Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah

Klezmatics

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 5, 2006)
• Original Release Date: September 5, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Jmg / Jewish Music
• ASIN: B000H30BS6
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	BrooklynBen "brooklynben" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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.

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 - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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

Is there anything for pesach?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Who Knew Woody Gutherie Wrote Hanukkah MusicI, December 11, 2007

By	Henry M. Diamond - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I think that Gutherie's "HAPPY JOYOUS HANUKKAH" CD is great, especially for children. The songs are surely joyous and wonderful to listen to. My only complaint were the addition of 4 pieces ("Gilad and Ziv's Sibra", "Latke Flip-Flop", "Groovy"s Freyekhs", and "Spin Dreydl Spin") that were not written by Gutherie and made no sense for this project.
Still, I would highly recommend this CD>