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“Words make you think thoughts; music makes you feel a feeling; but a song makes you feel a thought.”
—Yip Harburg, lyricist for “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime,” “Over the Rainbow,” and all the (other) songs from The Wizard of Oz
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Open the Gates!
New American- Jewish Music for Prayer |
A compilation CD of American-Jewish “heart music” for prayer, dance, meditation, & healing: Jewish bluegrass & Jewish country, Jewish “world music,”
English & Hebrew spiritual melodies, & a cappella harmony singing
Find out more > |
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 So very sorry to hear and read of the death of Peter Yarrow.
I’m so grateful that the late Mary Travers, at the suggestion of Albert Grossman, invited Peter to come to Noel Paul Stookey’s apartment to try singing together. The harmonies that Peter, Paul & Mary made together – which evidently pleased and startled them at that first ‘rehearsal’ that wasn’t — sustained me personally many times, including when I went to see the Trio in person at least a dozen times.
Peter himself touched so many lives (including my students at the New School, where he graciously came as a guest) with his music, his kindness, and his passionate commitment to music; to his daughter, Bethany; and to making a better world. “We’re not out to protest anything,” Peter said once to the New York Times; our purpose is to affirm.” And I felt that, experienced that, every time I heard them sing. |
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 Ben Yagoda
Ben Yagoda, The B Side: The Death of Tin Pan Alley and the Rebirth of the Great American Song
A panoramic take on American popular song in the 20th century: the craft and artistry of songwriting, as well as the business of song publishing and promotion. Yagoda’s primary focus is the so-called “Great American Songbook” (sometimes just “the Songbook”): the canon of often lyrically sophisticated, musically elegant “standards” — many still staples of cabaret and jazz (including instrumental jazz) repertoire — that we owe to that “Golden Age” of 1920s-1940s songwriters: Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Rodgers & Hart, Harold Arlen, and Cole Porter.
Yagoda allows some “Songbook” adherents to vent about the decline of their beloved canon, but unlike some music historians, he acknowledges that there is now an enhanced, very different Songbook — owing to what even Songbook archivist Michael Feinstein calls a new “golden era” of songwriting: from Hank Williams to Bob Dylan and Lennon/McCartney; from Carole King and Curtis Mayfield to Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. Yagoda recognizes that though the Songbook indeed constitutes “a towering achievement in the history of this country,” “a wide range of remarkably talented songwriters of popular songs has emerged since then.” I’ve highlighted portions of more than half the pages of this book — It’s a very satisfying, and musically invigorating, journey.
To Purchase: CLICK HERE
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 Kallet - Epstein - Cicone
HeartWork
Among the folk-music harmony groups that I thought of as carrying on the tradition of the Weavers and Peter (Yarrow), Paul & Mary, none was dearer to me than the trio of (Cindy) Kallet, (Ellen) Epstein, and (Michael) Cicone, whose gorgeous harmonies and uplifting songs speaks right to the heart — or higher. “In time for the spring flowers comes the year’s most gorgeous album [HeartWalk], wrote Rob Weir in the Valley Advocate. Cindy Kallet, Ellen Epstein and Michael Cicone have delighted audiences since 1981, but this collection of close harmonies takes entertainment to ethereal levels.”
To Purchase: CLICK HERE |
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