A Great Miracle: Jeremiah Lockwood’s Guitar Soli Chanukah Album
As the nights get longer and days get brisker, the feeling of the holidays descends upon us. And with all holidays come the traditions, reflections, smells, sights and sounds that uplift the season, help us greet the familiar time of year. On November 22, 2021, Reboot Records and musician Jeremiah Lockwood released A Great Miracle: Jeremiah Lockwood’s Guitar Soli Chanukah Album, a Chanukah record that is sure to become a standard in holiday’s lexicon.
Now streaming on Spotify and all major streaming channels. Reboot has also released music videos of three tracks: Mi Yemalel, Little Dreydl and Chanukah Oy Chanukah.
New for 2023, you can order the vinyl record here.
A Great Miracle: Jeremiah Lockwood’s Guitar Soli Chanukah Album is a beautiful solo guitar tribute to the holiday. With heartfelt appreciation of the 1968 classic The New Possibility: John Fahey’s Guitar Soli Christmas Album, Lockwood has sweetly crafted eight songs, one for each night of Chanukah, to celebrate the dancing candlelight with his new, blues-inspired takes on the most beloved melodies of the holiday’s canon. From the prayers for lighting the candles to the kids’ songs that are sung around the burning menorah, Lockwood paints the light through the darkness with his instrumental creations.
Lockwood’s career has followed a unique path, with deep musical inspiration coming from two mentors. His grandfather Cantor Jacob Konigsberg (1921-2007) infused in him the melodies of the Jewish liturgy, with Lockwood performing in his choir. Lockwood credits his career as a guitarist to a decade-long apprenticeship with the legendary blues musician Carolina Slim, a.k.a. Elijah Staley (1926-2014), who passed down to Lockwood the Piedmont blues tradition of Brownie McGhee and Buddy Moss. Lockwood also leads the band Sway Machinery, which features Jordan McLean of Antibalis and at one point Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
A Great Miracle is the ultimate realization of both sides of Lockwood’s learning, as he translates the major Chanukah melodies into a blues language, through his fingers and the strings of his Gibson guitar.
Jeremiah Lockwood
MusicianJeremiah Lockwood is a scholar and a storyteller; a singer, guitarist and composer with an expansive knowledge of musical traditions and techniques that stretch from The Piedmont blues to the cantorial traditions of his family. He is currently a Fellow at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Lockwood’s music career began with over a decade of apprenticeship to the legendary Piedmont Blues musician Carolina Slim, playing in the subways of New York City. He also trained under his grandfather Cantor Jacob Konigsberg and performed in his choir. Jeremiah’s band The Sway Machinery seeks inspiration from diverse realms of experience related to the cultural geography of New York City. The Sway Machinery has played around the world, including stints at legendary music festivals like Montreal Jazz, Roskilde, and perhaps most notably, Festival au Desert in Timbuktu, Mali. His first book, Golden Ages: Hasidic Singers and Cantorial Revival in the Digital Era, is coming out in February 2024 with University of California Press.
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