Chaim Tannenbaum

Anyone who knows Loudon Wainwright III or Kate and Anna McGarrigle's music will be familiar with the work of Chaim Tannenbaum, though they might not know it. Tannenbaum started on the banjo when he was 13, then learned guitar, mandolin and harmonica. He played with the McGarrigles and, through these lifelong friends, he met Wainwright, who considers Tannenbaum his ‘musical conscience.’ He has toured with them for decades and appears on more than 20 albums. But music was never his career; he was a philosophy professor. Now, aged 68, he has made his first album, and it's great that, for a change, Loudon Wainwright is supporting him.

Tannenbaum loves the blues, gospel and old-time Americana. He begins alone, with ‘Farther Along’; later there is trumpet, tuba and bass drum on ‘Coal Man Blues’ and ‘Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit’. Tannenbaum met Kate McGarrigle when he was 16 and his version of her song ‘(Talk to Me of) Mendocino’ is a powerful, painful tribute to their friendship. Tannenbaum emerges as a terrific songwriter himself. ‘London, Longing for Home’ is tender, sad, funny, and does not drag in its ten minutes. He has breadth and is well-read; there's an affectionate rendition of John Betjeman's poem ‘Business Girls’. While Tannenbaum's voice is a little fragile now, through harmony and phrasing he finds the expression that perfectly fits these songs.