Feature: The ‘Joy’ of Summer: The season’s Yiddish music roundup
By Rokhl Kafrissen, published in Tablet Magazine
“What Joy Is Yours is the newest release from Seattle’s Brivele. (A brivele is the Yiddish diminutive for letter.) The EP, released at the end of May, takes its name from a line in Chaim Zhitlovsky’s anthem “Un du akerst” (And You Plow), which Brivele has reworked with a new English translation by band member Stefanie Brendler.
What Joy Is Yours has more of the “rad-trad” blend I loved on their 2021 CD, Cradle Songs, Grave Songs. “Un du akerst” has been recorded many times, but Brivele breathes new life into an old labor song, weaving bright vocal harmonies around the old time sounds of banjo and ukulele.”