Outdoor folk

October 20, 2008 - 10:56 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Holidays, Life, Music 

The Moshav Country FairAh, the country fair: a longtime staple of rural living. Folk getting together with other folk to celebrate the harvest moon, life, spiritual festivities and just plain good weather with food, home-made crafts and toe-tapping music.

You wouldn’t find any deep-fried Twinkies or Oreos here, and the crafts skewed towards tie-dies, soul-lifting art, and essential perfume oils, but there’s no doubt that the Third Moshav Country Fair at the Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach-founded Moshav Mevo Modiim fulfilled that down-home need.

With an impressive influx of excited fair-goers, the parking filled up fast and early for a full day of activities for all ages – from jugglers, face painters and story-tellers in the morning to afternoon freestyle rap sessions for modest women and how-to-compost lectures to impromptu yoga sessions and amazing jams in the late evening. Food, more often than not a disappointment when served from trucks by sweaty people to starving hordes, was unpredictably satisfying. There were corn dogs with love from Puff Zaidy, perfectly acceptable felafel by the bagel guy and assorted other treats.

The musical lineup included the biggest names in post-Shlomo music, Ben Zion Solomon and Sons setting the harmonized tone with beautiful mandolin-driven grooves. Shlomo Katz is so awesome with that first name that his trademark sweet vocals seem to be just icing on the cake. A Yehudah Katz of Reva L’Sheva fame turned it all the way up almost to seven. After a quick surprise set by international stars Moshav (including the poignant “Come Back“), a number of younger day-trippers were off to Jerusalem to enjoy that band’s show with Hamakor at the Maabada.

The day didn’t end there, however, as the unbilled finale Semantra – a retooled, retrofitted, and forward-thinking collaboration including Shmuel Nelson and Ari Leichtberg of Shimshak fame – wrapped it all up with an amazing set that left no doubts about this group’s budding greatness.

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Jewish soul music

October 16, 2008 - 5:03 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Music, Religion 

beit shemesh.jpgA work assignment brought me last night to the city of Beit Shemesh and the Beit Shemesh Festival, an annual music bash featuring some of the top names in the ‘Jewish soul’ field. Among this year’s performers were Meir Banai, The Moshav Band and Yood.

The central amphitheater in Beit Shemesh, a flowing natural park, boasted a white, cloth mehitza (divider), running up the middle, to separate the male and female attendees. The audience consisted mainly of religiously observant teens, many belonging to youth groups. There were some families and assorted adults there among the thousand or so people, a few not even wearing kippot, but by and large it was a religious crowd. And it looked like they were having a fine time, dancing on shoulders, enjoying a fireworks display, and checking out the other side the mehitza.

Despite some sound problems resulting from a likely blown speaker, the acts I saw performed admirably, and the band I came to see – Yood – put on a smoking set of spiritual blues rock.

There have been tons of events and activities to do during the intermediate days of Sukkot, but those folks who attended the Beit Shemesh Festival certainly got way more than their money’s worth – oh yeah, the festival was free.

Maybe next year, some of the secular crowd will come to see what all the noise was about.

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