Michael Rubin

5 Minutes of Passion

Many Hats Records

Michael Rubin was born in New Jersey in 1969. He hopped around Pittsburgh, Sonoma, New Orleans, and Manhattan before choosing Austin. He began playing harp at 15 and performing at 16. He’s had adventures, such as playing in the pit of the Tony-nominated Broadway show The Civil War and backing up luminaries such as Ruthie Foster and Cyril Neville. He makes the bulk of his living teaching harmonica. He still takes lessons. He walks his dog and plays sudoku. His secret life is his songs.

When Rubin puts out his solo albums, of which 5 Minutes of Passion is his sophomoric follow-up to the well-received I’ll Worry If I Wanna, he doesn’t hold back telling you who he is while making you laugh. If you want another blues song explaining that if you want a woman you need some cash, you’ve come to the wrong place. His storytelling vocals seat him comfortably in the history of singers who use non-traditional vocals to make something beautiful with what they’ve got via style.

No one owns their lack of chops like Rubin. His pioneering harmonica showcases both the smaller blues harp and the larger chromatic, demonstrating a cutting-edge method of getting the chromatic’s roar to be as full-throated as its cousin. If you don’t live in Texas, the odds of you seeing Rubin perform are low. When he had children, he decided being with them was first priority. He performs regularly around the Lone Star State, trying to get his car in the driveway by night’s end.

The storytelling begins with “Dirty Words,” a Dixieland romp, as Rubin sings, “I ain’t gonna sing no more double entendres…When I said behind, I’ll mean behind.” Rubin is accompanied by opening vocalists the McMercy Family Band, a.k.a. Lindsey Verrill, Dan Grissom, Ted Hadji, Ryan Conlin, and Wilson Marks. He is also joined by banjoist and backing vocalist Guy Forsyth; the horn section of Patrick Harwell, trumpet and trombone; and Paulo Santos, saxophone and clarinet.

“Doo Doo Daa” is an instrumental harp workout with a touch of the blues, perhaps something written for his children, with just bassist Michael Archer and drummer Jason Corbiere. On “Big If,” Rubin includes some dazzling harp solos, with guitarists Josh Fulero, Cesar Crespo, and Matt Smith, and Santos on saxophone, as he chimes, “If I were king, I would rule the world, if I had hair, I would get all the girls.”

“Alien in a Chair” launches otherworldly blues guitar into world advice, as Rubin chants, “Some people like to watch, all they’re doin’ is viewin’ it. You ain’t movin’ forward until you start pursuin’ it.” On the title track, “5 Minutes of Passion,” again with the McMercy Family, Sweet Gary Newcomb on pedal steel, and Emily Gimble on keyboards, Rubin offers slyly salacious advice on pleasing a woman: “If you keep talking about the harmonica, she’ll think you’re odd, her eyes will start to droop, her head will nod. Just give her five minutes of passion and then pull out.”

“Dig That Ditch” romps with a swinging big-band vibe and another sharp harp solo, shoveling out pointed advice as Rubin belts, “You can’t dig a ditch ’til you know how to do it, but if you don’t dig that ditch, that ditch don’t never get dug,” with Cesar Crespo on guitar and the rhythm section of Archer and Corbiere. On “Little Circus Town,” Fulero joins Crespo on guitar, with keyboardist Gimble, as Rubin wails a fateful warning: “You can leave the little circus town, but you can’t quit the freak show.”

On the topical “Gravity,” Rubin is mockingly cynical as he declares, “I don’t need no vaccination, the whole story a fabrication, I never once got polio or measles.” “Nap” is a spirited defense of a time-honored tradition with a wake-up call from a stinging guitar solo, as Rubin bursts, “I’m putting taking a nap at the top of the to do list, doing less don’t make me less than.”

“Propaganda” starts with Rubin on a chromatic, but he switches to a diatonic so that fellow harper Greg Izor can add a chromatic solo. It’s a haunting almost-instrumental harmonica montage with psychedelic roots, fuzzy-sounding old-timey vocals, and not-so-futuristic lyrics complete in two lines, as Rubin cries, “The propaganda is in the hands of the people, and the prople are in the hands of the propaganda.” It makes one wonder if Rubin gets paid by the hyphen.

On the closer, “Grudge,” a straight-ahead blues shuffle with some angry lead guitar from Fulero and rhythm guitar from Crespo, Rubin croons, “When I hold a grudge, I hold it a long time, you may think we’re making love, I’m fighting you in my mind.”

Harp legend RJ Mischo calls Rubin’s harmonica playing “Total Mastery.” Michael Rubin playfully calls his sophomore release 5 Minutes of Passion his sophomoric effort, but the maturity of his prodigious harp talents plus his wily wordplay already have him graduating at the top of his class.

Richard Ludmerer

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