CD Reviews

Haacharon Shebeam
1999 Aderet Music Corp.

When I was in Jerusalem, I had the opportunity to see Adi Ron play at the Yellow Submarine. The venue is near a popular dance club and hosts a wide variety of bands including heavy metal and punk. Not knowing what to expect, I entered a large warehouse-like room with little to no decorations. There, with a long graying beard, long peyos, long tzitzit and a big white kippah was this guy standing there alone with a guitar completely belting out these beautiful ballads.

The man could do absolutely anything with a guitar, and did, jamming riffs so fast you'd swear there were ten guitars and then breaking down into delicate harmonies a second later. Singing all in Hebrew, he frequently changed vocalizations; whispering, whistling, yelling and making animal sounds.

The music was Carlebach in style and the lyrics definitely religious. But Mordechai Ben Dovid he was not. His words have an edge to them, with subjects ranging from the ever present Breslov graffiti of Na Na Nachma Nachman M'Uman to sitting around watching MTV and smoking pot. Not being fluent in Hebrew, much of his sarcasm was lost on me, but not on the audience, who ate it up.

In between songs, the small, intimate crowd of young people from yeshiva students to hippies yelled out requests. Many seemed to know all the lyrics by heart and Adi Ron even brought one of them up on stage for a duet. He ended with Ata Kaddosh, from his 1999 debut album. I highly recommend it. His second release, Al Takeh Basela came out last year and is also solid. Though they are studio albums, the backing band doesn't detract from the power of the songs. Only a few tracks feature Ron alone. Most of the music consists of power ballads with catchy inspirational choruses.

Adi Ron is part of a movement and it makes me want to be part of it. And after a long day of getting lost in the very urban looking Talpiot Industrial Zone during a garbage strike, seeing this guy perform made it feel cool to be Jewish, and it was in such a natural way. There is no novelty or gimmick, just raw, genuine soul. All he has to do is just stand up and and sing.