THE KLEZMATICS: Wonder Wheel - lyrics by Woody Guthrie (GRAMMY AWARD WINNER BEST WORLD MUSIC!!)

The Klezmatics

Wonder Wheel - lyrics by Woody Guthrie (GRAMMY AWARD WINNER BEST WORLD MUSIC!!)

© 2006 Jewish Music Group, Llc (857764001336)

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Grammy award winner for best contemporary world music album, 49th Grammy awards.

notes

“While the trip along Mermaid’s Avenue is off the beaten Klezmatics path, it's a welcome diversion.”- Billboard Magazine

“New York six-piece celebrate their 20th year as a band, show that clarinets can rock.”- Blender Magazine

“The Klezmatics are wonderful!”- Pete Seeger

The story of Wonder Wheel is a glorious tale of happenstance and discovery, populated by luminaries from different worlds and different eras. In the pantheon: American folk icon Woody Guthrie and world music superstars the Klezmatics, Woody’s daughter, Nora Guthrie, maestro Itzhak Perlman—whose chance meeting with Nora helped plant the seed for the project, Celtic vocalist Susan McKeown, and producers GoodandEvil (Sex Mob, Elysian Fields, Felix Da Housecat).

Flash back to Coney Island in the late 1940s, where Woody Guthrie and his wife, Martha Graham dancer Marjorie Mazia, settled into the raucous, polyglot life on Mermaid Avenue. Their house was a joyful intersection of two worlds, where regular visitors like Pete Seeger and Leadbelly mingled with a rich tapestry of Yiddish culture. Woody’s mother-in-law was legendary Yiddish poet and activist Aliza Greenblatt, who discovered in Woody a kindred spirit of words and idealism.

Woody, always an enthusiastic and sensitive chronicler of the worlds surrounding him, turned his sharp but loving focus on the culture and spirit of his newfound Jewish life and family. Deeply inspired, he produced hundreds of lyrics rich with spirituality, wordplays, fatherly tenderness, and a passionate belief in the human fight for peace and justice.
These Coney Island-wrought lyrics add a less-known urban dimension to a man seen as the avatar of dust- bowl ballads. But, like thousands of his songs, they were left unrecorded, their music forgotten.

Spurred on by a discussion with the Klezmatics and Perlman (who were performing at Tanglewood that fateful night) daughter Nora realized the no one would be able to bring her father’s Coney Island music back to life better than the Klezmatics. The custodian of Woody’s tremendous legacy gave the band her blessing, and they began to set over two dozen of Woody’s lyrics to music. Not strictly klezmer music, but whatever music fit. The five members let the spirit and the feeling of the words dictate the music. They went where the words wanted them to go.

The result, seven years in the making, is Wonder Wheel—a record Nora describes as “Just as my father would have wanted.” The album reflects Woody’s political stance and social agenda into a larger, global mirror, and brings a 20th century American figurehead to a 21st-century audience. Woody’s lyrics—set to music that’s filled with Eastern European, klezmer, Latin, Celtic, Afro-Caribbean and folk flavors—take on a universal life of their own. As GoodandEvil’s Danny Blume notes, the music is “an intense combination of the familiar and the exotic. But above all, it’s completely natural, all-encompassing, and intensely human.”

Wonder Wheel is the latest project in a series revisiting the work of Woody Guthrie. The first, by indie superstars Billy Bragg and Wilco, introduced Woody Guthrie to a new generation. That record heralded the beginning of a new wave of folk, continued by such artists as Bruce Springsteen (with his recently released celebration of Woody’s brother in song, Pete Seeger), as well as Bright Eyes and Devendra Banhart.

But this is no polite variation on an American folkie theme: the Klezmatics have stamped this project with their own gusto and flair. Celebrated as a klezmer institution for 20 years, the band has had the similar experience of being stamped—like Woody—as figureheads of a genre. Providence, then, this confluence: of Nora Guthrie’s desire to bring her father’s overlooked treasure to life, and the Klezmatics’ enthusiasm for ever-expanding their worldly horizons as well as their audience.
One could call Wonder Wheel the first world music album Woody Guthrie has ever done. It’s also the first all-English language record of the Klezmatics’ eight acclaimed albums. But as the band points out, the record is no one-sided homage. It’s a lively dialogue between artists who fervently agree about social justice, peace, and the spiritual power of music to unite, bind to a cause, and transcend any borders, musical or otherwise. Released just on the heels of Woody Guthrie’s birthday, and on the 10th anniversary of the Woody Guthrie archives, it’s the ideal way to celebrate the work of a visionary, the timelessness of essential truths, new ground broken by a well-established group of musicians, and the wondrous, delicious stew of music today.

reviews

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  • It won the GRAMMY AWARD!
    author: Bella

    Folk Music - with a Cultural Jewish thing happening. This album beat some amazing competition to win BEST CONTMEPORARY ALBUM at the 2007 GRAMMY's...in the World Music Category... which is weird... but I guess they had no idea what category to put it in. And neither do I. I just love it.

  • Fun for all ages!
    author: Colleen

    My 2-year-old and my 91-year-old grandmother had a blast dancing together to this recording. This music is FUN. Enjoy!

  • Good Cd, Varied
    author: S Humphrey

    Tracks 8, 9 and 10 will take some getting used to - all the rest grab you by the soul and wring out emotions you have forgotten you felt - amazing cd.

  • This CD chills any mood...
    author: DJK

    I love this CD! I couldn't get it out of my head all day. The lyrics are genius and it sets an amazing mood. I think I might start listening to other woody guthrie songs. Anyone have any suggestions?

  • A masterpiece of Frank London & Co.!
    author: Christian Henke, Germany

    It's another compilation of Woody Guthrie's immortal lyrics besides the fantastic ones of Billy Bragg & Wilco as well as the German singer/songwriter Wenzel. To make it short and concisely: This CD is one of the very best albums ever produced by the Klezmatics! The music is very diversified and shines in many instrumental and vocal colors. 12 tracks for eternity!

  • We love this album!
    author: Miriam5746

    The blend of the Klezmatics voices and Woody Guthrie's fun lyrics make this music eminantly listenable to all fans of folk music, world music, and power pop. Enjoy!

  • We love this album!
    author: Miriam5746

    The blend of the Klezmatics voices and Woody Guthrie's fun lyrics make this music eminantly listenable to all fans of folk music, world music, and power pop. Enjoy!

  • This is REALLY good.
    author: Mike B

    An amazing find. The Klezmatic's music for Woody's songs is so deep and interesting, and so fitting to his words. Way different from the Billy Bragg/Wilco CD's of Woody's lyrics, but just as interesting.

  • Words cannot describe how special this music is
    author: Lorraine

    Words cannot describe how special this music is. Amazingly talented musicians set Guthrie's amazingly moving lyrics to music that makes you want to take up an instrument and take part in the joyousness. The lyrics and music were so genuine. The Klezmatics gave a great performance of this album, and some other songs, and brought an audience together as one at Maverick Concert Hall in Woodstock, NY.

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