Eight Nights by Rabbi James Stone Goodman with Brothers Lazaroff, featuring Will Soll's Klezmer Conspiracy

It began with Brothers Lazaroff: Kinky Friedman is coming through St. Louis to Off Broadway on his Hanukkah Tour. Being big fans, they contacted club owner Steve Pohlman; how can we help?

Kinky’s playing solo...the idea was hatched to do a blow out after-party continuing the Hanukkah theme: The First Annual Brothers Lazaroff Hanukkah Hullabaloo.

Brothers Lazaroff looked to local Rabbi James Stone Goodman. A respected singer, songwriter, poet, story teller and oud player, Goodman eagerly agreed to recite his poetry accompanied by the music, in addition to singing a song by Hasidic songwriting legend Shlomo Carlebach.

From the moment the idea was born, a Klezmer band was at the top of the wish list. Goodman directed Brothers Lazaroff to Will Soll's Klezmer Conspiracy: with Soll on tenor banjo and mandolin, Dana Hotle on clarinet, Shlomo Ovadya on bass and doumbek [North African hand drum], they play true to the style of this traditional form of Eastern European folk music.

Meanwhile, Brothers Lazaroff reconnected with Ben Kaplan and invited his project "The Vaad" to come out of the studio and onto the stage for their debut show. With a lineup of local heroes, The Vaad crafted a set of hebraic post-rock noise jams that included the Rabbi delivering the "Ninth Night" in true emo fashion.

On the corner of the stage, the Brothers’ wives cooked up the traditional latkes and offered them up to the audience throughout the show [Brothers Lazaroff Grandma’s recipe].

The night felt so warm and cozy that Brothers Lazaroff invited the whole line-up into Jacob Detering’s Red Pill Entertainment studio the following week. The goal: capture the elusive Hanukkah-themed series of poems "Eight Nights" the rabbi had recited that evening backed by the amalgamation of all three groups' energy and spirit. What happened: another ascendant evening. This is the result.

It began with Brothers Lazaroff: a blow out after Kinky Friedman's Hanukkah Tour gig continuing the theme. The First Annual Brothers Lazaroff Hanukkah Hullabaloo featuring Brothers Lazaroff, Rabbi James Stone Goodman, Will Soll's Klezmer Conspiracy, Ben Kaplan and "The Vaad." On the corner of the stage...latkes. It was an ascendant night, so we took it into the studio. Behold the result.