Pre-Sefirah music madness, 2007 edition

Once upon a time, I promised not to listen to my Jewish rock CDs from ever Pesach until Lag B'Omer. So I'm taking this final glorious opportunity to buy and listen to everything in sight. :) (For those who missed last year's pre-Pesach CD fest, here's the link.)

Knowing that I was facing a deadline, I finally got myself over to Jewish Jukebox, "Sameach Music's Home on the Web," and ordered "U'Shmuel B'korei Sh'mo," the album that MOChassid recently produced, with the participation of some of his musician friends, in memory of his late father, a cantor. While I was there, I also ordered the new Blue Fringe album, "The Whole World Lit Up." Much to my pleasant surprise, JewishJukebox tossed in The Diaspora Yeshiva Band's "Live at Carnegie Hall" Reunion album for free.

Then I picked up the Moshav Band's "Misplaced" the other night at their concert.

So let me try to write up a little review.

The Diaspora Yeshiva Band: "Live at Carnegie Hall" (the Reunion album)

Nu, what's not to like about the wonderful and incredibly talented musicians of the (original) Diaspora Yeshiva Band? Go, buy, listen, enjoy! And while you're at it, pick up the two-CD set "The Diaspora Collection. " Great stuff! Eventually, I really must get around to buying more of the recordings made by members of the band since they went their own individual ways.

Blue Fringe: "The Whole World Lit Up"

My favorites on this album are "Etz Chayim" (traditional prayer, contemporary arrangement), and, best of the batch (in my opinion), "Anayni" (traditional prayer, plus original lyrics in English by drummer Danny Zwillenberg). As to the rest of the songs, to be honest, the band seems to be moving in a musical direction that's not quite so much to my own personal taste. (Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about musical arrangements in which a guitarist plays the same chords and/or sequence of notes over and over for roughly three minutes straight, as in their arrangement of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's "V'Shamru." If I'm in the mood to be mezmerized, I find it mezmerizing. If not, I find it boring.)

But don't let that stop you. Check them out for yourselves on their website or their MySpace page. They may be just right for you.

Moshav Band: "Misplaced"

Moshav is pretty diverse. One minute, they're singing something middle-eastern-tinged, the next, it's country-western-sounding, cantorial, folk-rock, or reggae, sometimes with somewhat unusual rhythms and/or rhythm changes, often with more than one musical genre, not to mention language (English, Hebrew, and/or Arabic) in the same song, with the occasional political commentary. "When I'm Gone" morphs from country to cantorial to Arabic-language middle-eastern and back to country, and ends in Hebrew.) Try going from "Hallelu," which I'm not even sure I can describe (middle-eastern plus rock?), to the mostly-reggae English/Hebrew of "Lift Up Your Head." All the more fun. The album closes with "Dream Again," a piano-and-solo-voice folk ballad that sounds to me like an apology to a sister that I'm not sure he has. Run, do not walk, and buy this album ASAP.

U'Shmuel B'korei Sh'mo (MOChassid's musical anthology of friends' music, produced in memory of his father)

I don't think there's anything on this CD that I don't like. With so many different singers, songwriters, and musical styles, there's something on this CD for everyone, from Ben Zion Solomon (described in the liner notes as "one of the world's foremost experts on Breslov music") singing a Breslover "L'cha Dodi" to Aron Razel singing both a Latin-American/jazz "Yom Shabason" (Yona Matz'a) of his in Ashkenazi Hebrew and, just to get me thoroughly confused, a ballad of his in Sefardi Hebrew. (The first time I heard the MP3 samples of Razel's songs on the Internet, my husband had to convince me that these two songs were both being sung by the same person. :) ). Personally, I think Yosef Karduner's folk ballad "Ha'aleinu" (singer and back-up singer, plus lead and rhythm guitars, with only a hint of other instruments), is gorgeous, as is Chaim Dovid's folk ballad "Brach Dodi," especially the Spanish-sounding chorus (though I think that song could be a bit shorter).

Hint: Jewish Jukebox delivered my three CDs literally within days of my order. If you still have enough money left from Passover shopping (oy) to place your order tonight (no pressure :) ), you could have just about a week to enjoy a new CD or two before Sefirah.