Oklahoma has its share of bluegrass-and-old-time-country-loving tuba and standup-bass virtuosos, and possibly a couple who have melded acoustic roots music and hardcore punk, but only Mark Rubin has added Yiddish dance tunes to the mix. Now, the self-proclaimed “Jew of Oklahoma” has brought his unique musical take to the bayous surrounding New Orleans, his current home.

In today’s bid for minority inclusion, Rubin has released his latest album of Kosher BBQ Gumbo, The Triumph of Assimilation, to address discrimination of Jews and to move us all toward a society where we are free to be different, equal, and heard.

While the album’s message is serious, in a long-standing Jewish tradition, Mark Rubin brings humor to the situation, and we have a sample here, in “Down South Kosher (A Dance of Hunger & Reconciliation),” about the challenges of keeping Kosher in a region where nearly every dish contains pig products or shellfish—occasionally both. The tuba-embellished melody comes from “Dance of Anger and Reconciliation,” a Yiddish wedding dance performed by the couple’s respective mothers-in-law.

Rubin told Elmore, “Friends and neighbors, I’m here to tell you that there’s lard in even in the coffee, no matter where you turn down here. And in my home of New Orleans, expect a faint sprinkling of shellfish on any dish that you may order. It can be done with Herculean effort, keeping a Kosher home. But at some point in my upbringing, my family gave up and we adopted a code for the non-Kosher ingredients we would encounter at the cookout to fool ourselves into thinking we weren’t actively breaking dietary commandments. So please, enjoy my jaunty little tightrope dance between neighborliness and observance.”

Inside jokes aside, Mark Rubin does have a serious goal. “I’m hoping that this record can help create a safe place for American Jewish people to be Jewish, to be American, to be Southern—and not have to explain themselves.”

Learn more about Mark Rubin HERE
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Get the whole album HERE