Ira Khonen Temple / Mistame-Loshn - Strange Tongue
Ira Khonen Temple / Mistame-Loshn - Strange Tongue
CD, downloads available from Borscht Beat, via Bandcamp and available from finer digital outlets everywhere.
I have been in love with this album since I first heard the early release song that leads off the album, "Change my shoes." There is a joy to the songs and the playing that brings a smile to my face like almost nothing else in recent memory. Then he brought his album release show to Boston on the same weekend as the Honk! festival—it is hard to imagine a more perfect pairing.
The content is an unusual blend of Yiddish, klezmer, explanatory English verse, and effusive joy. It all comes together with his remake of the Yiddish classic, "vikhtik" (what's important), "What's bitter if a movement if nobody can dance / What's sweet is a relationship where no one wears the pants / What's awkward is when someone tries to guess my gender...." The rewrite becomes even more strong as "mir veln zey iberlebn" (we will outlive them) tells the origins of the song in English and Yiddish and then, again, makes it fit our times.
Even when the subject is painful (and the stories behind many of these songs are painful)—the song "fayer" (fire) addresses the abandonment of wives and families in the old country while the groom starts a new life with the dowry money and divorce by mail—there is a gentle strength and empathy. "Yidn shmidn" (the forge) is forged anew: "where does courage come from? / Courage comes from singing out / Singing as we break the chains / While grief and rage burn all around" takes that gentle strength and make it fit our times. A prophetic voice is transformed so that it fits and sings for our times. And sometimes, as with "Ushpizn" the traditional yearning and beauty is enough and needs no rewrite to work its magic on us.
There is a beautifully-illustrated booklet that is also available to accompany your CD or digital download. Well worth it. But, even without the printed word, Temple's music soars. This is so much music for the times, like now, when we need to embrace struggle without losing joy. It doesn't hurt that some of my favorite current musicians, from Lorin Sklamberg to violinist Zoë Aqua or trombonist Dan Blacksberg help make the music perfect.
Reviewed by Ari Davidow, 5 March 2026.
Personnel this recording:
Zoë Aqua: violin
Dan Blacksberg: trombone
Zoë Guigueno: bass
David Licht: drums
Lorin Sklamberg: vocals
Ira Khonen Temple: vocals, piano, accordion
Eléonore Weill: vocals
Songs
- change my shoes (Ira Khonen Temple w/add't'l music by Zoë Aqua) 3:38
- vikhtik—what's important (Yiddish: Reb Efroyim Voksman; English: IKT; music: Modzhitz high holiday nign) 3:21<
- hot zikh mir—queer wedding song (trad., collected by Ruth Rubin; English: IKT) 3:41
- fayer— fire (Yiddish, music: trad; Eng: IKT) 3:43
- the forge—yidn shmidn (Yiddish: Moishe Broderzon; English: IKT; music: David Beigelman) 5:59
- mir veln zey iberlebn—we will outlive them (from the Holocaust; English and context: IKT) 3:23
- umet—sadness (trad, collected by Ruth Rubin; Eng: IKT) 3:36
- zayt mir gezunt (trad, collected by Ruth Rubin; Eng: Ethel Raim) 1:25
- ushpizn (trad Satmar composed by Yossl Ashkenazi) 4:10
- royte epl—red apples, green shadows (words: Zalman Schneaur; music: Samuel Bugatch?) 4:27
