Review: “A Shabbos With Benny”

By Chanale Fellig

On Yiddishe Gems 1, the king of Chasidic music Avraham Fried sings R’ Yom Tov Ehrlich’s ‘Shabbos’ with a certain flair and G’shmak that is especially effective when combined with the Yiddish dialect and phrasing. The entire song sounded, smelled, and tasted like Shabbos in the old shtetel. Therefore the wit was not lost on me, that Benny Friedman, Avremel’s nephew and prince of contemporary Chasidic music, chose this song to start the first of 9 cleverly picked and arranged medleys on his new album. “A Shabbos With Benny Friedman.”

With a bouncy, fun and fresh English translation he proves once again that the hits “Tamu”, “Yesh Tikvah” and “Mi’Shema’amin” were much more than beginner’s luck.

A pioneer in social media networking, Benny has been “amongst the people” from day one, connecting on a personal and relatable level to a generation that barely remembers a time when music was played on any other mediums besides an iPod or computer. Benny is a man with a plan, and a talented fellow to boot. Pairing up with producer and music maven Sruly Meyer, they went to work with executive producer Mendy Werdyger and engineer extraordinaire Ian Freitor. It takes team effort to set a Shabbos table and a glorious Shabbos table it is.

As I listened to the album, track by track, it became evident that “A Shabbos with Benny” was created with a concrete plan for success and Benny doesn’t leave any stone unturned on this musical journey, figuratively and literally.

Personally, as an Ashkenazi of Eastern-European decent, raised as a Lubavitcher, married to a Sefardi, mother of 3 young children (one of whom once came home with ‘Chaim’s Shabbos Bus Mix’ that contained 40 songs we played every Friday), and musician respectively, I thought I had heard every Shabbos song under the sun at this point. But in an imaginary world, where we create a time capsule for the Jews from the future, thousands of years from now, Benny’s Shabbos album would teach a new generation the entire scope of Shabbos Zemiros, all across the board.

Traditional Ashkenazi and Sefardi tunes (‘Ki Eshmera Shabbat AND Shabbos’), Yeshivish Zemiros (the brilliant melodist Michoel Streicher), Chabad (my personal favorite Azamer) and Breslov Niggunim, as well as the inevitable classics (Yom Ze Mechubuad), and contemporary English songs (‘Time To Say Good Shabbos’, ‘Shabbos Is Going Away), Benny sings every song with a fervor and passion that makes me want to go polish my Shabbos Leichter right now even though it’s only Monday night.

In this album, Shabbos is alive and as gorgeous as the cover and cd artwork from Michoel Muchnik that graces the cover and booklet within. Arranged tastefully (although slightly restrained for the boundary- pushing Avremi G.), Benny’s voice and personality shine on all these tracks. The pinnacle of the album for me was when Yankele Friedman, child soloist (and another Friedman knyh) sings “Shabbos Is Going Away” a song my children sing every Motzei Shabbos. It hit the spot.

I additionally appreciate the title tracks for each song that in and of themselves speak of the personal love Benny clearly feels about the Shabbos day and its music.

Although complete and comprehensive, I was then sorry to hear this album end and hope Benny will be back next week (ok year!) with another great album.