"Songs My Mother Never Taught Me"

This collection of songs was culled from a large stack of popular Yiddish sheet music that was the prized possession of my paternal grandfather, Philip Karpel. Recalling Philip's sweet voice and love of Yiddish song produced an uncharacteristic tone of reverence in my father. As I discovered this music for myself, I could see why. The struggles of everyday life and family relationships, the joys of courtship and of just of being a person are reflected in the stories of these songs. For my mother, a Jewish girl raised in a Hungarian Christian foster home, these songs were a link to my father's past, not hers. Though she was always singing something around the house, it sure wasn't Yiddish. Outside our home, WEVD, the Yiddish radio station, played in my father’s car as his private pleasure. He never dreamed it would have an effect on us.  Deborah Karpel - Voice  Art Bailey - Piano and Accordion  Recorded March 19-20, 2007 at Sean Swinney Studio in NYC   (click on image of drawing to make it larger)