The evolution of the Abrams Brothers

May 23, 2011 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Music 

Brother John with Brian at the beach at Jacob's Ladder (photo: Debbie Zimelman)

When Yehudit and Menachem Vinegrad booked the Abrams Brothers to appear as the main act at this year’s Jacob’s Ladder festival, they probably thought they were treating the audience at Israel’s (and one of the world’s) pre-eminent folk shows to the Brothers’ down home bluegrass and country stylings. Instead, they got Coldplay…with a fiddle.

This was the Abrams Brothers third time playing Jacob’s Ladder (they first appeared in 2007), and they have been consistent crowd pleasers, inspiring many of the more than 3,000 attendees to jump to their feet and boogy big time.

The Brothers (actually two brothers and their cousin, all under the age of 21) are devout Christians who say this is “their favorite folk festival” – both for the religious location at Kibbutz Nof Ginosar on the Sea of Galilee, and for the laid back vibe that brother John Abrams told me, when I met up with him on the beach collecting sea shells from the Holy Land, gives the event a “feeling of family.”

But the Abrams Brothers who took to the stage this year were barely recognizable from their debut here four years ago. Gone was the banjo player from the Grand Ole Opry. So too was their dad who provided a link to the multiple generations of bluegrass picking that runs in the family.

Instead, the Brothers have transformed themselves into a tight trio of pop rockers in the spirit of the Jonas Brothers or even –and this is hard to say in the same breath as “I really liked them” – Justin Bieber. Their new album, entitled Northern Redemption, was released for the first time at Jacob’s Ladder and was produced by Chris Brown who also produced fellow-Canadians The Barenaked Ladies.

The new Abrams Brothers tunes don’t abandon their roots entirely – brother James fiddles his way through nearly every song. But the emphasis on cousin Eli’s electric guitar and the way James leaps in the air and lands in a stadium rocker leg split are a far cry the wholesome family band that’s performed together for more than ten years, since James was only eight. Their latest video now playing on YouTube even features the trio pining for a sexy mermaid in a bikini.

I asked John what prompted the change. “We have a wide variety of music playing on our iPods,” he told me at the beach, “and we wanted to express that as well.” Indeed, the band has come into their own as they’ve gotten older, he added, and the family has been completely supportive of their new direction.

The “new” Abrams Brothers also have more of a shot of achieving teen stardom as rockers with country roots (just look at Taylor Swift). Their music has the pop sensibilities of early 1970s Eagles or Pure Prairie League (remember “Amie?”)

My own survey at the show was mixed. Many of my friends said they missed the bluegrass and were politely dismissive of the band’s transformation. I thought they were fantastic, as did the younger festival-goers who danced up a storm, but I’ve never been a particular fan of Nashville plucking.

The Abrams Brothers dropped numerous hints saying they wouldn’t mind being invited back next year. I hope Yehudit and Menachem got the message and that pop isn’t anathema to a folk music festival.

The Brothers’ love of Israel, professed repeatedly on stage, should be enough to sustain their continued participation. For their closing number, they chose a country-fied version of Coldplay’s Vida la Vida, with its religious chorus that starts “I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing, Roman Cavalry choirs are singing…” As one of my friends told me afterward, “Yes, I prefer the bluegrass, but I just can’t get that song out of my head.”

You can see it above and on YouTube and, with any luck, next year on the main stage at Jacob’s Ladder.

Tags:

Nostalgia Sunday – In the public service

May 22, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, Entertainment, Food, General, health, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Movies, News, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, tv 

The news this week about Israel is so bleak and twisted that it seems only right to look back at simpler times. Way back before so-called Facebook revolutions could be beamed instantly over 24-hour new stations to a jaded world. Times when Israel had only one television station and each new public service announcement broadcast before the evening news was discussed in minute detail the next morning. Public service spots by ad men like director Yoram Levy that created entertainment out of the most mundane of topics. For example, national blood drives led by a little old lady trilling “taram tee dam, taram tee dam” as she skips gaily along.*

Ads promoting local produce (the eggplant segment is highly recommended)…

Milk, of course…

Even this warning about how to deal with suspicious objects is kind of fun…

And here’s a totally Eighties take on buying Made-in-Israel fashion!

* FYI: In Hebrew, taramti dam means “I donated blood”.

Tags:

‘Doing Bob’ in Tel Aviv

May 22, 2011 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Entertainment, General, Israeliness, Music, Pop Culture 

Like many places in the world, Israel is set to celebrate Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday on Tuesday. Of course, we have more of a reason to celebrate than most, with the iconic legend’s Ramat Gan Stadium show less than a month away on June 20.

But Israeli artists are getting a head start by putting their own particular spins on their favorite Dylan tracks at a special tribute concert called ‘Doing Bob’ taking place this week in Tel Aviv at the Barby Club on Tuesday night.

Even though many of the performer – ranging from Yuval Banai and Hemi Rodner to Tamar Eisenman and Maya Isacowitz – were either toddlers or not even embryos when Dylan was along with The Beatles changing the language of popular music in the 1960s, his influence on all generations of Israeli singer/songwriters has been vast.

Benny Dudkevitch, a veteran Israeli musicologist and a reporter for Israel Radio who rightfully boasts one of the best rock LP and memorabilia collections in the country, said that his imprint on Israeli popular music can’t be underestimated.

“There was a time when all popular music here was based on army troupes and bands – it was establishment music,” he told me during a conversation last week. When the first generation of long-haired Israeli musicians like Shalom Hanoch and Arik Einstein began to emerge, it was Dylan they looked to for direction, Dudkevitch pointed out. And that elder statesman role has remained ever since.

“Every Israeli artist who claims to be a singer/songwriter has been profoundly affected by Dylan, whether they know it or not,” said Dudkevitch.

Isacowitz, a 23-year-old singer/songwriter, who’s peforming at the tribute this week and who impressed over the weekend during her performance at the Jacob’s Ladder Folk Festival, agreed with that assessment even though she’s still getting around to uncovering many of Dylan’s musical gems.

“The experience of looking for songs for this show and digging for material that catch me has been amazing… a song like ‘I Want You’ – I’d never really listened carefully to the lyrics, but they are so incredible and poetic. It makes you imagine and think, like good music should. The melodies too, people call them simple but they’re simple in a way that really goes deep.”

Isacowitz will be performing that song at the show, and there will de a couple dozen other classics, some sung in English and some in translated Hebrew versions. One of the most famous adapted Dylan songs in Hebrew is Aviv Gefen’s version of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”

I don’t know if someone’s going to tackle it, but if not, here it is in all its Irish-tinged glory.

YouTube Preview Image

Tags:

Foto Friday – Israel’s on fire… in a good way

May 20, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Foto Friday, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Travel 

Lag BaOmer, the 33rd day of the Omer, the seven week period enumerated between the Passover and Shavuot holidays, is one of those holidays that Israelis love to celebrate, even if they’re not clear on exactly why.

That is because on Lag BaOmer we have bonfires and that can mean only one thing: another excuse to barbecue! (Brian has written more about that aspect including some historical background).

This is also the holiday where kids and adults alike can indulge their inner pyromaniac. And before that, their inner kleptomaniac or at least their inner disposophobe. For weeks now, any stray board or log has been fair game, collected and hoarded with care in preparation for Lag BaOmer eve.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The Omer is treated like a period of mourning. But on Lag BaOmer, the restrictions of mourning are lifted for a day; weddings can take place, people can listen to music, have parties, and get haircuts. Among Orthodox Jews, there is a tradition of a first haircut for long-locked three year-old boys at Mount Meron in northern Israel.

Meron is the burial place of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, student of Rabbi Akiva who went on to become the greatest scholar of his time and authored the Zohar compendium of Jewish mysticism. On Lag BaOmer, the anniversary of his death, thousands gather at Meron to celebrate his life.

Photo by Jonathan Stein, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

No less of a party will be held this weekend at Tel Aviv’s HaOman 17, sister club to the legendary HaOman 17 in Jerusalem which was at the peak of its popularity during the second Intifada in the Nineties. (That Israeli characteristic of insisting on having a good time in the face of danger was profiled in the book Dancing With Tears in Their Eyes).

Photo by Pini Siluk

The Tel Aviv branch was just named Israel’s best dance club in a new poll taken by energy drink company XL. And that is how we Israelis are entering into the summer season: fire-dancing, barbecue and drink in hand, and with a fresh new haircut.

Tags:

A half full or half empty glass of water in Israel?

May 19, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Environment, General, Israeliness, Life 

RED LINE ALERT: Israel's main water supply, the Kinneret

Usually by May, whatever rain we’ve received in Israel over the winter has ceased, and the skies are clear for the next six months or so. This year, however, has been a weather smorgasbord of showers mixed with sand storms amid chilly days followed by sultry heat.

The extra dirty rain hasn’t really helped fill our depleted water sources however. The national Water Authority said that due to the six consecutive years of drought-like rainfall, the country is currently missing close to one billion cubic meters of water, and still have not achieved an average amount of precipitation this year. By the end of April, Israel had still only accumulated 89 percent of the average rainfall, a report from the authority said.

Uri Schor, the spokesman for the Authority told The Jerusalem Post that “the situation in the water reserves of Israel – the Kinneret, the mountain and coastal aquifers – is still very, very critical. We will be under the red line this summer in all three main reserves.”

Sounds pretty dire, as TV ads regularly warn us to save water, and many lawns are left to wilt in a patriotic move by some home owners to do their part. However, a different take on the water crisis was provided this week by Prof. Uri Shani, until a few months ago, the head of the Water Authority and now a professor at Hebrew University.

He told Channel 2 news that due to the country’s progress in desalinization, and an increase in this year’s rainfall, there is no longer a crisis.

“I can say with caution that the water crisis has ended,” Shani, now a professor at the Hebrew University’s Department of Water and Soil Sciences, told Channel 2. “The main reason is not the rain of course, it is the desalinization facilities that Israel is building at perhaps the greatest speed in the world. Also, the recent water conservation practices of Israel, together with the important – although small – boost that the rain has provided us, has helped us reach an era in which we don’t have a water crisis.

“Until the end of winter, we were in a situation where we were afraid of a much more severe drought, and prepared a series of emergency Draconian steps, such as the prohibition of watering gardens,” he continued. “Today it is possible to say that this will not be forbidden. The existential danger from an unprecedented lack of water no longer exists.”

The Authority’s spokesman Schor hedged Shani’s optimism a bit, saying “we are definitely on the right track by now: we already have three huge desalinization plants that produce an amount of water that is equivalent to 40% of the total water that is going to households and cities, and by the end of 2013 we will desalinate a quantity of water that will reach approximately 70%. But we are still lacking huge amounts of water, and we will be between the red and the black line in the water reserves.”

Regardless of whether we believe Shani’s or Schor’s spin on the situation is a matter of whether you consider the glass half full or half empty. Either way, we only have half a glass of water, so I wouldn’t suggest heading out to water your lawn yet.

Tags:

Page 4 of 11« First...23456...10...Last »

 

© 2012 ISRAELITY | Site by illuminea | Sitemap