Sandy Shmuely – “Bless Us” (Barchenu)

Introducing the first track from his eighth album. Sandy Shmuely, a well known Israeli-American artist, is about to complete the
preparations for another album of Jewish music, his eighth. The album was recorded
here in Israel, an all Israeli production.
Shmuely is expected to arrive in Israel
imminently in order to put the finishing touches to the album, which will be released
towards the end of the summer.
Shmuely may live in New York, but he constantly lives and breathes Eretz Hakodesh.
“All my friends, and my whole family live there, I am on top of everything that goes on
in Israel, from a political, social and artistic point of view, I constantly listen to the
news in Hebrew and keep a close watch on what is going on. In fact”, he explains, “I
may live in the galut but speak Hebrew the whole time…”
Shmuely and his band perform almost nightly at celebrations all over the west coast.
In addition, he is musical director of no less than four yeshivas and colleges in New
York, producing plays and directing appearances, as well as working with choirs from
these institutions. “My greatest satisfaction is when a children’s choir performs songs
that I have written, this also keeps me in touch with what is happening today.”
Shmuely (52) is no longer a child himself, yet relates easily to the latest styles of
music, and is considered one of the most creative forces in Jewish music today.
The latest album contains 11 tracks that vary in style from the original to the
traditional, all created by Sandy Shmuely, and arranged and produced jointly by
Shmuely and Asher Lugassi, an Israeli musician who owns a recording studio in the
north of the country.