From the mailbag... Sukkos (/t) edition

Here are a number of emails that have come in recently. I haven't had the chance to reply personally, but since many of them are seeking information, I thought I'd put them up and see if any of our readers can help out.

Chag Sameach!

E writes about "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad":

Lucky for you! I am officially sick of the Lev Tahor Im Eshokachaich. I'm tired of everyone singing it every Shabbos for Kedusha. I davened Yom Kippur in a place with 5 different Baalei Tefila and they each used it once!

Serge Perelmutter writes:

I am trying to find sheet music for an old version of Shema Koleinu that I remember from when I was a kid (60 years ago)..Do you have any ideas who might have some arrangements of Shema Koleinu that I could check out to see if I can try and teach it to the choir of my shul? Thanks

Menachem (and others) forward a link to L'Cha by The Chevra - a Music Video by David Lavon.This one's been out there for a while.

Yosef writes:

After seeing 2 links scattered around the web a thought occurred to me:

Link #1: http://yutopia.yucs.org/chords/fulllist.php

Link #2: http://www.yumimusic.com/sheets.php

(I'm sure you've seen these two links before)

Thought: I learnt to play guitar thanks to OLGA . In teaching guitar to friends in the years I've been playing the best advice I've given has always been "Get a bunch of songs you know and play them over and over and over." It really easy to do when your favorite songs are Metallica, it's harder when you listen to MBD, Mattisyahu, or Blue Fringe. I also remember asking a wedding band for some of the song sheets they had put together. I got a response of "Well, how do I know you're not going to just start your own wedding band?" Come on! I was a 15 year old kid who wanted a few guitar chords not Neshama's (super-secret) trumpet lines!

Anyway, to the point. What do you think the response would be to create (or turn yutopia's site) into a Jewish Music Chord Archive? I'm not asking for sheet music and set lists (though a few tabs would always be nice), just text files with words and chords. I doubt that any new bands will be created to be masig g'vul because of this project but even if there are, you know a wedding gig isn't built on 3 chord acoustic guitar songs.

As to link #2 above, it's an interesting effort by a new musician to get his songs played. Regardless of who plays them it will mean more publicity for him.

Those were my thoughts on the matter. Would you be interested in posting a note on your blog calling for opinions on the matter? Maybe calling for contributions? Lord knows there are enough of us out there who can sit for five mins and write up the chords to Ha'facta.

I'm pretty sure that Josh Yuter sees his OLGA as doing just what Yosef is envisioning. I'd suggest that anyone intersted in a Jewish OLGA should participate at Yuter's site. Incidentally, I had several similar experiences awith several bands as a kid when I asked for some sheet music.

David writes:

Hey- just stumbled on your blog, and was struck primarily by your interest in sincere, soulful, "authentic" Jewish music. I am a therapist, and live in Brooklyn, 28 years old. When I was in Yeshiva (primarily then- Ner Israel, Baltimore), I composed a number of songs, would probably still be composing stuff if I actually had the time to sit with my guitar these days. Most of them are slow, kumzitz style...I have them on tape, me singing and strumming guitar to them- musically and technically they're unsophisticated, but I (and friends) like to think they're soulful and singable!

Question: is this stuff worth sending to you for review? Truth is, I like how Yaakov Schweky sings; do you know how I can
get ahold of him and see if he's interested? All I want is to get a singer who I like, to sing these songs the style they were meant to be performed and sung in. What do you think?

Again, if anyone has any information for any of these people, please let us know and we'll be glad to pass it on.