Tennessee Schmaltz

Founded in Knoxville, TN, in 1995, Tennessee Schmaltz enjoy within a hybrid Old World klezmer design peppered with strains of Appalachian string group music, and with jazz, country, bluegrass, and Yiddish music hall all tossed set for good measure. Although account in the group provides shifted somewhat over time, the existing lineup of Larry Hoffman on clarinet, Dan Shapira on accordion, Manny Herz on piano, Rob Heller on washtub bass and clarinet, and vocalist Carolyn Silver-Alford is a fairly constant one. The music group self-released the record Old Nation Klezmer in 2000, pursuing it with Pachelbel’s Cannon & Various other Jewish Strikes in 2006.