12 Apr THE JOURNEY TO JOURNEYS 5: A CONVERSATION BETWEEN JEWISH MUSIC LEGEND ABIE ROTENBERG, PRODUCER DONI GROSS & ARI HIRSCH OF THE JEWISH VUES

Abie Rotenberg is arguably the greatest living Jewish music composer. He has been producing music since 1972 with a style that has been described as “soft & sweet” with a strong folk influence. Abie’s music duvere includes: Dveykus (6 Volumes), Journeys (5 Volumes), Aish (3 Volumes) Lev V’nefesh (2 Volumes), Marvelous Middos Machine (4 Volumes), The Golden Crown & A Time To Laugh.

In September 2015, Abie published his first novel, The Season of Pepsi Meyers, a book about an 18-year old Jewish boy playing for the New York Yankees, set in the future (Hard Copy Feldheim Publishers, Paperback Amazon).

In November 2016, Abie released Eliyahu Hanavi, under his full name Avraham Yom Tov Rotenberg, an in-depth analysis of the life of Eliyahu Hanavi, (Mesorah Publishers).

Doni Gross is the hottest & busiest Jewish music producer in the industry. He has produced albums of Joey Newcomb, Benny Friedman, Mordechai Shapiro, Dovid Pearlman, Uncle Moishy & so much more. Abie worked with Doni on Aish 3 & his recent album Journeys 5.

Ari Hirsch from The Jewish Vues sat down with Abie & Doni to discuss “The Journey to Journeys 5” and many more interesting topics.

Abie, it’s been 18 years since the last Journey’s Album. What took so long for you to come out with Journeys 5?

Abie: I tried, but I basically had writer’s block. I wrote a note at the end of the booklet in the album explaining to the audience what has happened over the last few years. I sat down, I tried, and I hoped I could write, but there was nothing compelling; nothing that I felt was up to the standard of the previous Journey’s album. And then two of my children presented me with songs that they wrote that were absolutely stunning. I was fortunate enough four years ago to write a song that was really good, and so over the past three and a half years I started to gather material and even more songs came through.

I’ve been busy since the last Journey’s album, though. I wrote a fiction book called The Season of Pepsi Meyers, a sefer on Eliyahu Hanavi, and I did the 4th Middos Machine in 2012. Doni, Shlomo Simcha, and I worked for a year on an Aish 3 album before Covid, so there was a little bit of musical production and creativity, just not in the Journey’s area. Doni and I have been working on this album for two years. First, we spoke about melodies, then words, and then we put little pieces together; it was a slow process. I also don’t live in New York so it was also hard to coordinate from a technical point of view.

How did you decide to go with Doni Gross as your producer of Journeys 5?

Abie: One of the ways I would describe Doni is that he’s a musical scavenger. He looks for songs. I told him I have a box of old cassettes sitting in my house from tapes I recorded and he said “I want to listen to them!” Not that he would have time; he doesn’t have time to breathe. But he told me to send them to him and he’d listen to every song. He told me that I had a few songs, so we sat down together and came up with a great album! From the Aish album I saw how Doni works to develop an album and I really felt that he would be great to work with on the new Journey’s album.

Tell me more about the Aish album. It came out in February 2020, right before Covid hit the United States. How did that affect the album?

Abie: We had a little bit of bad mazel because of Covid. When Aish came out, there was a lot of buzz. Things were going well, initially. We were selling nicely, it came out pretty hot and then all of a sudden, the whole world stopped and Covid took over everybody’s minds. It was all people could talk about, all people could think about. Nobody was really going out. No one went to a shul, let alone a music store. We were even going to have coffee cup sleeves made to advertise the new album.

Doni: I ordered 100,000 coffee cup sleeves from China in December 2019 and I told them to ship them.” They said “No, I don’t know if you know what’s going on, there’s a virus, our whole country is dying.” They kept saying next week, next week, and at that point it was too late so they had to refund me and threw them all in the garbage.

Abie: You should have sent some copies of the album to China. Some coffee company is using those sleeves.

Doni: Maybe Starbucks China was using Aish sleeves!

Abie: Some of the songs have become popular from the Aish album; there’s a song called “Rachmana” that became popular. “K’Shoshana” became popular for weddings, but there are some other great songs on there. I was able to work with Doni in the studio and I saw his talent. Then I saw how he works on an album; how he develops an album from A to Z, and I said, I could work with this guy. He has a good ear. He has a general understanding of music, a deep ingrained talent, and not just in Jewish music. You could see how he would draw out the best from every vocalist and every nuance in their voices. That translates very well to Journeys because that’s what I try to do. I try to convey ideas and thoughts, and I could see that Doni had that innate ability. Once we knew each other and we hit it off well, it was natural. But I have no idea why Doni Gross wanted to work with me! That you’ll have to ask him.

Joey Newcomb, Benny Friedman, Mordechai Shapiro, Zusha & Uncle Moishy are hanging out in your studio all the time. Where did you come from? I feel like the last two, three years you just came out of nowhere.

Doni: I’m not sure myself where I came from. I started off doing this in high school, recording music for myself and working on demos of songs I made. Then I started doing demos for other people, then little bar mitzvah songs, and one thing led to the next. The first musical project I did was with Tzvi Silverstein when he bought a song from me. Then he asked me if I arrange [music]. I didn’t really arrange, but I told him yes, I could arrange a few. I did that and more projects for him. Then I did a whole album with him where he collaborated with a lot of other singers. That was the first time I met Abie because we bought a song from him and he sang in that song. That album came with a lot of connections and I met a lot of different singers.

One album led to another album that led to a project that led to another project. Then, in 2016 I did an album with Shlomo Simcha. I told Shlomo Simcha that I really wanted Abie to do an Aish album since I’m a huge Abie Aish fan. Shlomo Simcha said he didn’t know if it could happen because Abe wasn’t in the zone, but I told him that we need to push for it and make it happen. We pushed, it happened, it was amazing to work with Abie and that Aish album was amazing. Whoever heard I’d worked with Abie would ask me when the next Journeys was going to come out. After that, Baruch Hashem, Abie asked if I’d be interested in doing a Journeys album. I personally think that Journeys might be the highest-level Jewish album ever made. Journeys is a way, especially for the English-speaking crowd, to maximize the potential in Jewish music. You’re talking in the language of the people on such a high lyrical level; every word that Abie writes has meaning, every word is with thought. There’s one song on this album that after we recorded it, we switched lyrics at the last second. Abie told me, “There’s this one line that is mamish bothering me. It’s keeping me up at night. We have to switch this one lyric.” Every word by him is very calculated and I’m seeing it now in the feedback of the album. People tell me, I love the album. Give me a few weeks to really go through it. Every word, every song, every message is so thought out and is so lyrically on a high level. I don’t believe I ever spent this much time on any individual album. When an album is going to reach people, so many people on such a deep level in such a meaningful way, you’re naturally drawn to it. We had to make sure every song, every lyric, every element would hit people in the highest possible form and really be moved by it. Baruch Hashem, there’s been great feedback!

Abie: I’ve been around a long time; doing this for a long time. A high percentage of the budget that went into putting out an album in the seventies and eighties was studio time. Obviously, you paid musicians; that was a big part. You paid for your players, you paid studio time and you put away a few dollars for advertising and for a cover design. You made vinyl or you made cassettes or whatever it was, but those two things were the bulk of your expenses. But with Doni, there were times I would sit in the studio for an hour and simply talk. We didn’t necessarily play music or work the board or listen or mix. We would sit in the studio and there was no time limit; we didn’t impose any time limit on ourselves, and I think that comes out in the album. It wasn’t rushed.

Doni: I myslef was amazed by how much patience we had. Abie would come from a Monday to Thursday and we would sit 12, 13, sometimes 15 hours. We would take a break, for mincha/maariv and eat a little bit and that’s it. You know, we live in a very distracted world where everyone’s distracted on their phones, but to actually focus on this album was great. I think my job as a producer is to bring out the best in every artist. If I’m sitting with Abie Rotenberg, I want to bring out what Abie Rotenberg has to offer. So, for me, being an Abie fan since the time I knew what music was, I wanted to push him to write as many intros as he could write. There were times when I would have a recording on my phone where he played a few notes or when I sat with him on the piano, and I said, there’s something here. You listen to it and you build off that in some way. What do you think of this intro? What do you think of that? For Chaverim Kol Yisroel, track one, we spent, two, three hours on a whole intro. We were so excited. And then we listened back a few hours later, and we’re like, nah, there’s nothing. Let’s throw it out. But before we threw it out, we moved it to the end of the song instead.

Abie: The waystation before the garbage can, was the end. We pushed it there just to get it out of the way. But when we heard it after Benny sings Chaverim Kol Yisrael at the end, we both said “Wow! It evokes a feeling of the Simcha we will all have when Mashiach comes.

Doni: This album is at such a high level. People still listen to Journeys 1, 2, 3, 4, and we’re talking about 40 years later! These albums are going to be around a long time because it’s real music. It’s inspiring. It’s not just music; it’s hashkafa. Abie is giving over a part of his neshama in such a high-level way. And for me to be able to play a part in that is amazing. I know Abie thinks on the piano. Yeah, we have guitar songs and country flavor and a lot of variety, but I’ll push him on piano. When I listen now to what we made, I think, wow, I can’t believe I did this, because a lot of it’s not me. But I’m proud to say that I think that what I pulled out of him, was at a very high level.

Doni, how does it feel to work with a Jewish music legend? Is it hard to criticize Abie?

Doni: I still remember the feeling the first time I recorded Abie. I still remember when Abie was singing and it was in my ear and I’m thinking, I cannot believe this. I’m recording Abie Rotenberg! I still remember feeling like a little kid; I can’t believe this is me and Abie! So your question is a great one. The answer is, it’s not really about right and wrong because music is art and everyone sees art differently. You could hit something that’s just wrong, but you can also hit something that to one person works and another person doesn’t. In a way, I’m very happy we did Aish first because I feel like I understood a lot more of Abie’s mindset musically when we worked on Journeys. This album has fourteen songs, and we mixed the whole album, basically 98% of it, together in the same room. And there were times I told Abie (he would sit on the couch behind me) that he didn’t have to say anything. I already knew what he wanted. Obviously, there are times we disagreed, times we would feel differently about things and I would give my opinion. Ultimately Abie knows a lot and also, Abie knows what he wants. Some people just know everything they don’t want, but they don’t know what they want. They just say, “not this, not this, not that.” Abie has a direction; he has a vision. Sometimes I would suggest something he hadn’t thought of and he would like it. There was no agenda of me having to be right or he needed to be right. We worked together to get the music to the highest possible level. There were very few times where he would feel strongly about something and I wouldn’t understand where he was coming from. One example is that I think he should sing more and he thinks he should sing less. It’s an old machlokeis of ours.

Abie: That’s one of the things I like about Doni. He is not intimidated by me. He wasn’t a yes man saying, “You’ve been around so long.” Doni has a strong opinion and knows what he likes and wants to hear. I wanted him to use his ear and his feelings and his predispositions for music and for lyrics and for his knowledge of the Jewish music business, as well. There are songs on there that are not directed specifically for the Heimishe.

Is there a particular audience that you’ve targeted for Journeys V?

Abie: Yes. Yidden! Heimish, Yeshivish, Modern, Traditional, Unaffiliated…you name it. There are songs that have no Hebrew words and represent universal themes that stem from Torah. There are songs about the Holocaust. There are songs that are more particularly suited to the Torah observant, but once explained, can be enjoyed by all Jews. I would hope that your readers not hesitate to play songs from it to Jewish neighbors or co-workers, even if they are not Torah observant.

Doni: We ultimately wanted to reach the Klal on a big level. The Jewish world is very vast and Journeys albums are in English, not catered to one specific group. The most yeshivishe people in Lakewood will go crazy over this album, as well as people all the way to the left. Even non-affiliated Yidden will be moved by some of the songs. One of the greatest things about Abie is his ability to make lyrics vague enough so that they can inspire across the spectrum, yet specific enough to affect each person on their level.

How did you decide which songs you were going to sing and which songs you were going to hand off to other artists like Joey Newcomb and Avraham Fried?

Abie: Journeys 5 certainly is a departure from previous albums. Although I always shared the vocals with others, (Yussi Sonnenblick, Eli Kranzler, Dov Levine, Moshe Yess etc) I sang a lot as well. There would also often be a special guest star. Mordechai Ben David sang Neshomele, Yaakov Shwekey sang “Momma Rochel” and Eli Schwebel and Lev Tahor left their imprint all over Journeys IV. But much has changed in eighteen years. Today’s vocalists are both highly talented and have world-wide audiences. They also are much more used to performing in English than in years past. It was easy for me to envision how great they would sound, singing these types of song. I hope people will feel that we made a good shidduch between the songs and the different artists chosen to sing them.

For example, “From the Ashes,” the second song on the album, I very much wanted to use younger artists to sing that song, so we ended up using the Maccabeats. I didn’t want it to be vocalists from my generation, children of Holocaust survivors, trying to keep the flame of what these Holocaust survivors accomplished alive. I want it to be a vocalist or group that connects with the youth. For it is they who need to understand and recognize what the survivors did for us and the Hakaras Hatov we all owe to them.

There’s a journalistic term used in the United States when people talk about the soldiers, the veterans who went off to war and fought in World War II; they are called “the greatest generation.” For us in the Jewish community, the Holocaust survivors are our greatest generation. They didn’t hide, they didn’t run away, they didn’t fade into oblivion. They clawed their way back and held onto the dreams of their mothers and fathers who were slaughtered in Europe. And they rebuilt stone by stone, brick by brick.

Doni: We tried to look at the artist and match them up to the best of our ability. Looking back, the shidduchim were great! Abie said, I have a song for Joey. Joey sings a lot of Abie! Joey will be at a gig or by a sheva brachos and will sing all the old Journeys music; he loves country music. I would send these clips to Abie because he doesn’t know everything that’s going on in today’s industry; he’s in Toronto doing his own thing. When we were working, Abie told me he had a song for Joey, which was “Baruch Hashem.” It’s real country/western tune and perfect for Joey.

A lot of the feedback I am getting is that the songs are so well suited with the artists, and it’s bringing the artists to a whole new level. Ultimately, we want these other artists to give that diversity, to hit other crowds and to really get this album out to all walks of life.

But, at the same time with all that being said, I was still pushing the whole time for Abie to sing more on it.

Abie: That is the only thing we couldn’t agree on. He wanted me to sing more, I wanted to sing less. At the end of the day, I’m all over the place there. I sing in a bunch of fast songs, I sing with Tali Yess, I sing with Shloimy Gertner, I sing one song on my own. I sing with Baruch Levine and Shlomo Simcha, so my voice is there. You don’t go through the album without hearing me. Maybe one day I’ll have the zchus to do an album where I don’t have to sing on it at all.

Doni: Well, I was thinking all the way. You said maybe you’ll do covers of other songs and you’ll sing them.

I asked Joey Newcomb a fun question two years ago: “Name someone alive that you never met, that you would like to meet that has influenced or impacted your life.” At the time, his answer was Abie Rotenberg! I saw Joey recently at the Makor concert, and I asked him what it was like to work with you. So, now I’m asking you, what was it like to meet someone who idolized you, is obviously becoming a major player in the Jewish music industry, and who was beyond excited to work with you?

Abie: Joey’s a Queens boy also; he grew up in Kew Garden Hills. His father used to take him to meet my Rosh Yeshiva. So, we had a lot of Jewish geography to cover with a lot of the people that we knew. But Joey’s enthusiastic about everything. If Joey says he’s excited to meet Abie Rotenberg, that means nothing! Joey gets excited to have a cup of coffee in the morning. Joey gets out of bed, opens his eyes and says Mode Ani Lefanecha with real kavana, not like the rest of us. He’s an excitable person so I would take that with a grain of salt. Joey came to the studio. He sang, he danced, he made a Lechaim or two (we all did) and then proceed to professionally record Baruch Hashem in a way that was Gevaldik!

I love working with him, but I also love the fact that Joey’s out there. I always had a dream, years ago, that never came to fruition. Journeys started in 1985 so we’re talking 37 years of music. I always had this dream that there would be a group, a really talented group of chevra, who could play my songs the way I envisioned them to be played – and do so on tour. They would go from city to city and community to community to sing to all kinds of Yidden, frum and fry. But since I never wanted to be in it, it never happened. If I was an outgoing, extroverted kind of a person who had more confidence in his own singing voice, maybe I would have done it. So it never happened. But Joey is like the epitome of that person, right? Obviously, he sings some of my songs out there and he goes from place to place. He has some material from me and he’s got wonderful material of his own that he does with Doni and that he writes for himself. Had he been around 35 years ago, it would have been a great shidduch.

Doni: I was at Camp Rayim this summer and I went to stop and watch Joey. I get to see all these singers in the studio, but I don’t leave the bunker; me and Joe Biden, we don’t leave the bunker. But I had the opportunity to see Joey in action and he was doing his thing. Then all of a sudden, he started singing a Journeys song, maybe it was “Country Boy,” and then he was doing “The Ninth Man,” and then “The Ninth Man 2.” I was watching the crowd, and the kids knew the words! It was amazing! Songs come out today, even hot songs, and they’re gone after two years. If they’re amazing, that’s the top 2%! These are songs that came out in the eighties, the nineties, and early two thousands. Kids today, I’m not talking about older people and parents, are saying, that’s real Jewish music. The kids are connected. That means there’s something very real; they’re feeling something good about it. When you tell kids, you HAVE to sit down and listen to this album, kids run away from that. But the kids feel something, they want it, and it’s special. I’m glad that I was able to play a little part in it.

Abie, do you consider yourself a composer or a singer first?

Abie: A composer; a songwriter.

Doni: A lot of the singers don’t come from a musical background. They don’t necessarily play an instrument, they don’t necessarily understand music, music theory, or even basic music. There are a lot of beautiful voices and talent out there. Sometimes a friend asks someone to sing at his chuppah and then from there they get gigs, buy the material, and put out an album. When I have this conversation with Abie that I want him to sing more, it’s not because I think Abie has the most cookie cutter, Jewish, sweet voice. He doesn’t; Abie has a unique type of voice, and there’s a certain way Abie gives over his songs. He’s almost like a storyteller. You feel his songs and that’s what I wanted. There’s a certain something that Abie puts into his music, especially his English music, because he’s telling a story and delivering a message. He’s giving it over in the language that people understand, so it has to get straight from the singer straight into the heart.

Abie isn’t just a composer; he’s more than that. Calling him a singer/ songwriter is better. I know Abie isn’t running to perform, but when he does shows for a more intimate crowd and he’s able to really connect to them, sitting on the piano and singing his material, the crowd loves that. There’s nothing else in the world like that because it’s really coming right from his heart.

Doni, as far as being a producer, is there someone you looked up to in the field when you were growing up that you said “I want to be like them?”

Doni: When I was growing up, I really didn’t know what producers did; I just saw their names on the album covers. I followed the arrangers more because I was more into the music; the producer is more associated with the business aspect. I was very interested in who arranged and I would look inside and see if it was Lamm or Laufer or Mona. I noticed that it was a different sound and try to understand why it was a different sound. At some point, I stopped looking inside and tried to figure out by ear only, who arranged it. I was always very intrigued that Abie arranged a lot of his own music. A lot of the music that comes out today, and I myself am guilty of it, is overproduced. We have so much flexibility with digital recording to just record and record, but the more you add, the more it takes away from the art. When mixing Journeys, there were hundreds of tracks and we muted 75% of it. With Abie, the main thing is the words and everything else is there to enhance it. The music is built around the words and has to enhance them and bring them out. Sometimes we had gorgeous strings and it was beautiful, but we knew that it was taking away from the words; We couldn’t hear the words as clearly or it was distracting.

Abie: What Doni is saying is very true. It’s very hard for the vocalist to mix an album because he’ll want to put the voice up front, maybe too far up front in the music. For the arranger to mix an album can be bad because he’s going to want all those beautiful arrangements up front; who cares about the vocal? But a producer has to take everything into consideration to find that perfect balance. Doni is both a producer and an arranger. So, he knows how to balance everything well.

Doni: Originally, I wanted to be known as an arranger. I wanted the arrangement to shine.

I wanted people to say “Wow! Look at that arrangement, it’s beautiful!” As I did more producing I realized that I want people to be moved by the music. If it’s a fast song, you want people to feel happy and be uplifted. If it’s a slow, emotional song, you want them to be moved. Ultimately that comes from the melody and the vocal, everything else is just there to bring that to a higher level. It can’t get in the way. I learned a lot already working on Aish, but I worked a lot on my own. With Journeys, every lyric is different. Sometimes in a chorus you’ll have a similar lyric, but you really need to hear all the lyrics of the songs. If it’s a Hebrew song with a pasuk and you know what the pasuk says, the music can be a little more exciting. We had really nice stuff and sometimes it’s hard because you think “Oh we’re going to take that out? But it’s so nice!” But once you take a step back and you listen, you hear the vocals are just hitting the spot and the songs are just shining. There is a natural battle between the producer and arranger because the producer’s job is to make sure the song hits and the arranger wants his music to be heard. Boruch Hashem, I think we found a very good balance and we did it together. It’s hard when you work on the music and you arrange it and you get something that’s good, but you have to take it out. At the end of the day, you want the songs to be great.

Abie, what are you working on next? Are we going to have to wait another 18 years for the next Journeys?

Abie: I think I’m going to take a little time off to come down a little bit and relax. I’m sure a couple months from now I’ll get an itch that will need to be scratched. So, we’ll talk about something and I’ll reach out to Doni and get his opinion and ask him for his guidance. Hopefully, we can collaborate again in the future. I also hope between now and then Doni hires a couple more arrangers, builds his studio with 2 or 3 other rooms and then he’ll remember me in my old age. “Zacharti Loch Chesed Ne’orayich.” “I’ll remember the love we had at the beginning” and I’ll still be able to get Doni to arrange and produce my albums without pawning me off to one of his subordinates.

Are there any plans for another Dveykus?

Abie: I would love to sing with Leibel, Rivi, Eli, and Yossi again in the studio, but I think that’s impractical because we are all over the world. Perhaps though, if we came up with the right song, we would be able to do a single.

I know you are constantly working on different projects. What are the top-5 projects you’re currently working on?

Doni: Baruch Hashem, I’m working on a few different projects currently. Joey Newcomb is working on his newest album. I’m working with the great R’ Baruch Chait on an album with Benny and guests. There are a lot of singles in the works and a lot of projects that are in the early stages. There are also songs being requested by many community organizations these days that are keeping me busy too. ly’H, there’s plenty more music on the way and I am thankful for every opportunity.

Abie: I think someone will soon be founding and an organization that raises money in order to help other organizations produce music videos.

I have to ask you, Doni, about your song “A Yid.” That song has a life of its own right now. My daughter sings it constantly and with everything going on in the world, it’s constantly being sung over and over again. When you produced that song, did you feel, “Wow! This is going to be a hit!”

Doni: There are a few songs in the last few years that became big, for example Joey Newcomb’s “Mi K’amcha Yisroel.” It’s unique in that it’s sung at both modern Orthodox and at most Chassidishe weddings. Joey didn’t even want to put that song on his album because he thought it was too simple. I thought it was amazing! I had a great feeling about it and I told him that we were going to do it with Benny. “A Yid” is different. Unfortunately, there have been a few things that happened in Klal Yisroel that made “A Yid” become what it is. When I released the song, I thought it was a nice song with a nice message, but I didn’t think it would become an anthem. It came out about a month before Meron and after that happened, it became everyone’s song. We get emails from people who are mamish on their deathbed and are singing this song. It’s about Emunah and it’s very uplifting. Benny did an amazing job and you just feel his neshama in there. It’s a chant for Klal Yisroel. I think the timing of it was very appropriate; everything is bashert. So, in a way it was easier for that song to become big.

Abie: I think every song that makes it has a story. We say “ain mazel b’yisroel” and “yesh mazel b’yisroel;” it’s a machlokes. I think the same thing in music; “yesh mazel l’nigunim.” Some songs, in my mind, were musically better than others and other songs, for some reason, touch a chord and resonate with Klal Yisroel. Take “Acheinu” which came out on Lev B’Nefesh in 1991. The week before we came out with that album, Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait and threatened Eretz Yisrael. Everyone was worried and buying gas masks; it was such a traumatic time for Klal Yisroel. Who knows if the outside circumstances made “Acheinu” what it is! The song still has legs and people are still singing it today, but who knows if it’s because it’s been ingrained? “A Yid” resonates with Klal Yisroel. “Neshamele” is a similar song. There’s always a time where the words of “Neshamele” resonate. There’s always a time where that’s going to be connected to a person’s life in a deep personal way.”

Doni: You definitely need mazel. I think a lot of Abie’s classics are still around because they’re classics. You could say “Acheinu” took off because it was special circumstances, but at this point every Jew, affiliated and non-affiliated, knows “Acheinu.” The English songs that Abie writes are timeless. Whether it’s about hashkafa or Shabbos or the neshama. So many of his songs give you a good feeling about Yiddishkeit, which I think is a very special thing. Put out a song and then time allows it to shine. It lasts even when that time is over. These are songs that are very ingrained.

Abie: Just like everybody’s face is different, every song is different. Some songs come out and very quickly and immediately connect. Other songs don’t. For instance when “The Man from Vilna” first came out, I got a lot of nice feedback from older and more mature people, but I think it took a long time for that song to really blossom. It aged well; the more time went on, the more people started to realize it has a tremendous amount of depth and was uplifting. But it’s a long, slow song. Over time people came to recognize it and today, wherever I go, people will ask me to sing it. If I’m on stage for an hour and they ask me to sing that song, it doesn’t leave me much time to sing anything else.

Abie-What is the most popular song people ask you to sing?

Abie: Either “Neshamele” or “Joe DiMaggio’s Card.” When we do a kumzits or ask the audience what they want to hear, we also always have requests for “Mamma Rochel.”

 

FUN QUESTIONS WITH ABIE ROTENBERG & DONI GROSS

 

What is your favorite Abie Rotenberg song?

Doni: It’s hard to pick one! From the Hebrew songs, there’s something about “Mi Bon Siach” from Dveykus 4 that just really hits me in a powerful way. From the English music, there’s a lot. I grew up on Journeys. I don’t remember music without Journeys. I got Journeys 1,2, and 3 all at the same time, so it’s a lot of material. I always thought “Time to Say Good Shabbos” was really good and is really a higher level of music. I think it’s very similar to what we did on this album, “Boruch Hashem it’s Shabbos.” Abie has the ability to deliver so we actually feel it. I don’t have an exact answer. “Time to Say Good Shabbos,” “Neshamele,” and “The Shadchan” are all great. There are so many!

Abie, do you have a favorite from your songs?

Abie: I really don’t have one favorite.

Favorite Pesach song?

Abie: I love the Vehi Sheamda, the popular one.

Doni: Boruch Hamakom, Boruch Hu

Haggadah you’re using for the seder?

Abie: Should I use the Maxwell House or Nestle? I like to use the Midrash Hamevuar.

Doni: It depends what Artscroll sends me.

Favorite song to sing at the Shabbos table?

Abie: Dror Yikra by Yehuda Gilden

Doni: Harachaman by R’ Baruch Chait

3 Fun Facts About You.

Abie: 1) I love sports. 2) I love Jewish people. 3) I am blessed that I’m musical.

One message you want to give the Jewish people.

Abie: Study & learn. Go out & get as much information as you can about our beautiful heritage.

Favorite Carlebach song?

Abie: Impossible question! When I was younger it was Shifchi K’Mayim so I’ll stick with that.

Doni: It might be “Eilecha” or “Gam Ki Elech;” one of those two.

You’re a major league baseball player and you need a walkup song. what are you picking?

Abie: Thank You Hashem

Favorite baseball player?

Abie: My favorite baseball player of all time is Mickey Mantle. I’m a big Yankee fan!

Top 10 Jewish Music Hall of Fame Candidates

Abie: R’ Shlomo, Benzion Shenker, Boruch Chait, MBD, Yigal Calek, Avraham Fried, Yossi Green, Sheya Mendlowitz, Ding, Yisroel Lamm, Yerachmiel Begun, Shmuel Brazil

I want to restrict it to people 50, maybe 60 years or older. There are younger people who maybe have a bigger audience, but for the hall of fame I only considered veterans. I couldn’t just pick ten so I chose 12.

The person in your lifetime that represents Ahavas Yisroel:

Abie: Shlomo Carlebach, Rabbi Dovid Grossman, Rabbi Dovid Trenk. Those are my top 3.

Doni: Rabbi Yaakov Bender, Rabbi Groner, Rabbi Daniel Kalish and Rabbi Jungreis- the Nikelsburga Rebba are my top 4.