We Love Music: A Q&A with The Jewbadours

Photo Courtesy of The Jewbadours

It can be tough being Jewish around Christmas time, especially when Hannukah ends shortly after Thanksgiving like it did this year. And while some of my fellow members of the tribe may or may not agree with that sentiment, I still choose to offer up a suitable celebration option for the end of 2013.

Upon scouring the internet for a fitting night of entertainment to combat my craving for an epic holiday season, I stumbled upon a listing for The Jewbadours on Jammin’ Java‘s website. The name reeled me in at first sight so I took to YouTube to find some of their performance footage.

The end result is a soulful albeit entertaining routine executed by a couple of fun-loving Jewish jokesters from New York… who also opted to do a Q&A with We Love DC so all of us can get to know each other a little bit better before they come to town this weekend. You can check out The Jewbadours on their first tour this Saturday night — December 21 — at Jammin’ Java (tickets are still available) in Vienna, VA.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t ask this right off the bat — The Jewbadours is a unique name for a band. Where did it come from, why did you end up making that choice, and how did the two of you end up making music together?

It was one of those glorious moments when an idea crystallizes in a couple of words. We’d love to take credit, but we were named by our manager, Stew Jackson. The three of us were sitting around eating pizza and watching the Knicks, talking about the kind of cover band we would be in. And then Stew said, “you guys should be called The Jewbadours.” We knew right then we had to make this band a reality.

Your live show consists mostly of cover song performances and adaptations of classic songs. When you approach how you might want to tackle those tunes on stage, what kind of consideration does a song get and what goes into the song selection process?

That’s a great question. Not just any song will get the “Jewbadour” treatment. We look for songs that access the long lost parts of our brains. The kind of melody we vaguely remember from our youth. Playing the song has to make us feel like we are 4 years old again and having a playdate at our parents’ in Weschester. We’ve been friends that long so it’s conceivable these were the tunes on the radio in the background while we playing with Construx.

This winter marks your first tour. Congrats! With that said, what are you most excited about?

We can’t wait to show America (or three cities on the East Coast) the cultural and musical experience that is the Jewbadours, and sampling Whitefish salad across the country

If you could perform with any rock star (dead or alive) to perform a song from your Jewbadours song catalog with, who would it be and why?

Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald. At the same time. It would be our dream come true. They are our spirit animals.

Based on what’s posted to your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages, we’ve gathered you two are pretty fun guys to hang around with. What’s the funniest thing that’s happened during your Jewbadours adventure thus far? Is there anything that stands out to you in particular?

I don’t know if I’d call it funny, but we played a Bris in Westchester. It was a lovely afternoon until the baby boy started crying. We’re still haunted by the screams.

The Jewbadours will be at Jammin’ Java in Vienna, VA this Saturday night December 21. Tickets are still available.

Rachel moved to DC in the fall of 2005 to study Journalism and Music at American University. When she’s not keeping up with the latest Major League Baseball news, she works on making music as an accomplished singer-songwriter and was even a featured performer/speaker at TEDxDupont Circle in 2012. Rachel has also contributed to The Washington Examiner and MASN Sports’ Nationals Buzz as a guest blogger. See why she loves DC. E-Mail: rachel@welovedc.com.

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