“The first time, we didn’t know exactly what the result would be. But this second time, we knew the exact vibe we were trying to achieve”
“I measure demand by the amount of people who tell me, ‘We need another album,’” says MOSHY KRAUS, producer of the Yiddish Nachas albums and children’s choir he cocreated with Yossi Green back in 2014. Four years ago, the choir produced a CD titled Shabbos Nachas, which would be the first of the Shabbos Nachas series. The chassidish children’s voices singing Shabbos songs became the sound of Erev Shabbos in many homes, with streaming still ongoing every Thursday afternoon and Friday. Moshy says his friends and neighbors were asking him to produce another album with the same flavor, and he’s now answered their challenge.
For SHABBOS NACHAS 2: TOAMEHU, Moshy worked with Zisha Schmeltzer, who arranged the music and coproduced the album. Their goal was to do the same, but better. “The first time, we didn’t know exactly what the result would be. But this second time, we knew the exact vibe we were trying to achieve. The entire process, from song selection to musical and vocal arrangements, was about recreating the ‘Shabbos Nachas’ feel of the first album.”
There are some songs that all listeners will know, and others that you might not realize you know until you hear them and your subconscious recognizes nostalgic childhood Shabbos echoes. The first pick for this album was Reb Pinky Weber’s “Uvirtzoncha,” which Kraus says he sings every week at the table with his own children — one of the highlights of his Shabbos. Then he included a kiddush medley, a collection of the songs he usually leads in the shul kiddush on Shabbos morning. Listeners will enjoy guest vocalists Yossi Green, Shmueli Ungar, Yanky Daskal, Sruli Werdyger, and Rabbi Shloime Taussig, among others.
Surprisingly, Moshy says there are some songs on the album that he didn’t know previously, indicating the sheer breadth of the Shabbos song repertoire. “Both Reb Yisrael Wertzberger’s ‘Raza DeShabbos’ and Shlomo Katz’s popular ‘Yismechu Bemalchuscha’ were suggested by other members of the team and were actually new to me. I loved them when I heard them, so we went ahead and taught them to the choir.”
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