If you’re just joining me, simply wishing a summary, or completely mortified, I’ve recently covered:
- Artists with Jewish-sounding names, who are actually Jewish, singing about Jesus (here)
- Artists without Jewish names, who are not actually Jewish, covering artists with Jewish-sounding names who are actually Jewish singing about Jesus (here, second from last)
Clearly there’s a void to be filled here, so without further ado: Artists with Jewish-sounding names who were not actually Jewish, singing about Jesus.
I found this record at a Salvation Army in Richmond, VA. Here, Lisa Stolberg sings mostly straight-ahead country/folk about the “joy in her life,” but on one track on this album, “Take a Look,” she mixes it up and gets a little punk / new-wavey. Dig it:
No idea who this is (help!) but, I love this video, fish, bangs and all. It’s by Lahakat Nachal (trans. “The River Band”) and the song is “Shalva” (”Serenity”). (Thanks, Avishai and Ofri!). I found this all very happy and innocuous until I learned that nachal, here, is a Hebrew acronym for Noar Chalutzi Lochem, which means “Fighting Pioneer Youth.” It’s a military band.
Same, I think…
Yardena Arazi- “Od Nagia” (1985)
Esther Ofarim in rehearsal (1966)
Woody Allen- from Deconstructing Harry (1997)
—
Trayf:
Mellotron!
Song written by a Jew about Jesus, covered by a gentile. An ’80s gentile.
At this point it may occur to some of you to think, “What the fuck? David is only into Jewish music.” Not so! In fact I’m only discovering most of it now… The reality is that I have been a full on nerdy music enthusiast since I was a wee lad, pretty much devouring everything, from my early love of the Beatles onward.
Yesterday, my friend Taylor and I went to see the amazing folk-psych duo Christy & Emily at Permanent Records in Greenpoint. There are a lot of cool little record stores in Greenpoint, though I had never been to Permanent. Cool selection of used vinyl (I head straight to the dollar bins and generally stay put) and a thoughtful offering of new indie CD’s somewhat beyond the usual.
Upon ringing up with perhaps a regrettably large armload, I noticed a counter display of the latest Sundazed reissues. There on top was a re-release of Smokey and his Sister’s Columbia lp (not to be confused with their later Warner release, also eponymous). It goes without saying that I got a little giddy and school-girly, having first read about them/heard them here (this link refers to the Warner lp).
It’s up-beat in a different way than the Warner recordings (if you could even use that adjective to describe them at all), with really strong song writing and lush orchestration. Hebrew School particularly likes the opening track, “Losing,” as well as “Creators of Rain” and “A Far Better Thing (Alternate Version).” More here.
Other finds from yesterday:
(It’s all about the cover, the record is from 1985 and is crap.)
And…
Tonight I play a wedding with astounding guitarist and good friend the Jar, aka Jeremy Parzen, aka Calvino di Maggio. Befriend this man at your own risk– you may never drink Turning Leaf again!
