Chaim Tannenbaum is a US academic who spent nearly 35 years teaching philosophy at a college in Montreal. He is also a folk musician: a multi-instrumentalist and fine singer, who has appeared on more than 20 albums, many of them by his friends Loudon Wainwright III and Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Now, at long last, Chaim has recorded a solo album, which includes Wainwright on three songs.
It’s a no-nonsense, charming and compelling affair. There are gospel songs, American and English folk songs (including the exuberant shanty Paddy Doyle), a setting for John Betjeman’s poem Business Girls, an exquisite reworking of Kate McGarrigle’s weepie (Talk to Me of) Mendocino, and songs of his own including the evocative and emotional London, Longing for Home. At 68, he’s a new folk hero.
