines between The Carter Family and Iggy Pop, and blended The Misfits with Mississippi John Hurt, in the process creating a future format for Americana. His formative years in rural Oklahoma heard a younger Mark Rubin on tuba before transitioning to the bass guitar. 
 
The background for Mark Rubin in place, addressing the reasoning of Dispatches from a World Gone Mad is easier to understand. A few of the tracks on the album are instrumentals, Mark Rubin allowing personal perspectives from listeners to fill in the stories of “Berish Katz Breakdown” and “Reb Dovidi’s Reel”. With a lyrical theme of ‘bombs keep-a falling on my head’ Dispatches from a World Gone Mad musically draws the line and gives a platform for Mark Rubin to talk about his observations as he makes suggestions that ideally can become action. A coordinated sonic surge begins the industrial age hum that becomes a foundation for Mark Rubin when he explains the cycle spinning for “The World is a Wheel” as finger-picking ignites the rhythms for “Bear at the Door” while the string plucks of “Dog Whistle” gather attention for both canine and human ears. Never standing on a podium claiming knowledge, Mark Rubin relates his own beliefs with words that demand consideration when Dispatches from a World Gone Mad stages an anthem for the pandemic years alongside the forced home incarceration of Mideast strife as Mark Rubin lists the “Horrors of the War”, stomping out a beat as he issues a warning for “Goon with a Hammer” and offers an introduction/history lesson via determined banjo strums and plucks for “Wild Bill Jones”. (by Danny McCloskey)
 
Listen and buy the music of Mark Rubin, Jew of Oklahoma from AMAZON
 
For more information, please visit the Mark Rubin, Jew of Oklahoma website