Troubled Men Podcast

The self-proclaimed Jew of Oklahoma and founding bassist with the Bad Livers and Killbilly recently cracked the Billboard Bluegrass chart with his solo release “The Triumph of Assimilation.” It’s a Judeo-Americana meditation on the present, with a view of the past and a cautiously hopeful eye to the future. Mark’s a master of slap upright bass and its use in rockabilly, swing, klezmer, and the conjunto style he played on accordion great Santiago Jimenez Jr.’s Grammy-nominated records. Tonight he kibitzes with the Troubled Men. Topics include an empty nest, the Broadside, “POV: Neutral Ground,” trash, Donald Rumsfeld, Edwin Edwards, Dale Triguero and Chickie Wah Wah, the drop zone, Mordecai Gebertig poetry, Charlottesville, QAnon, blood libel, kosher food, a cross burning, punk and roots rock, Danny Barnes, Dallas, hate eating, Kevin Smith, Juan Viesca, Richard Linklater, “The Newton Boys,” sideman work, a regional music resurgence, klezmer in Europe, blueg