Sept. 25, 2008
Raised on the Moshav Meor Modi'im, a musical village in the hills between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the four young men who make up the Moshav Band - Yehuda (vocals, persussion), Dovid (vocals, guitar) Yosef (Bass) and Meir (Mandolin Guitar) have learned and played music since childhood. The American parents of Yehuda and Dovid had come to Israel in 1972 - right before the outbreak of the Yom Kippur war. They settled on a Moshav - a similar lifestyle to a kibbutz but with more autonomy and independence for the family - where their children were born and raised. "When we were growing up," explains Dovid, "the only electrical appliance in the house was a record player. So, while American kids might be growing up watching television and playing video games, we were growing up listening to music." The music they listened to were the records their parents had brought with them - Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young - and that music, combined with the beat poets they read and embraced continues to influence their songwriting. The particular Moshav that was home to the members of the band had been founded by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, himself a musician, and the young men performed with Rabbi Carelbach as well as on their own. Performing with Rabbi Carlebach at his concerts as well as playing their own music brought the Moshav Band popularity in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. "As far as the music we were taught," explains Yehuda, "it was primarily music of our homeland. But the music we fell in love with was the popular American music of the past 40 years, and so our music is a blend of both cultures." Eventually, American students traveling in Israel heard them play and befriended the members of the band. Taken not only with the beauty of their music, but the band members' charismatic stage presence, these young kids from the U.S. went back to the States and raised the money to bring the Moshav Band to America for a short college tour in 1998. By 2000, the band had moved to Los Angeles, determined to make it in the mainstream pop world the way they already have in the Judaica world.
