Kivi, and Tuki,“The kids were literally crying that Kivi and Tuki were gone! We had to immediately go back to the studio and bring them back” ,Claim to Fame: Country Yossi, Kivi, and Tuki,“The kids were literally crying that Kivi and Tuki were gone! We had to immediately go back to the studio and bring them back”
C ountry Yossi whose last name is Toiv was writing songs in elementary school but he only began to play guitar in yeshivah when his roommate Rabbi Shmuel (Shmelky) Brazil later of Regesh fame drew him a chord chart so he could play music properly. “His guitar was always lying around and I started picking on it ” Country Yossi reminisces.
“Once I learned how to play chords I started writing songs. I wrote funny songs serious songs and niggunim. Eventually I had a whole catalogue of songs I had written and together with Rabbi Brazil I put out a record called Ohr Chodosh. He wrote the Hebrew songs and I wrote the Yiddish and English songs.”
Although Ohr Chodosh only included serious songs ten years later Country Yossi mentioned his funny songs to his good friend Heshy Walfish who led the backup band at the Ohr Chodosh concerts. “Let’s get together and listen to them ” Heshy said.
Just like that the concept of Country Yossi and the Shteeble-Hoppers was born. Since many of Country Yossi’s songs are parodies of country music (a slow style of music that originated in the Southern US) he added the big black cowboy hat to his stage image which eventually morphed into a radio show and Country Yossi magazine.
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