Biography

Tex Rubinowitz, a legendary figure in the rockabilly world, was born in 1944 in Abilene, Texas. His parents met there when his father was stationed at the military base during World War II. During his childhood his family moved to New York, Germany, and Alabama, eventually settling in Springfield, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC, in 1954. Tex absorbed the pop, country, and rock and roll music he heard around him on the radio and from friends. He discovered that he enjoyed singing in public, and along the way learned to accompany himself on guitar. Among his early favorites were Gene Vincent’s “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons,” and Lonnie Donnegan’s “Rock Island Line.”

After a short time in college and some unsuccessful attempts at starting a performing career, Tex returned to Washington, where he met such like-minded musicians as Billy Hancock, Jim “Ratso” Silman, Eddie Angel, and Bob Newscaster. In 1978 Tex recorded two original songs on a single for Ripsaw Records: “Hot Rod Man” and “Ain’t It Wrong.” The success of “Hot Rod Man” led to a European tour and airplay. The song appeared in the soundtrack to the 1984 film Roadhouse 66, was used 15 years later in a television commercial for Anco windshield wiper blades, and has been covered by a number of subsequent rockabilly acts around the world. To their surprise, Tex and his band the Bad Boys were embraced from the start by the emerging punk and new wave scenes, exposing his music to a much larger audience than he’d ever expected.

In the late 1980s Tex left performing to help care for his family and build guitars in his home workshop. But after his father’s death in 1997 he returned to an idea he’d first conceived in the early ’70s: combining a rock and roll band with a dixieland horn section to evoke the panorama of American music from early jazz, country, and western swing, up through Chicago blues and rock and roll. After a few false starts he joined up with his old bandmate Bob Newscaster and trumpeter/arranger Graham Breedlove to make his vision a reality. Tom Mindte’s Patuxent Music label released the resulting CD, Old Man Mississippi, in 2017—almost exactly 100 years after the Original Dixieland Jazz Band had released their groundbreaking recording of “Livery Stable Blues.” With Mindte’s help Tex assembled a core band in 2021 to perform the material, and by 2023 they had added a horn section, crafting a unique sound on the roots music scene.