Sandy Cash, Folksinger

Author: Sandy Cash

  • Rain? Lightning? Rockets? No Problem for Israeli Folk Fans

    They used to say that the US Postal Service would get the job done despite “dark, storm, or gloom of night.” Well, in two recent concerts, Israeli folk music fans proved that they will brave anything to come out for a show.

    This past Thursday, I was invited to the city of Petach Tikva as part of the “Greta’s Rooftop Concerts” series. I had heard that Greta — a gracious hostess who works as a medical translator — had a beautiful little space on her roof. A nice sized audience was expected. And so too — according to the weather forecast — was rain.

    With Greta’s living room space at a premium, it was decided that if there was a serious cloudburst the show would be cancelled, and a rain-date was announced for those who had reserved places. But by the late afternoon the skies were still clear, so I got into my car and headed up the highway for the show.

    As I drove, I watched the clouds move in, and get thicker…and thicker. And then the lighting commenced! I began to wonder whether standing up on the roof of a building — any building — was a good idea.

    To make a long story short, despite a slight drizzle just before showtime, Greta’s immediate area in Petach Tikva stayed dry, and the show went on (as it must).

    The next morning, I headed south, to participate in a great little music festival at the Ashan HaZman music club in Beersheba . Here, as opposed to the center of the country, the sun was shining, and a light breeze kept everyone blissfully cool for this relaxed and lovely outdoor performance.

    Now, this morning, I read that continued rocket fire from Gaza have shut down Beersheba’s schools for the day. This is after Israel’s southern communities suffered heavy rocket fire — over 70 projectiles injuring several people and causing extensive property damage — last Wednesday.

    Israelis — including myself — have been known to complain bitterly about how these low-intensity attacks, which hold the entire southern region hostage with potentially lethal fire aimed at civilians, are under-reported in the world media. Well of course, they’re under-reported… if something goes on for years with no change, it stops being newsworthy.

    Beersheba Mayor Rubik Danilovich, the YNet news site, explained his decision to again close down the city’s schools: “Beersheba has the benefit of experience. We’ve had four direct hits on schools, and each of those times was when we were told to resume normalcy.”

    I tell you, is this normal?

  • “Voices” hits the Folk DJ charts

    Good news: Less than a month after its release to the radio, Voices From the Other Side has made it onto Folk-DJ’s “TOP ALBUMS AND SONGS OF SEPTEMBER 2012.” It’s an honor to have my album listed along with recordings created by some of my favorite artists. Among others, my new songs have been broadcast by:

    Gene Shay, WXPN, Philadelphia, PA
    Christine Lavin (guest host), WFUV, New York, NY
    Tom Druckenmiller, Sing Out! Radio Magazine
    Taylor Cafferty, WRKF, Baton Rouge, LA
    Michael Stock, WLRN, Miami, FL
    Frank Gosar, KLCC, Eugene, OR
    Mark Michaelis, WGDR, Plainfield, VT

    … and John McLaughlin of “Roots and Wings” radio on WVUD Delaware, who volunteered this mini-review:

    “This is a fine album of fascinating music, which views the US from a distant perspective and brings the whole shebang together very neatly indeed. I’ll be spinning it again in coming weeks.” John also added – in a less formal statement that I’m happy to share with you: “Damn, but I *like* your “Banks of Freedom, the more I listen to it.”

  • Singing (With Sirens) in the South

    One of the things I like about living in a tiny country like Israel is that you can be a nationally-touring folksinger, and always get home in time to drive carpool in the morning. This morning this trusty one-liner proved true yet again… I’m back home at the computer at 8 AM after last night’s show in the southern town of Beer Sheva.

    Last night’s show marked the first time I performed two of my most recent songs — both already recorded on my latest disc, Voices From the Other Side — before a live audience. It’s rare that I rush new compositions into the studio before I’ve tried them out in concert (and tweaked them based on the reaction). But these two songs – Freeze Frame Truth and Song of Zion – capture what I feel about what Israel is going through right now… and I didn’t want these stories to slip away.

    Song of Zion (read lyrics here) went over particularly well with the audience, probably thanks to Hilary Clinton. Earlier that day the American Secretary of State had starred in the local headlines, due to her statement that the US does not plan to set deadlines or give ultimatums regarding Tehran’s refusal to curb its nuclear program. My song was conceived as a veiled reference to the difficulty Israel faces trying to get the world to wake up to this threat to its very existence. But last night the veil was off (no Middle East fashion pun intended)… for this group of listeners, the meaning of the words came through loud and clear:

    “…But if I said, ‘I lost her’
    I get you’d come around
    To admire the wheels of justice
    Turning over new-scorched ground…”

    Ironically, someone came up to me after the show and apologized for what she considered a low turn-out (I didn’t agree!), which she attributed to the missile siren that had sent Beer Sheva residents scurrying to their reinforced rooms earlier that evening. Turns out it was a false alarm, but I missed it while driving down to the gig. I had been listening to the BBC at the time, following the coverage of September 11 memorial ceremonies in the United States. Different countries, a variation on the same sad theme.

    Later, as my crowd cleared out the bar began to fill with the much-younger clientele — mostly students — who live in the neighborhood. There’s no reinforced room in this particular bar, but for these folks, the possibility of another siren going off is no reason not to step out for a beer.

  • To CD, Or Not to CD – That’s the Question

    By the time those three big boxes from the disc manufacturing plant made it to my front door (lots of stairs… huff, puff!), I’d already answered the question of course. In the digital age, there is less and less demand for actual, physical CDs, since people can easily download the music they want online. Still, it’s always good to have a choice. Call me old fashioned, but I wanted the closure that comes with completing an album, and then offering it to the public in all its shrink-wrapped glory… just like they did back in the 20th century of my youth .

    Besides, there’s something about having a product you can hold in your hand, and tuck away along with all the rest of the CDs in your collection. Filing a single copy of my newest disc under “C” – between albums created by artists like Dave Carter and Crosby, Stills and Nash – may not help me get this music on the radio, or into the homes of more folk music listeners. But it sure feels good.

  • Songwriting From the Heart, From Israel

    When I first started writing songs, my material was heavily weighted toward the subjects that occupied most of my time: my kids. I remember when I used to introduce my performance of “Survival of the Fittest” by telling audiences how this song was inspired the tri-partite split that characterized my life… the fact that I was (1) a singer-songwriter, (2) a science writer, and (3) the mother of four “what can euphemistically be referred to as ‘high-energy’ children.”

    Well, they’re still high energy. But since they’re directing their energies outward these days, I’m a bit less overwhelmed. As a result, I’ve been able to explore new horizons.

    Recently, I signed up for a seminar given by one of our local universities. The subject was “public diplomacy” – that face-to-face (or keyboard to keyboard) communication that makes it possible for average citizens to influence how their nation is perceived around the world. I won’t surprise anyone if I say that Israel is situated in a very volatile environment, and as a result, it faces very difficult challenges in terms of its public image. For years, my desire to defend Israel against unreasonable attacks in the media has been growing… but even the most effective “facebook activism” can only go so far.

    Driving home after the seminar’s first meeting, my brain was on fire… and as sometimes happens in these situations, an idea for a song popped into my head. I pulled over to the side of the road and started scribbling, and the result was the lyric to “Song of Zion” – already recorded as part of the “Voices From the Other Side” album. “Freeze Frame Truth” – another Israel-related song – followed soon after.

    You can read the lyrics to both songs on the Voices From the Other Side page in the Music section.

    I don’t think I’m going to redefine myself as a political songwriter. But to the extent that I can use my art to create a little more understanding about the place I live, I’m happy to do so.

  • Where Israel’s Folk Community Shines

    Just got back from the first of two summertime “hoots” sponsored by the Jerusalem Folk Club. After a day of oppressive heat and humidity in my home town, it was great to drive up the hill at night and cool off in Jerusalem’s higher elevation. My spirits were elevated, too.

    Outdoor hoots – in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv – have become a much-anticipated thing around here. Unlike the regular folk club format, in which a small number of acts are highlighted, hoots are an opportunity for the entire community to get together. Sort of like a mini-folk festival with free entrance (and no need for sunscreen).

    Getting such a large number of musicians on and off stage can be a challenge, so the hoot’s mistress of ceremonies – a new olah and great musician named Sharon Klein – instituted a new format. The musicians were placed right in the middle of the courtyard, facing each other in a circle, while the audience spread themselves (and their blankets) all around behind them. Then we went around the circle twice, giving each musician a chance to share two songs. Then Sharon announced the next “round” and a new group of musicians took center stage.

    A fine time was had by all.

  • Elsa Einstein Explains

    A song from “Voices From the Other Side”. Video shot at the Tel Aviv Folk Club.

    I was inspired to write this song after reading Walter Isaacson’s wonderful biography of Albert Einstein. At one point, he describes how Albert and Elsa (his second wife) were visiting at the Pasadena laboratory of Prof. Edward Hubble (after whom the Hubble Space Telescope was named).

    Prof. Hubble, giving a somewhat patronizing introduction to the massive equipment he used in his astronomical observations, said: “Frau Einstein, with this apparatus, we measure the size and shape of the universe.”

    Elsa paused, sniffed, and said: “Oh. My husband does that on the back of an envelope every day.”

    ZINGER!!!!

  • Numbers

    Here’s a video I produced to accompany something included on my latest disc – Voices From the Other Side. The song is called Numbers, and it was written by my friend Stuart Kabak.

  • Banks of Freedom

    A performance at the Jacob’s Ladder Folk Festival on the Sea of Galilee. This song is about the true story of Josiah Henson, an escaped slave who went on to become a hero of the Underground Railroad.

  • Save the Snails

    A song from one of my favorite funny songwriters, Camille West, in a performance at the Jerusalem Folk Club.

  • Gilad’s Guitar – Feature in Jerusalem Post Magazine

    The Human Spirit: Gilad’s Guitar
    By BARBARA SOFER

    The story of a young IDF soldier’s guitar and how it ended up in the hands of Sandy Cash after his death in the Yom Kippur War.

    As one of the more than 17,000 viewers of Sandy Cash’s clever and compelling “Egyptian Revolution Blues” on YouTube, I didn’t pay much attention to the guitar, just how beautifully she played it. I was struck by the wittiness of the lyrics and visuals, Cash’s opera-trained voice and Yale-developed acting talent. In under three minutes, Cash voices our skepticism at the international ebullience over Cairo’s demonstrations.

    I learned that Cash lived in Beit Shemesh. When Pessah took my family to nearby Moshav Yishi, Cash visited and, to my surprise and delight, had a guitar slung over her shoulder. On the back porch of the poultry farm turned magnificent Tuscan vacation villa, we enjoyed a private sing-along, children on the grass, the honeysuckle- scented hills dotted with pink and yellow flowers.

    Then she played the one about her guitar: “Gilad’s Guitar.”

    First finger, second fret Listen to the sound you get He loved me since the day we met I’m Gilad’s guitar He promised me when we were young I’d be her gift to a cherished one Now you are here, his will be done I’m Gilad’s guitar

    THE SONG, she explained, is an adaptation of American Jewish songwriter Stuart Kabak’s “Mom’s Guitar,” written after the death of a musician friend and honoring the passing of a guitar from generation to generation.

    Gilad Desheh, whose guitar Cash now owns, didn’t get the chance to pass it on. He died in the Yom Kippur War.

    Desheh was Cash’s husband’s cousin. Their son is named for him.

    Desheh began playing guitar and piano at the age of six in Manhattan. He could play anything he heard once.

    Just after his bar mitzva in 1965, he moved with his mother, Sue Desheh, and a Steinway piano from a second- hand shop to Jerusalem. He studied classical piano with teachers his mother found by recommendation.

    With his friends at the Rehavia Gymnasia High School and in the Scouts, Desheh played Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and Arik Einstein on his guitar. On a rare trip to the US, he and his mother chipped in together on the purchase of a second guitar, a prized Gibson.

    Desheh was sociable and popular, with a wry sense of humor, fierce loyalty to his friends and prodigious intelligence.

    Over the years in Israel, he kept up correspondence with Henry, the American best friend he’d left behind. Just before he turned 18, Desheh wrote: “… I frankly try to avoid philosophizing and thinking whenever possible, because it brings me nearer to a bitter reality – one of death and total uncertainty not only about the type of future ahead, but uncertainty about the existence of a future. (Try to avoid the phrase ‘…Makes me think I may never see you again’ – it only has one meaning here.) As we grow older the funerals we attend are of people we knew closely – a scoutmaster, an older friend, and the age difference is only two or three years, sometimes less. Rationalizing with possible and maybe even imminent death, of self, and even worse, of close friends, is hard and as I previously said I try to avoid it.

    The amount of sick jokes we tell is remarkable, and they get better every day; playing chess on previous graduating class pictures, the black spaces being people who were killed, or class reunions in the local graveyard, so that everyone can be present, etc. etc. etc. Anyway, I’m not so morose all the time, but I figure that if I’m telling about myself, I may as well tell it all.

    “Don’t be so sorry about writing so much about Israel – I love this damn place so much, that I even enjoy listening to people tell about how they like it. How about coming here for a year or so?” AS HIS mother’s only son, Desheh could be exempted from serving in an IDF combat unit. With his musical talent, he could serve in the army’s entertainment corps.

    But Desheh was determined to go into combat like his friends, one a pilot, another a frogman, the third in an elite infantry unit. To volunteer for a combat unit, he would need his mother to sign a waiver.

    “I pleaded with him that he was an only son. He said that was my problem, not his,” she remembered. “He said, ‘This is something I have to do now. If anything happens to one of them, I couldn’t live with myself. I’d get to be 35 and maybe be a bad husband, or a bad father, or a bad driver. I don’t want to have problems because I didn’t do what I had to do.’” She couldn’t sleep. She sought advice. A neighbor’s words resonated with what she’d already realized: “If you raise a child by certain values, and he wants to live by them, what can you say?” Desheh was designated outstanding graduate of his drill sergeant’s course, and after officer training, he was offered a place training future officers. He preferred working with raw recruits. Stationed on the Bar-Lev line in Sinai with his men in Company 10, Armored Battalion 79, he brought his older guitar and played through long nights in the bunkers.

    On October 6, 1973, in a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, 100,000 Egyptian soldiers crossed the Suez Canal.

    Four hundred and fifty Israeli soldiers strove in vain to stop them. Sue Desheh heard about the attack in New York, where she’d gone for a family wedding. She took the first plane back. In those days, parents could send radio messages to their soldier children. “Gilad, your Mom is back from the States” was broadcast on air. But there was no word from him.

    Six weeks after the war began, three figures appeared at the school where she was teaching: a doctor, a social worker and a city representative.

    “They told me to sit down,” she said. “I told them I couldn’t sit when they wanted to tell me something about my son.”

    He was missing, they said.

    A week later, the same threesome was back.

    “Again they told me to sit down. I told them I wouldn’t sit when they told me my son was dead.”

    Lt. Gilad Desheh of Company 10, Armored Battalion 79, was killed on the first day of the war. He was 21.

    “If anyone says that time heals, it isn’t so,” said Sue Desheh the week before Remembrance Day. “I didn’t get over it. I got used to it. When you lose your child, you are operating in a cloud. You go on. You continue, because what did he die for, but to let us live?” SUE DESHEH helped establish a music center for soldiers in Beit Halohem in Afeka. The vintage Steinway is there.

    She gave Gilad’s guitar to his girlfriend, but she died young of leukemia and the guitar came back. Desheh offered it to her nephew, for whom Gilad had been a role model, but it was his wife Sandy who would cherish it.

    Kabak, who wrote “Mom’s Guitar,” says he’s honored that “Gilad’s Guitar” has evolved from it. He’s hoping to meet Gilad’s mom one day soon.

    At this year’s annual gathering of family, friends and fighters of Company 10, Armored Battalion 79, Sandy Cash from Detroit and Beit Shemesh will be singing “Gilad’s Guitar.”

    First finger, second string Leave the buzz out, make me ring I know you have a song to sing I’m Gilad’s guitar The songs he loved will never fade, they live in all the dues we paid I sound better the more I’m played And I hope someday before we’re gone You’ll have a child and pass me on You can introduce me saying: This was Gilad’s guitar First finger, second fret Listen to the sound you get I loved him since the day we met I’m Gilad’s guitar In your hands now Oh, I’m Gilad’s guitar Make us proud.

    The author is a Jerusalem writer who focuses on the wondrous stories of modern Israel. She serves as the Israel Director of Public Relations for Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America.

  • Witty, Wary ‘Egyptian Revolution Blues’ Goes Viral (Jerusalem Post)

    Witty, wary ‘Egyptian Revolution Blues’ goes viral
    By DAVID BRINN

    Sandy Cash decides to express herself in the way she knows best: By writing a topical song with barbed humor and posting it on YouTube.

    What do you do if you’re a local folk singer with a sharp wit alarmed by the events unfolding in Egypt and what it means for Israel?

    Sandy Cash decided to express herself in the way she knows best, by writing a topical song with barbed humor and posting it on YouTube.

    The song, “Egyptian Revolution Blues,” a satirical warning over viewing the Egyptian revolution in a simplistic good guy/bad guy mode, has garnered a few thousand views in only a few days online. And Cash is hoping that “what ‘We Con the World’ did for the fans of the Gaza flotilla, (referring to last year’s satiric video produced by Latma which became a huge viral hit) this song will do for those who think the unrest in Cairo is all about Power to the People (not to mention Peace, Love and Yellow Sunshine).”

    The clever clip juxtaposes images of 1960s civil rights demonstrations in the US with images of anti-government protesters in Cairo sporting photos of President Hosni Mubarak with stars of David scrawled across his face, while the song’s lyrics sport witty couplets like “Al-Jazeera, SKY and CNN, it’s like the thrill of Tiananmen” and “With huddled masses breathing free, while Mubarak twists in effigy.”

    For the last two decades, since making aliya from Detroit, Cash has been a staple on the ‘Anglo’ entertainment circle, and has appeared at popular events like the Jacob’s Ladder Festival and released her own CDs. Despite having written dozens of her own songs, she said that “Egypt Revolution Blues” was a revelation for her.

    “It was the fasted folk song I’ve ever written,” said Cash on Thursday. “I wrote they lyrics in two hours last Friday and the tune came into my head between candle-lighting and Kabalat Shabbat that night.

    “I realized it was the kind of topical song that I would either sing with my family and put away in a drawer where it would die, or I could try to get it out immediately because it was so tied into what’s going on right now in Egypt.”

    Cash sent a rough MP3 version of the song to her producer David Epstein of Shemesh Productions in Beit Shemesh, and early last week, they added other instrumentation, recorded the vocals in a studio and completed the song. Cash then approached a friend who creates creative videos for events and together, they storyboarded the song, found accompanying photos and within a few hours, they had completed a video which they uploaded to YouTube.

    “I put it up on Tuesday night and by Wednesday morning, it had already gotten hundreds of hits,” said Cash. “As of Thursday afternoon, it had received over 4,000 views.”

    “Comedy is a great vehicle for education and opening peoples’ minds,” said Cash explaining why she chose satire to magnify a serious issue. “Even though it’s flippant and funny, there is a message there. I hope that naïve people in the West will realize that the story of this latest revolution in the Arab World is much more complicated than it might seem.”

    “There are very real risks that very negative forces could come to power and the world as a whole, not just Israel, could end up being the worse off for it. I’m not a big fan of Hosni Mubarak – he was an authoritarian dictator who has ruled without elections for over 30 years. But he’s the evil we know. We don’t know what evil is coming down the pike.”

    Whatever it is, Cash will likely be ready to face it with her sharpened pen.

  • FAME Review – “A Thing So Real”

    A review written for the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange (FAME)
    by Roberta B. Schwartz

    It is always a pleasure to hear something new from Sandy Cash, who opens up a window to her adopted land of Israel. A native of Detroit, Cash has been living with her family in Israel for the past eighteen years.

    A Thing So Real is Cash’s second studio recording. Like some of the best performers in the musical theater, she moves easily from the classic torch song to a comedic song and everything in between. She has the kind of voice – an alto with a lovely upper range – that is so easy to listen to that you won’t want to remove her CD from your player even after it’s ended. But more importantly, she writes great songs – both those that come from the heart and those that tell a story.

    One of the recording’s best cuts is Giorgio Perlasca, which tells the moving story of an Italian Christian living in Budapest during World War II. To avoid being sent to a labor camp, he sought out the Spanish diplomat to Hungary, Angel Sanz-Briz, who was known for issuing life saving Spanish passports to persecuted Jews. Soon after, Sanz-Briz fled Hungary, but Perlasca took on his name and role in his stead, eventually saving 3,500 Hungarian Jews from deportation and death. Cash’s skilled storytelling and delivery bring it to life.

    Songs of love and family abound. The opening tune, This Love is Only for You, is a beautiful love song. Stranger With One Heart speaks to the growing child within. But it is Cash’s sense of humor that draws us in every time. In The Boy Next Door she finds a pied piper for her kids who leaves her time for herself – to chat with girlfriends and cuss all she wants. Cash pokes fun at her therapist abandoning her for a summer vacation in The Madlibs Song, based on the book of fill-in-the-blanks exercises popular in the Sixties. It will leave you laughing and perhaps identifying with the songwriter’s plight. Survival of the Fittest plays with Darwin’s theory of evolution with great fun and wit. I love this song!

    It is clear from her music that Sandy Cash lives a life full of heart and love, and a lot of humor. Unlike many of her peers, there is something for everyone in her music. There is a universality in her style and in her message that is so appealing that it crosses all kinds of barriers. Who would have guessed that a child of Detroit, living a life in a place of continuing conflict as an adult, would know so much and still have a heart and a voice that speaks to all of us. It is good to laugh, to think and to love along with Sandy Cash. May she continue bringing her music to us for many years to come!

    Copyright 2004, Peterborough Folk Music Society and Roberta B. Schwartz.

  • Capital News (Jerusalem) Reviews “A Thing So Real”

    Capital News CD Review
    by Keren-Ami Armon, Jerusalem

    Those of us who have been lucky enough to be listening to Sandy Cash singing folk music for years have a special treat ahead of us.

    Sandy’s specialty has always been dramatic, thought-provoking songs. She brings her audiences into her music provoking both laughter and tears.

    The taste that Sandy gave us on her first CD may have a chance of being satisfied now with the debut of her second CD, A Thing So Real. Once again Sandy has brought us a CD full of humor and poignancy. This time entirely her own music.

    Every woman who has ever been pregnant can identify with her song Strangers With One Heart. The song will bring tears to your eyes when you remember the feeling of the little one inside you.

    Every mother can identify with the harried, hassled mother in The Boy Next Door. With tears of laughter, you wish you too had a “boy next door.”

    Cash’s song Giorgio Perlasca brings us to a time of bitterness, into the heart of a man who did what he thought was right, thereby saving the lives of thousands of Jews during World War II.

    And no song matches the power of The Children’s Brigade as we watch youngsters not yet out of school march to the tune of martyrdom and jihad.

    Sandy Cash has fulfilled her self-appointed job as folk “ambassador” to the Middle East, and has joined their ranks as a talented songwriter in her own right.

  • “Exact Change” Reviewed in Sing Out! Magazine

    A Sing Out! CD Review
    by Angela Page

    Sandy’s combined interests and talents have led her to merge into a unique slot in the folk music world…It’s obvious that Cash has an ear for a quality song… Israelis are fortunate to be able to hear these good writers in a live musical setting, sometimes thousands of miles away from their source.

  • Soundbytes (Canada) Review of “Exact Change”

    A Soundbytes CD Review
    by Bob MacKenzie, Canada

    One definition of folk music might be that it’s the music that emigrants carry with them from their old homelands and that sustains their identity as they become established in their new homes. This may be the definition that best fits the music of Sandy Cash, an American expatriot who has lived half her life in Israel. Certainly, in her publicity, Cash defines herself as “a new voice in folk music” and refers to her listeners as “folk fans.” The songs she sings tell compelling stories and in that sense may also be defined in some loose sense as folk songs. To be accurate, however, the performances of Sandy Cash belong more properly within the realm of American musical theatre.

    Cash is an interpreter of songs, and a fine one at that. Only two of the songs on this release were written by Cash. The rest were clearly selected for their sense of story and for the power of their telling. Given the wide variety of material from which she could have chosen, Cash demonstrates a finely honed instinct for excellent writing and for stories certain to move an audience.

    Cash has a powerful voice and an evocative, theatrical vocal style. This is not the voice or style we would usually associate with a folk singer. Rather, Cash has the power and broad interpretive style of a Bette Midler or Barbra Streisand or, in earlier years, perhaps Ethel Merman or Martha Rae. This is big, open performance that is as much acting as it is singing.

    “Kilkelly” is the song on Exact Change that most has the sound and feel of a folk song. Through a series of letters, Peter Jones’ moving lyric evokes a powerful image of a lifetime in Ireland during the hard times of the Nineteenth Century. The instrumental backing, while full in sound, is pulled back and marches along to a traditional rhythm. Cash imparts a plaintive, mournful sense to the words she sings, bringing the listener a deep-felt sorrow.

    David Roth’s “Nine Gold Medals” is an equally moving song in a whole different sense and has a very positive message for each of us as we move through life. This is a song about community and sharing and helping one another through whatever we might face. The writing is powerful and the interpretation Cash gives it could bring tears to many listeners’ eyes.

    Like “It’s Hard to be Humble” for sports fans, Roth’s “The Star Spangled Banner and Me” recounts the experience of performing the national anthem before a crowd who could really care less who he is. It’s a very funny story, well written and, as interpreted by Cash, well performed. This is also one of the most theatrical performances on this release.

    While the audience applause sounds on Roth’s song seem appropriate to the performance, the dentist drill sound effect on Camille West’s “Root Canal of the Heart” is mostly just irritating, and this very funny song would work just as well without it. I suspect the problem is not that the sound was used but that it’s just too high in the mix.

    In the name of the title song, there’s a deeper pun than the one on the name of Sandy Cash. The song plays around the idea that we cannot simply wait for change to happen but must exact it even though there may be costs associated with doing so. Of the two Cash songs on this release, “Exact Change” especially demonstrates that she has a way not just with interpreting the stories of others but also with writing and performing her own.

    Exact Change is an interesting artifact: music which is clearly American springing up in the middle east. However, this is music which, in its stories, transcends borders and cultures and resonates not just in the hearts of American expatriots but in anyone who can truly hear its human stories. Sandy Cash has a very special gift, that more than a singer, she is an excellent storyteller.

  • Rambles (Ireland) Review of “Exact Change”

    A Rambles CD Review
    by Nicky Rossiter, Ireland

    The world is certainly both contracting and exploding in unison. Exact Change, produced in Jerusalem, takes some very simple songs, often based on highly personal and mundane matters, and gives them an international dimension.

    It has often been said of literature that local issues are the ones that best translate to an international audience. Sandy Cash proves that the same applies to songs.

    “Nine Gold Medals” is a beautiful song telling a simple story based on a race at an athletics meeting. It is an uplifting tale of the reality of sport. Unfortunately, it only applies to that great event of the Special Olympics rather than sport in general. It has special significance as I listen today because this magnificent event takes place in Ireland in 2003.

    Cash has a very distinctive voice and from the array of songs and writers on this CD she is open to all manner of influence. The track “Bye Bye Future” is a tragic-comic tale of childhood hopes and fears sung in a childlike voice that fits perfectly. The story-song motif continues at breakneck speed on “Orange Cocoa Cake.”

    I was surprised to hear “Kilkelly” performed on a CD produced in Israel, but it was a genuinely pleasant surprise as Cash gives a heartfelt rendition of what must be one of the most comprehensive famine emigration songs of Ireland. At just under eight minutes, this is one of the epic songs of the genre but it holds the listener’s attention throughout.

    The CD takes some of the most unexpected twists and turns. Who has ever recorded a folk song about a visit to the dentist? Cash does this with nice lyrics and some very witty asides — ouch that drill sound sets my teeth on edge — on “Root Canal of the Heart.”

    She shows her songwriting ability on two tracks. My personal favourite is the title track, “Exact Change.”

    This is a lovely collection of songs, which she freely divulges was culled from many sources including the Internet. She very kindly includes the websites of the writers whose songs she uses. This CD shows the universality of folk music as it provides contemporary American folk music, collected globally, recorded in Israel and reviewed in Ireland. Now you can enlarge the connection by getting hold of this CD and listening to a collection of gems.

  • FAME Review of “Exact Change”

    A review written for the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange (FAME)
    by Roberta B. Schwartz

    All of us have had moments, and sometimes even days, when we question “does life have to be so tough?” It is at these times that we look toward music to lift us out of these moods; to take us far away from these dark and dispirited feelings.

    I wish I had Sandy Cash’s CD Exact Change at hand every time a dark cloud crossed my sky. It is fun, playful, witty and wise. And it comes from out of the land of Israel, proving that acoustic music is alive all over the world.

    Sandy Cash has one of those voices that is hard to describe as it dips into the alto range, yet reaches up in to the higher ranges with ease. She has a lovely, expressive voice with a great deal of warmth and color. She sings as if the audience is full of family and friends – as if she knows us well.

    On her recording Exact Change, Cash sings nine covers and two of her own compositions. Her themes are down to earth, revolving around family, children and the foibles of everyday life.

    The opening track, Nine Gold Medals, is a delightful tribute to the Special Olympics, written by David Roth. It tells the story of how one of the young athletes stumbles and falls in a running event, and how the eight other runners stop to help him, join hands and finish together.

    Pirates Bounty is a lullabye penned by Cash. Beautifully performed with voice and accompanying guitar, it is simple and lovely. There are many nice metaphors here about life and how your children often surpass your own accomplishments.

    One of the standout tunes is a cover of You’re Aging Well that would make Dar Williams proud.

    My favorite cut is Kilkelly, by Peter Jones. It tells the story of an Irish family’s hardships in a series of letters beginning in the year Eighteen-sixty. The vocal is very sad and moving, made particularly so by Cash’s accompaniment on the English concertina. It is almost eight minutes in length, but well worth listening to through the last note. It is the highlight of the recording.

    Cash also covers humorous songs by Camille West and Cosy Sheridan, as well as Lou and Peter Berryman.

    Sandy Cash has produced a recording well worth seeking out. Acoustic music is live and well in Israel in the hands of Cash. The world of music is certainly a far happier and funnier place with Sandy Cash in it.

    Copyright 2000, Peterborough Folk Music Society and Roberta B. Schwartz.

  • Egyptian Revolution Blues

    Egyptian Revolution Blues

    Some folk songs make history, and some folk songs put history in perspective while it’s happening. You be the judge.

    In February 2011, I uploaded a brand-new satirical ditty about the goings-on in Cairo. It’s called “Egyptian Revolution Blues” – and it put a whimsical (if worried) spin on the question that’s on everyone’s mind these days: What’s next for the Middle East? In view of the recent victory of the Muslim Brotherhood down there, what can I say? Call me psychic!

    Egyptian Revolution Blues went on to get 20,000 views, causing the Jerusalem Post to take notice and write a nice article about me. You can read it  here.

    EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION BLUES
    Words and Music by Sandy Cash, 2011

    When we rose up we knew what for
    It was all civil rights and end to war
    So when we saw them fill our screen
    Their square, and all streets in between
    The palace of that potentate and
    His not-so-secret police state
    We turned unto each other and said “Great.”
    We said: “That’s great.”
    Al-Jazeera, Skye and CNN
    It’s like the thrill of Tiananmen
    Footage that the whole world sees
    Right from the Hotel Raamases
    With huddled masses breathing free
    While Mubarak twists in effigy…..A Star of David on his forehead
    Well, never mind.
    The opposition’s great brown hope
    He has a dream, and he’s no dope
    The moderate El Baraday
    Was Head of the UN’s AEA
    He inspected Tehran’s nuclear stacks
    And told us all, hey dudes, relax!
    Well maybe not the folks in Tel Aviv
    Sure, oppression’s bad and freedom’s good
    Tell that to the Muslim Brotherhood
    Could be that we shall overcome
    And see Egypt free for everyone
    For unveiled women, gays as well
    Full civil rights for infidels But now it pains me to relate
    Chalk up one more for the caliphate.

    Save the Snails http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mkWyqZCPuc

    Banks of Freedom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TwWiOd5ALQ&feature=relmfu

    Multiply Pierced http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKOgA50Rbek

  • …the power and broad interpretive style of a Bette Midler or Barbra Streisand… Sandy Cash has a very special gift, that more than a singer, she is an excellent storyteller.

    –             Bob McKenzie, Soundbytes, Canada

     

     

     

    From the Midwest to the Middle East – that’s the route traveled by American-born singer-songwriter Sandy Cash.  Now living the ex-pat life in her adopted country of Israel, Sandy is a musical storyteller whose thoughtful – and theatrical – performance style is rooted in the songs on which she grew up back in her native Detroit.  At the same time, Sandy’s original songs offer a penetrating look into the world in which she has chosen to make her home.  Drawing deeply from the well of history while holding up a mirror to the politics of the present day, Sandy’s writing also embraces universal themes: the sustaining love of family, a commitment to community, and – oh, so important in this part of the world! – a healthy sense of humor.

     

    “Sandy Cash has impeccable taste…a gorgeous, rich voice [and] an ear for clever lyrics…I’m so happy to know that she is out there singing songs like these in here part of the world. Lucky them!”  

    –        Christine Lavin