Rubin and Barnes are the rare musicians who can perform traditional music without sounding like they're afraid to break any of the notes. They don't treat anything they play as someone else's music, whether it's a set of klezmer standards performed by Rubin's sideline Rubinchik's Orkestyr, the Bad Livers' attempt to outfit Bill Monroe with a leather jacket, or the various jazz bands on The Newton Boys disc that featured the duo. Yet they forced a major label (Sony Music Soundtrax) to release what is likely their most ambitious album -- The Newton Boys' mix-and-match collection of Smithsonian Folkways recordings and redos -- proving just how pure their intentions really are. Sure, Rubin and Barnes might mess with tradition, but as long as they are around, no one else will.
Whether they would admit it or not, Rubin and Barnes have more fun on records like aka the mad cat trio than they do when they're looking at the past through the future's distorted lens, such as on the Bad Livers' latest, last year's Industry and Thrift. A collaboration with guitarist-fiddle player Erik Hokkanen recorded live on University of Texas at Austin student-radio station KUT-FM (90.5), aka the mad cat trio sounds like a disc that no one was ever meant to hear, the kind of back-porch pickin' session that happens when musicians play simply for the love of the music and nothing more. As all three take turns singing, you might as well be huddled around a campfire with Rubin, Barnes, and Hokkanen as they swap songs and stories, romping their way through pared-down Western swing ("Billygoat Boogie"), getaway-music workouts ("Ol' Slew Foot"), murder ballads ("Down in the Willow Garden"), and just about everything in between ("Gold Rush"). Only Rubin and Barnes could make a record this old sound so new. Or maybe that should be the other way around.
