Tree of Life by Richard Silverman
Last week I told the story of the Shul Sisters trio and shared with you a wonderful video which so many of you enjoyed. Thank you so much for your feedback! As you probably remember, last week’s story took place in 2018 in Dallas, Texas. It reminded me of another interesting interaction I had at the same conference. It involves a piece of music that our community loves.
One of the events of this American Conference of Cantors convention was a Kosher Barbecue Hoedown at a large ranch in a rustic open air emporium. Hee Haw! The Cantors gathered onto our buses at our downtown hotel in Dallas and traveled an hour or so to the sprawling Texas countryside.
I came to Dallas with my cowboy boots and hat for this event and sure enough all of my fellow Cantors were also dressed appropriately for any rodeo cow rustling adventures, if the opportunity availed itself…. I was excited to see a band up on the rustic stage which even featured a life-size hay wagon on it. They do everything big in Texas! Boy oh boy, I was as ready as ever for country line dancing! However, dang blasted, the band only played cool jazz and smokey mid century jazz standards, strangely enough. It was sophisticated music but incongruous!
I am guessing someone in charge thought, “Oh, Cantors don’t like Country Western music for their Texas Hoedown!” Jeesh. Since it looked like I wasn’t going to be showing off my Country Western Slide moves or my formidable footwork to Achy Breaky Heart, I decided to get onto that growing chow line and rustle up some food. Yep, us “city folk” Cantors have been pampered at every meal thus far with white tablecloths and waiters, but here at the ranch, a person’s gotta get onto the barbecue n’ fixins’ chow line and then wrastle up a spot at a picnic table with some friendly folk.
So what do Cantors do while standing on a long line for chow? Schmooze, of course! It happens that behind me was an older gentleman who was bursting with energy to schmooze and share! He introduces himself as Richard Silverman. Ok, I think, that’s nice, not knowing what to offer him back at the moment, other than my name. “I wrote the Tree of Life song” continued the ebullient, round-faced gentleman, red apple cheeked under his cowboy hat. That blasted Texas summer heat….
“Yep,” he proudly reported, “I wrote the Tree of Life and Mi Chamocha - Yah Bai Bai.…” as he sings a few measures. (CSS VP Bruce Corris affectionately calls it The Yabah Dabah Doo Mi Chamocha) ;)
I’m thinking now, “That gosh darn workhorse of a song, used all the time, in every other synagogue, basically all over the world, was created/written by someone, somewhere, at sometime! Why hadn’t I thought about that before?” I took it for granted. It did not travel down Mt Sinai as a whimsical chant in Moshe’s ear! This very conversation started me on a journey of trying to know even more about the music I sang and being even more diligent about identifying its origin.
Just recently, I found this video of the original recording of Silverman’s Tree of Life, from the early 1970’s. It is on an album released in 2006 called American Jewish Summer, Songs from the Jewish Youth Camping Movement: a collection of some great Jewish camp songs spanning decades.
This groovy original rendition of The Tree of Life takes you on a stylistic 70’s nostalgia ride. At the midway mark of the song a plucky overdrive electric guitar threads its way through the piece till the very end. No guess work identifying this musical genre. It makes me smile and feel a bit groovy myself! What do you think?