"Alicia Jo Rabins is a flat-out virtuoso on the violin."
--Albany Metroland, May 2006

BIO

Raw, beautiful and irreverent, Alicia Jo Rabins' fiddle playing transports her audience through numerous traditional styles, all unified in the prism of her unique musicality. Seth Rogovoy, author of The Essential Klezmer, calls Alicia "a walking encyclopedia of fiddling traditions." She is one of a growing number of young musicians who, searching for an alternative to the overcommercialization of today's popular music, have returned to acoustic, handmade music. Equally at home performing in rock clubs, bluegrass festivals, bars, concert halls and living rooms, Alicia has been onstage since early childhood and continues to follow her fiddle around the world.

Alicia's first violin lesson at age 3 was followed by years of classical study, and then a few stints in punk-rock bands. Her first old-time fiddle tunes were learned from a shipmate on board a schooner at sea, and after returning to New York City she apprenticed herself to a Virginian fiddler whom she met busking in the subways. Before long, Alicia was playing on the streets herself. One such day in Baltimore, an old man handed her a stack of sheet music, saying, "You have the soul of a klezmer fiddler." Thus began her initiation into klezmer music, a hybrid of Jewish and gypsy musical traditions from Eastern Europe, which she continued by studying with legendary klezmer fiddler Alicia Svigals.

Another felicitous busking encounter led to the founding of cutting-edge folk group The Mammals, with Ruth Ungar, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, and Mike Merenda. After a year with the Mammals, including appearances with Pete Seeger and Jay Ungar, Alicia joined forces with Michael Daves and Peter Siegel to form "new old-time" trio Underbelly, which the Berkshire Eagle called "a supergroup of New England talent." In winter 2004, Alicia moved back to New York to join the groundbreaking folk-punk group Golem, which reinterprets traditional Gypsy and klezmer tunes with a rock edge. Of Golem, the Washington Post wrote: "Golem produces the kind of music you'd expect if the shtetl were filled with punks instead of peasants"; the Forward calls Golem "one of the hottest young groups on the vibrant Yiddish/Klezmer scene."

Alicia's 2003 solo release, "Sugar Shack," garnered critical praise as "a sheer delight...one of the most delicious, wonderful to listen to recordings of southern and old-timey American fiddle traditions I have heard in many years" (klezmershack.com). In April 2006, Golem signed a record deal with JDub (Matisyahu, Balkan Beat Box) and recorded an album with producer Emery Dobyns (Patti Smith, Antony and the Johnsons), which will be in stores in August 2006. Meanwhile, Alicia continues to play and sing her way around the world.

RECENT PRESS

"Violinist Alicia Jo Rabins... meets her bandmates' zaniness with obvious classical prowess; she captured the sadder nuances of the music with mournful distinction. Yet as Ezekiel and Diskin kicked up the gears, Rabins matched them and fiddled like her hair was on fire."
jmerica.com, San Francisco
April 2005

Review of "Sugar Shack" from klezmershack.com:

Given its popularity, I am often surprised by how few albums of traditional American fiddle catch my ear. This album, comprised primarily of old-timey American fiddle tunes (or new tunes in the same style), is one of them. Drawing primarily on American fiddle traditions and including several new pieces written in traditional styles, it is sheer delight. I suspect that it will stay...among my frequently-played, never-put-away fiddle albums.

Rabins has a lovely sense of rhythm and melody, and an excellent voice for singing the few songs that get vocal accompaniment. The album is redolent with a sense of rural rhythm and a slower rural time, without losing the forcefulness and intentionality that come with, as well. Listen to the transition into the title track and the exuberance in the double-tracked singing. Of special note is the one piece from Yiddish theatre, "Die Greene Cousine" which sounds absolutely fantastic as a bluegrass fiddle piece.

This is just one of the most delicious, wonderful to listen to recordings of southern and old-timey American fiddle traditions I have heard in many years. I can't stop saying that.

Although Rabins was living in Western Massachusetts when this album was recorded, she has recently moved to NYC (also home to one of her fiddle teachers, Alicia Svigals) and joined "Golem." What that means to the sound of either I cannot say, but I do very much look forward to hearing whatever comes out of that collaboration or others. In the meantime, I'm not complaining. This album is quite wonderful. Don't forget to stay tuned for the bonus track.

Reviewed by Ari Davidow, 4/25/04

On Indiecrit.com: Independent Music Review:

Review of track 3, Neil Gow's Lament for the Death of his Second Wife.

"25 words or less: A girl, a fiddle, a guitar, an instrumental farewell to a love lost. Will you cry? Maybe not, but you'll come close."