Hebrew Hepcat

Last week I had the rare fortune to be hired as part of a back-up band that performed @ The House of Blues, here in Myrtle Beach. It was a private engagement, a school fund-raiser put on by the local Israeli community. The artist they brought in was Yehoram Gaon, a platinum-selling singer, movie & film star ~ it was explained to me that he was Israel’s “Frank Sinatra”. Go figure.

We (the hired local musicians) had NO IDEA what kind of music we were going to be performing until we arrived, at which point we were all handed books of music…written in Hebrew. Seriously. Rehearsal began, and we promptly began to butcher these traditional Israeli folk & pop tunes. It was pretty awful, and after 2 hours of this, we wiped our brows and headed to the restaurant for a bite to eat, and what began as one in a series of Tequila shots for me.

But we played the show, and did a fairly good job, strangely enough! It was certainly a bizarre experience to be on stage at The HOB, in Myrtle Beach, performing to a packed house of Israeli people. But as they say, “there’s no business like show-business….” Indeed.

I’ll post pics/vids when I get them. Until then, enjoy a clip of Yehoram Gaon performing what I assume is a classic in the Middle East!

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