
from Winterlights: A Season in Poems and Quilts by Anna Grossnickle Hines It's the first day of Hanukkah, aka Chanukah, and though the candles have long since burned down, as in past years, my holiday playlist didn't even last as long as the light it was designed to accompany. Thanks to a small selection of new covers, however, this year was closer than ever, giving me hope that one day soon we'll have more than a single set to offer over these eight nights. [...]

myworldmusicfriends.com The Klezmatics On Tuesday, June 26, New York’s SummerStage series will celebrate the musical legacy of Eastern Europe with a day dedicated to Yiddish music. The event is set to take place at 7:00pm in Central Park, Manhattan and will celebrate traditional klezmer and modern interpretations that fuse the traditional with everything from rock to hip-hop influences. Special guests include: the “Prince of Kosher Gospel” Joshua Nelson, The National Yiddish Theatre’s production of Soul to Soul, a concert that explores the [...]

The Klezmatics performed "Hanuka Gelt" on Conan. Watch it below: Social Bookmarking
The Klezmatics with Joshua Nelson - Shnirele, Perele - The Klezmatics @ soundcloud.com

Itzhak Perlman with The Klezmatics : Bulgars/ The Kiss [ purchase ] In the comments earlier this week, Owyn asked about the difference between a fiddle and a violin. His answer was a punch line, and it made me smile. But, if I may, I would like to answer the question seriously. The answer is how the instrument is played. No one is a better example of this than Itzhak Perlman. Perlman is a world-renowned classical violinist, but he explored his Jewish roots a while back, and he learned about Klezmer. [...]

It's the first night of Hanukkah, and though the candles have long since burned down, as in past years, my holiday playlist didn't even last as long as the light it was designed to accompany. This year was closer than ever, though, giving me hope that one day soon we'll have more than a single set to offer over these eight nights. In the meantime, here's a rehashed set: our 2008 post rewritten, some older tunes from years past, and a pair of new delights from the mailbox. May [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , New Music Natalie Merchant is feeling rather poetic these days -- literally. The former 10,000 Maniacs frontwoman is set to release 'Leave Your Sleep' on April 13, a two-disc set that takes lyrical content from poets both famous and obscure. Six years in the making, the project features such recognizable names as E.E. Cummings, Ogden Nash, Robert Louis Stevenson and Robert Graves, but that wasn't the only massive undertaking Merchant embarked on. For this project, Merchant [...]

Filed under: Around the World If you ran into Lorin Sklamberg in January 2009 and he seemed a little, well, distracted, he begs your forgiveness. See, for a stretch of two and half weeks, the Klezmatics singer and co-founder was recording two new side-project albums in the same studio, each taking off on a different tangent from his Yiddish music core. On one day he'd be working with Irish-born singer Susan McKeon on what would become the Irish-Yiddish hybrid 'Saints & Tzadiks'; the next he'd find himself with fellow [...]

from Winterlights: A Season in Poems and Quilts by Anna Grossnickle Hines While I generally attribute my love of folk music to my father's good taste and influence, it was my mother who introduced me to both kidfolk and, later in life, filled the house on holidays with what can only be called the Jewish equivalent of Christian Music - that branch of music which, in trying to balance between the spiritual source and the popular ear, has a high tendency toward over-earnestness. So when [...]
The Klezmatics "Hanukah Tree" (mp3) from "Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah" (Jewish Music Group) Buy at iTunes Music Store More On This Album -- Luciana Lopez; lucianalopez@news.oregonian.co m...
In honor of the start of Hanukkah, we have a lively holiday track from New York's klezmer superstars, The Klezmatics . In 2006, the band won a Grammy for its album Wonder Wheel , which brought the lyrics of Woody Guthrie to life. Soon after, the band released another album of Guthrie lyrics - Happy Joyous Hanukkah - based on a series of his songs about Hanukkah, Jewish history and spiritual life inspired by his mother-in-law, Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt . Whether you're [...]
Filed under: Around the World Spinner.com : Dan Saks must hear a lot from people who have a love for 15th-century Sephardic music. Or not. "I don't hear that a lot," he tells someone who just said that very thing before a Los Angeles concert by Saks' Brooklyn-based band DeLeon, which plays... Read more
I'm sorta mad that I forgot to get these songs up earlier. Hanukkah ended a couple days ago, but it's a holiday season , right? It's worth a posting a couple songs because it's kind of hard to find Hanukkah songs in the first place, much less ones that don't somehow poke fun at the faith (I got my eye on you Sarah Silverman). So here's- Wait... the first one's music is sort of, slightly, possibly funny, but the subject matter's not funny- it's historical. It's the Klezmatics, with their take on Elton John's classic "Saturday Night's Alright." [...]

Diamond Bike (mp3) from What Happened Don't Lie by Offcutts Download "Ask" (mp3) from "Duet All Night Long" by Reel Big Fish / Zolof The Rock & Roll Destroyer ReIgnition Recordings Buy at iTunes Music Store More On This Album [...]

The Klezmatics are the self-proclaimed "world-reknowned superstars of the klezmer world" which I think I can affirm, though I'm not exactly an expert on the ins and outs of the klezmer world. They've been around for a long time, but their most interesting work is a record released last year called Wonder Wheel . Along the lines of the Billy Bragg/Wilco Mermaid Avenue project, they take lyrics from Woody Guthrie and meld them together with their up-tempo, almost carnivalesque sound to create something truly astonishing. It sounds intensely Middle Eastern, perhaps Eastern European, but [...]

ummmmm. latkes. Just a quick follow-up festival of lights post to further wish you a happy Chanukah. This time featuring some jazz courtesy of Frank London ( Hasidic New Wave , The Klezmatics , Klezmer Brass Allstars ) and a bit of Chanukah Klezmer performed by The Klezmatics. Earlier this year The Klezmatics released Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah , their second album featuring music composed by London and lyrics written by Woody Guthrie. The story of this unique [...]

Hey looks like the final Xmess crunch ...is truly upon us all now... the shoppers are frantic, the end of the year holiday parties are coming hard & fast... and the cookies and eggnog and winter blues are making ya heavy around the waist... I'm like officially outta money and even time to grab extra gifts for others it seems... I'm headed outta town southward towards LA ... this room or a reasonable facsimile will be my home this weekend. [...]
Thanks again to a KBCS -FM DJ who played Ich Shtay unter a Bokserboym ("I Stand under a Carob Tree") from Chava Alberstein 's remarkable, The Well (1998), recorded with The Klezmatics . I wouldn't have even known about the record unless I'd heard it first there. And what a wonder it is! It has all of Alberstein's impeccable and evocative vocals and The Klezmatics edgy, contemporary sound, making it an engaging and compelling musical accomplishment. It has very little of that strident, avant-garde musical style that The [...]