LinuxQuestions.org - Query Play Status in Rhythmbox

I was just wondering if anyone knew how to query the play status in rhythmbox from either the terminal, or through rhythmbox's python terminal (so I could write a python script to query the play status).

for the record, I'm looking for if a song is paused, playing, or stopped.

Terminal:
rhythmbox-client doesn't seem to have an option for play status

Code:

rhythmbox-client --print-playing-format

Python Console:
And although I am unfamiliar with Python, I think the following is a subroutine, so it won't give me access to if a song is playing, it just reports back "True" if the play/pause action is completed successfully.

Code:

shell.props.shell_player.playpause()

I'm trying to report information to my xmobar. I have a status bar for volume, and I am using UTF-8 characters for my rhythmbox status. Currently it keeps track of my multimedia button pushes - but it would be nice if changes while rhythmbox was open would automatically be pushed to my xmobar.