No...there's no punchline.
I was in the car, listening to World Cafe on public radio, grooving to a really good reggae band. (LutheranChik's musical diet does not consist entirely of Bach and the St. Olaf choirs, rumors to the contrary.) But there was something...well...different about this band's sound, and I thought I heard the word Ha'shem. Well, it turns out that the musician's name is Matisyahu, and he's an Hasidic reggae singer. Not only that, but there is a whole subcategory of Jewish reggae music; you can read all about it here . I see there are also female Jewish reggae artists. Maybe it's because I've just spent three weeks studying Exodus, but...I like this stuff. It's way cool.
2 comments:
I never would've thought have of Jewish reggae, but it makes total sense: reggae and klezmer are both heavily syncopated. I played in my college's klezmer band, and the thing that struck me was how funky the music was (I'm as goy as they come - I just like the klezmer)
I really love klezmer music. Every year I go to the Wheatland Music Festival here in Michigan -- one of the best acoustic festivals around -- but in my memory they've never had a klezmer band perform, and that's a shame.
Yeah...I think that exile/liberation dynamic in reggae lyrics also appeals to a Jewish sensibility.
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