"The Book of Black and White Dreams"

Donald is exhibiting his collaboration with Kiki Smith, “Seed”, along with his “Book of Black and White Dreams”, at the Zane Bennett Gallery in Santa Fe, where he will also perform in concert.

The radio art show features his music, ideas and understandings, as well as guest artists.

By Tom Geddie

Donald Rubinstein’s 20th album, “Too Late To Die”, is a fine illustration of the commercially forgotten, it seems, concept of song as literature with sound effects. While the phrase “fertile imagination” is a cliché, that’s one of the things definitely at work here.

Rubinstein is a multimedia artist. His first audio soundtrack, for George Romero’s movie “Martin” back when Rubinstein was 25 years old, was picked by Mojo magazine as one of the top 100 coolest soundtracks all time. He’s a prolific visual artist, too, and musicians from the Boston Symphony and New York Philharmonic orchestras have commissioned his compositions. While all of these forms influence his work, what’s most relevant here is his music – which has ranged over time from jazz to rock to contemporary experimental and modern classical.

“Too Late To Die” mixes folk and rock with that loosely defined roots genre Americana played by the likes of Lloyd Maines (pedal and lap steel, banjo), David Mansfield (mandolin), Hani Naser (hand drums), and others. Rubinstein sings and adds guitar, keyboards, harmonica, percussion, samples, and what’s described as “electrical oddities.” The sound never becomes gimmicky, though; everything fits.

The words deal with love and despair and an intriguing world seen from a slightly different perspective. “Frankenstein Walks” and “Vampires Parade,” turning titles into nouns and verbs. (The latter is a co-write with Terry Allen, a similar multimedia artist.) On “Pilgrim,” an upbeat-sounding blues with organ, Rubinstein claims that he is “a pilgrim in the darkness of the world.” On “36-Year Serenade,” he wants to hold her “with the darkness falling down,” but “the river’s been crossed too many times.” “Oh Senorita” is filled with images of discontent: the sky is breaking, nothing seems right, there’s a road that’s less traveled, there’s dancing like pilgrims, and there are restless poets.  The simplest, most compelling image, perhaps, is his desire to “touch the moonlight on your arm.

The only disappointing song shares a bunch of Texas clichés observed while walking through the DFW Airport. Aside from the repetitiveness in the lyrics, “Too Late To Die’s” 15 tracks are more literary than many songs (whatever that means, I suppose it’s the interesting use of familiar images, the reaching unpretentiously for something more than three or four minutes that’s occasionally, but not consistently, like some early Dylan lyrics); don’t let that word “literary” stop you from listening to it.”

La Tienda Exhibit Space,  Santa Fe,  through August 20th.

Opening Reception Saturday, July 23 from 5 – 7 pm

Article on pg. 34

Short film about Donald, produced by Trend, on main page.

Interview: http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/music/1542

Two upcoming solo art exhibits:

La Tienda Exhibit Space, Santa Fe, opening July 23, 2011
The Fisher Press, Santa Fe, opening February 10, 2012.