Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah

Klezmatics | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 5, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Shout Factory
• ASIN: B000H30BS6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #141,908 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #8 in Music > Miscellaneous > Holiday > Hanukkah

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This second interpretation of Woody Guthrie's Jewish-themed lyrics by the Klezmatics--America's premiere Yiddish band--revolves around Hanukkah, and by the title, it's not surprising that most of the offerings boast a lively tone. Guthrie, the Dust Bowl balladeer, lived in post-war Brooklyn (Coney Island, to be exact), and, inspired by his mother-in-law, the Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt, wrote a newly found series of poems that focused on Jewish culture. Primarily set to music by the Klezmatics' Lorin Sklamberg and Frank London, the holiday lyrics come alive to prayerful Hasidic nigunim and playful klezmer freylekhs, as well as to Nashville-tinged country fare. The band also conjured several instrumentals to flesh out Guthrie's slight Hanukkah catalogue, though the funk-'n'-jazz "(Do the) Latke Flip-Flip" seems a mistake. Sequenced near Guthrie's "The Many and the Few," a somber persecution-and-renewal story song about King Cyrus's release of the Jews from their Babylonian captivity, it seems as out of place as Christmas in October. But this innovative collaboration still has the makings of a holiday classic, as appealing to children as to the parents who spawned them. --Alanna Nash

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent departure January 23, 2007

By BrooklynBen

Format:Audio CD

I wasn't certain what to expect from this odd collaboration, but it is one of the Klezmatics' best works! They seem to have taken some poems on the topic of Chanukah that were written by Woody Guthrie, who was himself not Jewish but whose wife was Jewish. They've composed music around the poetry and recorded it here.

The music is terrific -- our family loves it. The two kids play this CD over and over, yet the two parents still like it (!), which by itself makes the disc an extaordinary find. But the most notable thing is that the lyrics and music sound of one piece, which is a real art given that I think the whole thing was done posthumously.

Also -- I believe that there were other non-holiday poems also written by Guthrie, so they ended up making two CDs -- the other is called Wonder Wheel, though I don't own that one yet. I'll get it though, since this project was so perfectly executed.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Three different things going on here April 28, 2011

By J. Ramsey

Format:Audio CD

In recent years, the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives have been opening up their collection to musicians who would like to write (and then record) melodies for the many dozens of unscored lyrics left by Woody Guthrie in his declining years. Billy Bragg initially created 2 wonderful albums (and a DVD movie) doing that, followed by other artists such as the delightful Jonatha Brooke. One of the best, surprisingly enough, was the Klezmatics' 2006 album "Wonder Wheel", full of rich musical textures that offset the profound Guthrie lyrics perfectly.

I was interested to see whether this "Happy Joyous Hanukka" album would be a continuation or just what. Well, yes and no.

To be quite clear about what this album is, tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 9 and 11 are indeed Guthrie lyrics set to new tunes by the Klezmatics. Secondly, tracks 7 and 12 are written entirely by Woody Guthrie, basically amounting to Klezmatics covers of 2 very obscure Guthrie songs, and the Klezmatics do cover those songs quite well. Thirdly, tracks 3, 5, 8 and 10 are instrumental klezmer dance tracks written entirely by the Klezmatics, with no discernible Woody content. I really don't have much history with that type of music, but I suppose these are all very decent klezmer performances, and they seem to contain lots of original post-modern cleverness and spirit. Evidently, they were included in order to tie together the album with a feeling of Hanukkah festivity.

Of the 6 collaboration tracks, most of the tunes are emotionally powerful, diversely influenced and well conceived. Only track 2, an uptempo 3-chord piece of frivolity, seems to lack the substance of the other tunes. I'm aware that Woody Guthrie himself advocated simple accompaniments with as few chord changes as possible, so as not to distract from the words, but honestly this primitive approach is probably the aspect of his work that I least admire. So I'm not giving any extra points for simplistic musicality.

In contrast to the generally wonderful new musical settings, the Guthrie lyrics for these 6 songs are invariably inconsequential. They were apparently chosen for this album based on the unifying concept of having been written for children and written without much purpose except to cover the subject of Hanukkah. All the titles referencing Hanukkah signify songs that are ultimately about little else. If you want any of the depth of lyric writing for which Woody Guthrie was justly famous, track 7 "The Many and the Few" is about all there is on this album.

I'm giving this album 3 stars, for containing a little bit of first rate material, plus about 50% good solid collaborative composing, plus some other stuff that I personally don't have much use for. If I were someone who's "into" klezmer very much at all, I'd probably give it 4 stars. Incidentally, I haven't written a review of Wonder Wheel, mainly because I dislike hearing myself gushing with unflinching praise and then giving out 5 stars as if that's normal.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah April 3, 2007

By Mark Jerome

Format:Audio CD

This is an unexpected pleasure. And it gives you what it says on the cover - happy joyous music.

Is there anything for pesach?