Daniel Kahn – Part 2



It’s time for Part 2 of our conversation with singer, songwriter, actor, translator, bandleader and more, Daniel Kahn! We continue right where we left off and dive right in with talking about the very first Painted Bird song Dan Blacksberg recorded, Parasites. Then Dan & Dan get into their whole big history together, which is nearly the same as the history of both their careers. We talk a lot about being “under the influence of our influences” as Kahn says, and all the sounds and DIY practices that came along with the times and places we came of age in in Philly, Berlin, New York and everywhere else! It’s a collection of what to us feel like personal and klezmer scene milestones, mostly through working together in the Painted Bird, that happened across the years due to our work and the wild circumstances of all those moments.
We also jump all the way into the present and talk about Kahn’s newest record, Umru/Unrest, out on November 14th on Oriente and Borscht Beat. It’s the latest in Dan’s long work in drawing songs from all over to take a stand for a transnational Yiddish Culture that stands against fascism and violence. And we talk about so many shared experiences and ideas and the conversations that we started nearly 20 years ago that we’re still having every time we meet.
Music in this episode: songs from Dan’s forthcoming album Umru
Radiant Others is produced by Dan Blacksberg and Beila Ungar. The podcast aims to be the internet’s central space for important conversations in Yiddish and Klezmer music. Please support our work on https://www.patreon.com/RadiantOthers, and tip us as https://tiptopjar.com/RadiantOthers