Jack Black, Flaming Lips and Haim among those to join Hanukkah album
A holiday-inspired music album titled “Hanukkah+” will be released on Nov. 22 and feature a collection of Jewish classics and originals from artists, including Haim, the Flaming Lips, Jack Black and Yo La Tengo, The Rolling Stone reported.
The American Jewish pop band Haim performing in 2013. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The album, produced by Grammy-winning music supervisor Randall Poster, will be released via Verve Forecast, with a vinyl release following on Dec. 13.
Among the songs will be a rendition of Leonard Cohen’s 1984 track “If It Be Your Will” by Haim and Woody Guthrie’s “Hanukkah Dance” sung by Watkins Family Hour. Other artists wrote and recorded original songs for the album.
The collection was inspired in part by Yo La Tengo’s annual eight-night concert series “Hanukkah Run.”
“When our old friend Randy Poster asked us to contribute to an album of Hanukkah songs he was putting together, we were kind of stumped,” Yo La Tengo said in a statement. “As non-practising Jews (and non-Jews), truthfully the holiday has little meaning for us, but we were open to inspiration. We thought maybe another friend, Sam Elwitt, could crack the code, and we think he did a fantastic job with his composition ‘Eight Candles.’ ”
JNS
