Geoff Berner Revives "Mongrel" Music

02/04/09 5:39pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

If you want an album that best exemplifies the current post-modern cultural pastiche that is our society, look no further than Geoff Berner's Klezmer Mongrels.

The disc, the third installment in Berner's Whiskey Rabbi trilogy, was released on Jan. 27. It got its title because Berner says it's a "mongrel album."

The beauty of being part of a post-national society is that we tend to integrate multiple traditions into our own — perhaps without realizing it. This is particularly the case in music, and especially in klezmer — a musical tradition that was developed by Jewish communities in eastern and southeastern Europe that's been integrated into more mainstream music much more over the last several years.

"Nobody really gives a damn what mainstream culture is telling us we have to buy this week or have to listen to this week," Berner says. "It's down to, like, maybe a handful of pre-teens or something that are paying attention to the pop charts.

"This splintering of the culture has opened things up for people who make odd, left field music to make a living. Whereas before, we would have been shut out of the conversation, now we have a voice. It's a really great time for music."

Berner began his career as a punk musician, but became interested in klezmer earlier this decade when he travelled to Romania to study the tradition. Berner plotted "a trilogy of trio albums — me on vocals and accordion, Wayne Adams on percussion and vocals, and Diona Davies on violin, and everybody kind of singing and shouting."

The first installment, Whiskey Rabbi, was released in 2005 and mainly dealt with drinking. The second album, 2007's Wedding Dance Of The Widow Bride, featured songs about women. Klezmer Mongrels attempts to marry the themes from both records.

Berner spent a great deal of time studying klezmer, but the songs on Klezmer Mongrels are nothing near its traditional form in terms of lyrics and music. A song like "Half German Girlfriend," with lyrics about multiculturalism and mixing punk and klezmer, more represents the idea of living in a post-national society and the state of the music industry than it does anything coming from 19th century Romania.

Berner says his punky approach to klezmer is influenced by modern day country musicians like Carolyn Mark, Neko Case and Corb Lund, who he calls "punk rockers" that inject their spirit into their musical tradition and turn it on its head, but simultaneously inject new energy into the genre. He says this ultimately makes their version of country more authentic than that which was previously represented.

"They were ultimately more respectful and faithful to tradition than some of the popular, watered-down versions of that music that had been coming out, and I just wanted to do that with my own culture's music, you know? So that's where my impulse for it comes from.

"By exploring who I am and where I come from, I can find my own unique voice as a songwriter, and I feel like I'm making music that nobody else can make — that nobody out there can do what I'm doing. Being aware and involved in a tradition that I'm connected to helps me to do that."

There were arguably previous klezmer revivals in the '70s and '80s, but Berner says none has been more successful than the most recent. Klezmer has crept back into the musical conversation and been repopularized by acts like Gogol Bordello, Golem, The Klezmatics, The Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, Socalled and others over the past few years. But their brands of klezmer aren't traditional in any sense, either. These acts mix klezmer with punk rock, jazz, salsa and even hip-hop. Ironically, Berner says this "mongrelization" of klezmer has resulted in new interest in the tradition.

"It is alive. We have a living culture again, and it may have even been a misnomer in the '70s when the revival was talked up and the '80s when it was talked up again. It's an exciting time to be part of this thing.

"There are kids today learning how to play instruments just playing klezmer. That's the first time that's happened in about 70 years. Most of the people who were part of the revival are jazz musicians or old-time country musicians or classical musicians who thought they'd give klezmer a try. But there are kids coming up today, who are now in their late teens or early twenties, who picked up the clarinet learning klezmer. And that's what they play — they are klezmerim."

Since Klezmer Mongrels means the Whiskey Rabbi trilogy is technically finished, Berner isn't sure whether he'll continue the tradition. He plans to take a pause before recording a new album, but he has plenty to keep him busy for the next little while. He's working on his first musical, about Steve Fonyo, a Canadian athlete who ran across the country on one leg.

Berner is travelling across the country and playing songs with Adams and Davies. You can see them here:

Feb. 5 Guelph, ON @ Ebar
Feb. 6 Toronto, ON @ Tranzac w/Forest City Lovers
Feb. 7 Peterborough, ON @ The Spill Coffee Bar w/Forest City Lovers
Feb. 8 Waterloo, ON @ The Starlight Room w/Forest City Lovers
Feb. 10 Hamilton, ON @ The Casbah w/Forest City Lovers
Feb. 11 London, ON @ London Music Club w/Forest City Lovers
Feb. 12 Kingston, ON @ The Artel w/Forest City Lovers
Feb. 13 Wakefield, QC @ The Black Sheep Inn w/Forest City Lovers
Feb. 14 Montreal, QC @ Casa Del Popolo w/Forest City Lovers
Feb. 17 Charlottetown, PEI @ Baba's Lounge w/Story
Feb. 18 Sackville, NB @ Strutt's Gallery
Feb. 19 Saint John, NB @ The Blue Olive
Feb. 20 Halifax, NS @ Gus' Pub
Feb. 21 St. John's, NL @ The Ship
Feb. 25 Victoria, BC @ Royal Theatre w/Hawksley Workman
Feb. 27 Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore Cabaret w/Joey Only Outlaw Band
Feb. 28 Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall (University Of Calgary) w/Hawksley Workman
March 12 Saskatoon, SK @ Lydia's w/Bob Wiseman
March 13 Regina, SK @ The Exchange w/Bob Wiseman
March 14 Winnipeg, MB @ West End Cultural Centre w/Bob Wiseman
March 16 Bruno, SK @ All Citizens w/Bob Wiseman
March 18 Twin Butte, AB @ General Store
March 19 Lethbridge, AB @ The Slice w/Bob Wiseman
March 20 Calgary, AB @ The Ironwood
March 21 Edmonton, AB @ The Artery w/Bob Wiseman
March 26 Saltspring Island, BC @ Mahon Hall w/Ora Cogan
March 27 Victoria, BC @ Logan's Pub w/Hank And Lily