Three musicians release Jewish-tinged CDs (Jewish.com)

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http://jewish.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1081
Three musicians release Jewish-tinged CDs
By Hillary Meister
Atlanta Jewish Times
Early immersion in Jewish song — at the synagogue and around the Shabbat 
table — is at least partly responsible for the musical careers of three local 
Jewish musicians, all of whom have recently released new recordings.


David Berkeley says his music was influenced by synagogue services.
Listen Up
Visit the artists’ Web sites to find their recordings:

www.jewishmusic.com
(search for Jonathan Glass) 

www.davidberkeley.com

www.lewisfranco.com

www.cdbaby.com
(search by name)

Their styles vary from devotional to folk-influenced, but all three say they 
were deeply moved by the music they heard in synagogue and the songs they sang 
with their families while growing up in Jewish homes.
“My grandparents loved Shabbos,” said folk singer Lewis Franco, who has 
just 
self-released “Zip Code Please.” 
“My favorite part was being with the family — we’d sit around the table 
and 
sing zmiros [an informal style of Sabbath songs with a rich historical 
tradition]. My first concert was my bar mitzvah.”
The Chasidic tradition finds a home on Rabbi Jonathan Glass’ new meditative 
album, “Knower of Secrets.”
The spiritual leader at Traditional Congregation B’nai Torah in Atlanta, 
Georgia claims a “lovely chant” sung by his childhood rabbi in Melbourne, 
Australia, profoundly inspired him.
“I went singing it all the way home, and I would play it in my room and 
sing,”
 he said. Later, while attending rabbinical school in Jerusalem in 1987, he 
discovered Chasidic niggunim — “these wonderful lengthy chants they would 
sing 
and do in the dark at 3 o’clock in the morning. I found it incredibly 
enriching.”
Recording without overdubs, Glass plays guitar and international percussive 
instruments blending Eastern and Asian musical influences while chanting Hebrew 
prayers.
One visitor to the www.jewishmusic.com Web site praised Glass’s album as “
[a] beautiful, soulful, unusual recording of Jewish music to inspire 
contemplation and devotion. Through its tones and textures, ‘deep calls out 
to deep.’ It 
is really worth exploring.” 
Like Glass, Harvard University graduate David Berkeley, whom reviewers have 
compared to singer/songwriters Nick Drake and Grant Lee Philips, was influenced 
by synagogue services.
In particular, a cantor with a beautiful voice “kept me going to synagogue” 
while growing up in New Jersey, he said. His new CD, “After the Wrecking 
Ship”
 is a follow-up to his 2002 release, “The Confluence,” which garnered solid 
praise from Billboard magazine and from www.Rollingstone.com, which called him 
a “Sixties-esque troubadour with songs to swoon by and a voice sweeter than 
incense and peppermints.”
Berkeley says the music coming out of silent prayer was always the most 
powerful for him.
“I think the whole value that I place on expression for a connection and for 
healing is at least consistent with Judaism if not inspired by it,” he said.
Paul Simon, the Beatles and Neil Young have also influenced him. 
“Once you’re exposed to that kind of genre you look for people who say 
something that makes an emotional impact that requires something of the 
listener; 
not just candy,” he said. “I’m always absorbing the world around me 
whether it’
s the music, newspaper or poetry. 
“I listen to lyrics quite carefully,” he continued. “I have a hard time 
appreciating a song if I think the lyrics don’t make sense or are trite. You 
can 
get intimidated by the grace and skill with which these musicians write.”
Berkeley, who spends most of his time writing and playing music, has 
performed with Shawn Mullins, Ben Folds and Marshall Crenshaw and is currently 
on the 
road promoting his new release. 
Franco, who lives in Vermont with his family, works at a renewable energy 
plant and performs on weekends with his band, Gross Domestic Products. 
Come Friday night, however, he can be found singing Kiddush at the dinner 
table, where he strives to teach his children Jewish values. “Shabbos teaches 
us 
the value of simply being without having to strive for anything better,” he 
said. 
“Lewis Franco is a real folk singer,” wrote Robert Resnik of Vermont Public 
Radio on Franco’s Web site. “There aren’t many left. Too much 
navel-gazing 
and poetry workshops set to melody in this world. . . . Did I mention that he 
happens to be a brilliant songwriter with an amazing backup band called the 
Gross Domestic Products?” 
While Franco’s children factored into his first release, “Your Own True 
Song: Music for Parents that Kids Will Love,” his second album “Zip Code 
Please” 
is geared more toward adult listeners.
Drawing on his activist’s route through politics and environmental concerns 
—
 he spent nine months walking for global nuclear disarmament in 1985 — Franco 
tackles consumerism, disconnection from community and lessons in living the 
simple life in “Zip Code.” 
While social justice is a Jewish priority that subtly influences Franco’s 
work, Judaism is the overt theme in Glass’ music. Recorded in the sanctuary 
of a 
New Orleans synagogue, the album’s contemplative songs reflect the 
spirituality found in a place of worship. 
After all, said Glass, “I was playing right in front of the ark.”