MICHAEL RUBIN - I'LL WORRY IF I WANNA

MICHAEL RUBIN - I'LL WORRY IF I WANNA

CONTEMPORARY BLUES
LABEL: MANY HATS RECORDS
RELEASE DATE: APRIL 29, 2022

"I’ve just enjoyed listening to Michael Rubin’s new album. It was a fascinating listen…very creative and with humor, too. Every song is interesting with killer tones and phrasings!!! Michael sure knows his way around a harmonica and the backing band is also excellent. Any harmonica player would
appreciate this entire album. I ain’t lyin’!” Charlie Musselwhite

Having distinguished himself as a sideman for many years, Michael Rubin finally steps into the spotlight, not only as a harmonica master, but also as a singer-songwriter on his debut album, I ’ll Worry If I Wanna, on Many Hats Records. The cartoon cover, as well as the title itself, assures the listener that the blues they’re about to hear will be laced with humor. Lots of it. Co-produced by Josh Fulero and Rubin (many hats indeed!), the album features nine Rubin originals. The core backing band includes Mike Keller on guitar, Michael Archer on bass, and Mark Hays on drums, along with several memorable guest players. This impressive assemblage provides a crisp, economical yet powerful setting for Rubin’s superlative harmonica and quirky vocals. His voice is often reminiscent of David Bromberg’s with its talky, idiosyncratic phrasing and loose delivery, which oddly enough provides a remarkably effective counterpoint to the incredibly tight band. Rather than seem disjointed, to the contrary this coupling draws the listener in.

‘Little Rabbit’ kicks off the album. This randy little tune gives new meaning to “harebrained” as Rubin sings “I wanna get you hoppin’, make you feel real loose/Let you nibble my carrot and taste my carrot juice/I’m a little rabbit/You’re a little rabbit too/When I burrow baby, I know what to do.” The marriage of swirling harp and slide guitar is irresistible, and the quick musical nod to the 1950’s ‘Bunny Hop’ is inspired and smile-inducing (providing you’re hip to the Hop).

Rubin shifts from leporine to bovine eroticism in the udderly catchy ‘Go Milk Your Own Cow.’ Copping a New Orleans feel, the arrangement includes a fowl-mouthed harmonica imitating a chicken, followed by some superb, spirited fiddling around by one Dr. Sick. It’s followed by the poignant ‘Old Radio Dreams,’ a throwback to yesteryear’s Country & Western genre, with the emphasis on Western.
There’s still a lot of meat on that funny bone, however, as evidenced by the next four offerings. ‘Kama Sutra Girl’ is a three-chorder about a woman who knows just how to position herself in his life, while the shoulda/woulda/coulda ‘Can We Break Up Again’ finds the singer armed with fresh zingers he wishes he’d unleashed when he had the opportunity. In the exuberantly masochistic title track, ‘I’ll Worry If I Wanna,’ the chorus line “’Cause worryin’ makes me feel all right” says it all, and the non-fat-free ‘Beer Belly Baby’ as Rubin revealing himself as a middleman: “I got a Beer Belly Baby and I love to watch her shake that thing.” ‘Chain Letter Blues’ is a molasses-slow tune with a fittingly weepy harp underscoring the subject’s sad dilemma: to be superstitious or not to be. Rubin’s unorthodoxy extends to the final track, in his choice of closing with the album’s sole non-vocal number, ‘Fourth Coast.’ As with all nine songs, Rubin generously and wisely allows his musicians to shine as much as he does, and that plays no small role in making this album a praiseworthy debut. Jim George

WEBLINKS
OS: www.michaelrubinharmonica.com

For more info: Betsie Brown, Blind Raccoon, betsie@blindraccoon.com,