Mikey Pauker on IndiGogo, Wisaal & Max Chaiken on Kickstarter

Here are few more Jewish music related bands going the IndioGoGo and Kickstarter advance sales route. Check 'em out

Mikey Pauker
My buddy, Mikey is in Israel studying and making music. He's been invited to play mainstage at the Jacob's Ladder Festival, a 5,000+ attendance folk, bluegrass and world music festival in Israel. This is a really big deal. But doing this messes up his booked flights. So he's asking for help and selling his CDs to raise funds to get him home. Here's the IndiGoGo link. Here's Mikey's website and facebook page.

Help Mikey Pauker play Jacob's Ladder Festival (and get home again!)



Wisaal
Next up is Wisaal, from Michigan. According to their bio, "Wisaal - An Arabic word meaning links, connections, or unities - reflects our attempt to fuse elements of the Arabic musical heritage with Klezmer, Indian and American influences while resection the spirit of these traditions." Wisaal is raising funds / doing advance sales for their debut album. Here's their kickstarter page, facebook page and website.

Wisaal Recording Project


Max Chaiken
Last up is the Max Chaiken Band, from Boston. According to his bio, "For nearly 10 years, Max has been song leading and writing original, contemporary Jewish music. He served as the Head Song Leader at the URJ Camp Harlam from 2004 through 2009, and currently serves as the Head Song Leader at the URJ Kutz Camp." Their raising funds / doing advance sales for their debut album "All That Breathes" Here's their kickstarter page, their facebook page, and their website.

Honestly, Max's Kickstarter video is boring (boring = no music). So here's Max doing a lovely job putting Psalm 150 to the chords of Leonard Cohen's classic Halleluyah. I just heard the high school choir at Temple Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor sing this recently.

Psalm 150 to Leonard Cohen's Halleluyah

We are all Constellations. The latest from Mikey Pauker

Earlier this week I blogged about NuRootz musician Alison Westerman. Today I've got the latest video from her fellow NuRootz collective musician Mikey Pauker. I got a chance to see Pauker perform at the URJ Biennial and was impressed. He's part of a really select club of people that includes Matisyahu, Y-love, the Moshav band that are equally comfortable in religious Jewish settings and in very secular rock club settings and doesn't change his set list much between the two.

Here's his latest video, Constellations. It's not one of his more explicitly Jewish pieces, but I dig it.

Mikey Pauker & the Joy Machine: Constellations

Pauker's a California guy, but is current living and attending a Yeshiva in Nahalot, Israel and soaking it all in. Here's an excerpt from his blog

"I have fully immersed myself in a super natural, complex, beautiful, mystical culture filled with life!!! I have been living in Nahloat which is a Silverlake/East Village/ Mission District type of community in Jerusalem. The people here are artists/hippies the create sort from all over the world. This is a spiritual community right across from the Shuk which is an open market similar to what you see in movies where people bargain for fresh produce, like in the Disney classic Aladin. Every day I eat fresh barakas, produce, and drink fresh juice. I am still keeping up with my daily yoga and meditation. During the week days I wake up early head to the yeshiva to study Tania. From Tania, I walk over to the Mikveh, (a spiritual bath house), where I cleanse my soul and physical body. From there I walk up stairs where I pray and wrap tefilin on my body. Every morning I pray during the entire Shachrit morning service and then I continue with Shemona Esrei. On the days they have torah service I am finally able to follow along with the hebrew text without using any vowels. I am able to understand the prayers and the intentions behind all of them. Every morning I am able to get VERY present with the universe through morning prayer and I am falling in love with this practice."

Wish I was there buddy. Seriously.

To get more info on Pauker's recordings, tours, and his spiritual adventures in Israel, check out his website.

Help Kickstart Alison Westermann

As I indicated back in my post about the URJ Biennial, there's a new crew of young musicians emerging in the Reform community. Loosely organized through a musical collective called NuRootz they're adding in their own musical vocabulary of 1990's and 2000's jam-band and alternative-rock sounds to the boomer folk-pop that typifies the established Reform songleader sound. I got a chance to see most of the NuRootz gang perform during the Biennial was impressed, though not always blown away, with the new guard.

One of the NuRootz gang, Alison Westermann, recently put out a Kickstarter appeal for support to record her first full CD. At this point, she's already cleared her goal of $5,000 (yay!) but I want to help get the word out anyway. Don't be shy. You can still get a pre-release of her disc and anything you kick in will give her more funds to produce it.

Here's Alison performing at NewCAGE back in August. Awesome. Love the melody and the intense but languid performance.

NewCAJE New Voices - "Adonai Tzuri V'Goali" by Alison Westermann


And here's Alison pitch.
Kickstart Alison Westermann's Debut Album

Here's a link to Westermann's Kickstarter page