The Weavers, an American folk music quartet, sold millions of records in the late 1940s and early 50s. Its two Jewish performers, Ronnie Gilbert, Fred Hellerman, were joined by two non-Jews, Lee Hays and Pete Seeger. In the 1960s, Bernie Krause, another American Jewish singer, replaced Seeger in the group. Their hits included “Goodnight, Irene”…
Arguably the best banjo player in the world is — wait for it — a Jewish kid from the Upper West Side of Manhattan. His name is Béla Anton Leoš Fleck, and reached by phone at his home in Nashville, he agreed that what may at first seem an unlikely pairing of man and instrument…
Joni Mitchell is widely acclaimed, and rightfully so, for being one of the greatest lyricists and musical visionaries of the rock era: the equal of Bob Dylan and — well, there are no other equals. Mitchell and Dylan share the seemingly paradoxical status of being utter mavericks who have had unparalleled influence over everyone who…
Ever wonder what’s on Barbra Streisand’s mind these days? Well, wonder no more. This past Friday, Streisand released a brand-new album, the aptly titled “Walls,” which kicks off with a new song called “What’s on My Mind.” “What happened to just being kind? That’s what’s on my mind,” Streisand tells us, on one of the…
More like “Tangled Up in Jew.” In an October 31, 2018 piece for the New Yorker music journalist Jeff Slate revealed the early recording history of Bob Dylan’s 1975 album “Blood on the Tracks” and its little known Jewish connections. Slate, who wrote the liner notes for “More Blood, More Tracks,” the latest in Dylan’s…
After the release of “Licensed to Ill” the Beastie Boys’ 1986 debut studio album, the New York-bred hip hoppers had the world at their feet. But with expectations for a follow-up dizzyingly high, the sophomore record, “Paul’s Boutique” was a flop when it came out in 1989. Its reputation has been restored in the years…
Responding to the current debate over immigration policy inside the nearby Beltway, the University of Maryland has declared a Year of Immigration. Part of the yearlong initiative is the University’s first Kurt Weill Festival, which kicked off October 6 with the German-born composer’s 1937 opera-oratorio “The Road of Promise.” “The reason why we’re studying Kurt…
The nominees for the 2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony have been announced, and as in past years, it’s a diverse if somewhat bizarre group, ranging from commercial heavy-metal group Def Leppard to Detroit proto-punks the MC5 to pop-R&B megastar Janet Jackson to English art-rockers Radiohead. Trying to make sense of the…
About a quarter way into Conor McPherson’s play with music, “Girl From the North Country” (running through Sunday, December 9, at the Public Theater in lower Manhattan), a bible salesman unaccountably mutters this apparent non sequitur: Big storm’s coming, my boy. Here. Europe. Everywhere. You ever wonder what woulda happened if the Jews met the…
Move over, “Ring Cycle,” there’s a new opera epic in the works. Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” (2000) may be making its way to the Metropolitan Opera. The New York Times reports that the Met is busy commissioning original operas with an eye toward including the work of…
Christmas came early. Consequence of Sound reports that William Shatner, the King David of spoken-word song is releasing his first ever Christmas album with an impressive roster of guest artists. It gets better: It’s called “Shatner Claus — The Christmas Album.” The track list, boasting 14 standards, has Stooges legend Iggy Pop on board for…
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