Beth Hamon

Dear friends: Many thanks to you for your support! This week, my song "Ten Miles" made it to the number one spot for folk music in the USA! This title song from my most recent album is so reflective of the journey I am on with making and sharing music.

I am completing a third compilation of original Jewish folk music that I hope to record later this year and release in early 2017. I am attaching a homemade demo of one of the new songs for you to enjoy. This will be the tital song for the new album, "A Sliver In the Sky".

I am also hard at work on a somgwriting commission for a large synagogue community in the midwestern USA, and will be submitting proposals for teaching workshops at Portland's Limmud Day, a celebration of cooperative Jewish learning and teaching.

Finally, I am booking dates already for Fall 2016 and beyond, in cities including Philadelphia, Miami, and the Washington, DC area. If you know of a synagogue or Jewish community center whose leadership would enjoy bringing me in a visiting artist, please share my music and web site with them, and tell them where you found me!

Wishing all of you a happy spring. Thanks again for your support of my music, made by hand as always.
Beth

Dear friends:

I wrote "Sparks" in 2003. The timing was strange and a little sad. I wrote the song in my head, while riding my bicycle home, over four successive nights in late January and early February. I was engaged to be married to the love of my life, and I wanted to write a song that brought in threads of our shared Judaism and the passion I felt when I looked into my beloved's eyes.

My father, who lived across town from us, had been in poor health for months. I was between jobs, and rode back and forth to his house two to three days a week -- 16 milee round trip -- to clear away his breakfast dishes, read or talk with him, and make sure he had what he needed before heading home again after we'd had lunch together. I did this every week for about a month and a half. His partner of twenty years would then come home and take care of him in the evening.

I'd last seen my father outside of his home a week earlier, on my 40th birthday. He sat on our piano bench, leaning against his cane; years of heart disease and diabetes had taken their toll on his tall, heavy body and his eyes showed a weariness, even as he smiled and seemed to enjoy himself at my birthday party. It was the last time he left his house to go anywhere.

The following Monday, I'd ridden over in the rain and we'd enjoyed a lovely morning together, eating cheese sandwiches and studying some Jewish text together. I had errands to run tha afternoon and did not return home until early that evening. On that ride home, I finished the song in my head. When I got home, I wrote it out and played it for my fiance, who loved it. We decided to go out to a cheap movie that night. When we came home, we received word that my father had died only an hour before. He'd been sitting on his bed getting ready to go to sleep, and was listening to an operatic aria on his radio when his heart suddenly stopped. He had sighed loudly, fallen back on the bed and was gone in seconds. He probably felt little or no pain.

In the sad, hectic days that followed, my sister and I rallied around our father's partner and cried many tears, and each of us held the arms of our significant others tightly as we walked through the grief of losing our second and last parent. Meanwhile, I felt surrounded by so much love -- Dad and B's love that they had shared for two decades; the love between my sister and her husband; and the love between me and my fiance. After the traditional thirty days of mourning had passed and I was ready to play music again, I played "Sparks" over and over again and took comfort from it. Love comes in many ways and sometimes sneaks up on us. And when we recognize the sparks of love and light in the world around us, we are blessed, and we can be blessings in turn. In a world filled with violence and fear, we must remember that each of us contains a divine spark and that part of our job in this life is recognize that spark in each other, so we will treat each other with kindness and learn to live together in peace.

The song "Sparks", currently # 21 for folk songs on the NumberOneMusic charts, is on my latest recording, "Ten Miles"; and can be heard at CDBaby, iTunes and (expired link). Take a listen, and enjoy. (expired link)

Thanks for supporting Jewish music Made By Hand.

Peace --Beth

Dear NumberOneMusic fans: thas so much for subscribing to my list! I invite you to get to know a little more about me by checking out my web site:
(expired link).

I am a synagogue musician and singer-songwriter creating original Jewish folk/roots music. If you like what you hea or have questions, drop me a line! Also, I am looking for gigs, especially on the Eastern seaboard of the United States (where larger Jewish communities abound). if you are connected to a synagogue or JCC and think your peopple would like my music, please share it with them!

My second album, "Ten Miles", is scheduled for a late January release. I encourage to bookmark my web site and check back regularly for details. Meanwhile, ll the best to you and yours for a happy and healthy 2014.

Beth Hamon

I write and sing original Jewish folk songs, both on original English lyrics and on Hebrew liturgical texts.
For more info, visit my web site:
(expired link)