Once Upon a Time the Fire Burned Brighter

In the multimedia album Once Upon a Time the Fire Burned Brighter: Ballads from the Yiddish Gothic, scholar and musician Jeremiah Lockwood opens a doorway into the rich sensorium of the Yiddish ballad. Drawing deeply from the work of legendary Yiddish folk singer Lifshe Schaechter-Widman, the collection reimagines and recasts Yiddish ballads through performances by Gordon Lockwood (the musical project of Lockwood and drummer Ricky Gordon). Once Upon a Time the Fire Burned Brighter invites us to experience a body of Jewish song that emerges from a world of fantasy, memory, and symbol—constituting a Yiddish gothic, a folk expressionism unapologetic in the extremes of its enticing imagery.

The audio version of the album is available for purchase on this page! 

The accompanying folio with textual explorations, video performances, archival visuals, and lyric adaptations is available here. 

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Album Credits

Songs arranged by Jeremiah Lockwood
Performed by Gordon Lockwood
Jeremiah Lockwood, guitar and voice
Ricky Gordon, drums

Recorded and mixed by Dan Shatzky at Vibromonk Studios
Maspeth, Queens

Special thanks to Itzik Gottesman
The Yiddish Song of the Week
www.yiddishsong.wordpress.com

a project of
The Dream Past Productions
for
Ayin Press