The Butcher's Share

Songs Are Dangerous, Cont'd: Yes, it was just last week that Abq Jew quoted Ronnie Gilbert of The Weavers via Jane Ellen.

Songs are dangerous.

Well, it's still true this week. And it's particularly true of the newest release by Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird (see Labor Day & The Painted Bird).

Detroit-born, Berlin-based singer/songwriter, polyglot poet, translator and activist Daniel Kahn concocts furious, tender, electrifying and revolutionary Alienation Klezmer. 

With the Painted Bird, he presents a variety of passionate songs inspired in part by the struggles of Jewish revolutionaries at the turn of the century, and in part by his own intense desire for a better world. 

The Painted Bird has brought “Yiddish Punk Cabaret” to rock clubs, festivals and shtetls, from Berlin to Boston, Leningrad to Louisiana. 

George Robinson recently wrote in The Jewish Week -

Singing Political Songs In A Troubled Time 

Daniel Kahn’s newest album reminds the listener that the message his music tells is especially pertinent today. 

As the leader of the Painted Bird, his scintillating Berlin-based punk-klez-folk-Yiddish band, Kahn has been bringing the works of such politically astute songwriters, along with his own driving originals, to a new audience for almost a decade and a half. 

Although Kahn will firmly assert that the message of his music is timeless, a cursory reading of newspaper headlines will remind you that his music is especially pertinent today.

Miles Hoyle wrote in No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music -

These Berlin-Based Butchers Give You More Than Your Fair Share

The group is still firmly rooted in Klezmer and Eastern European folk, coupled with bursts of punk-like energy that is irresistible to fans old and new. Perhaps the best example of this lies within, “The Butcher’s Sher” with its intense use of dynamics and aggressive vocal delivery. 

Yet what lies at the core of, “The Butcher’s Share” is the showcase of a powerful and resourceful songwriter.

If a newcomer were to walk the trail of Kahn’s latest offering, they would be starting at what just might be a creative milestone in the growing discography of a productive and extraordinary artist. 

Whether you’re just getting your feet wet with this release, or already a fan and craving more of the Painted Bird’s material, “The Butcher’s Share” just might be the most unique folk record of 2017. 

Here is the title cut from the new album.