Arts & Entertainment

On The Road Again

For more than 30 years, harmonicist Mickey Raphael
has been on tour with a music legend.

Suzanne Chessler

Special to the Jewish News

M

ickey Raphael doesn't
, get to Michigan fre-
quently, but his wife

does.
Raphael, harmonica player on
Willie Nelson's tours for more
than 30 years, has a commuter
spouse who works in Detroit
and sees her husband on at least
alternate weekends.
Heidi Raphael takes the one-
hour flight to Nashville each
Thursday when there are no
tour commitments and returns
to Motown on'the following
Monday. She visits her husband
in more distant places as his
schedule changes.
Ironically, when the musician
appears Friday, Aug. 18, at the
DTE Energy Music Theatre, she
will be attending a meeting out
of town.
"Absence definitely makes the
heart grow fonder," says Raphael,

54, who met his wife of five
years at a Farm Aid con-
cert. At the time, she was
employed by a record corn-
pany. She is currently direc-
tor of communications for
Greater Media, which owns
radio stations.
Because he is Jewish and
she is Catholic, the Raphaels
sought out premarital coun-
seling and met with Rabbi
Paul Yedwab of Temple
Israel. They were wed by a
judge in Nashville and then.
had an informal ceremony
conducted by a friend, who
said a prayer and arranged
for the breaking of the glass.

Playing By Ear
As Heidi Raphael commutes
to the Motor City this sum-
mer;Mickey will be moving
along 50 stops planned for Willie
Nelson & Family's "The Long
Road Home" tour. The show,
which also features John Fogerty,

a I: His "commut
key
se" is ased in Detroit.

will be performed Aug. 17 at the
Interlochen Arts Festival.
"There's no song list for this
tour:' Raphael says. "We'll be
doing Willie's standards —
`Whiskey River, `The Night Life,

and I don't think you can get any
`Crazy, `Funny How Time
closer to your inner self than
Slips Away' — and whatever
comes off the top of his head. 'through your breath."
Early performances came
"I love songs like 'Angel
through a recording studio,
Flying Too Close to the
where Raphael would play on
Ground: which is just a
demos. He also entertained
pretty ballad, and the Hank
around Texas and was noticed by
Williams medley because
Darrell Royal', the University of
I'm a big Hank Williams fan.
Texas football coach.
It's hard to pick a favorite
"The coach called me up and
Willie song because he's such
invited me to a party after one
a prolific writer. They're just
of the games:' says Raphael, who
all great."
Raphael became interested completed junior college before
music became his full-time
in the harmonica through a
career. "He had a bunch of his
family friend who played the
friends around, and Willie was
instrument as a hobby and
there. I played a little, and Willie
bought the first of the many
asked me to sit in with him some
harmonicas the touring
time."
instrumentalist would come
Raphael picked up on the
to own. The young musician
offer while Nelson was perform-
didn't take lessons — the
ing outside Dallas, and that led
harmonica involves playing
to work in New York before the
by ear.
"I was drawn to the harmonica marathon touring began.
because of its poignant and emo-
A Composer, Too
tional sounds:' Raphael recalls.
Although Raphael appears only
"Sound is created by breathing,

New Findings

Canadian
filmmaker
"rewrites" the
Exodus story
in a History
Channel
documentary.

Suzanne Chessler

Special to the Jewish News

D

ebate around seder
tables may take some
new turns next Passover
after Canadian filmmaker Simcha
Jacobovici's latest project is seen
by people who celebrate the tradi-

58

August 17 • 2006

tions of the holiday.
Jacobovici, working with a team
of researchers and consulting with
global scholars, has sought out
historical evidence to prove that
the Exodus really happened, and
he feels confident that his case has
been made.
The Exodus Decoded, a $3.5
million film resulting from nine
years of exploration and analysis,
airs 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 20, on the
History Channel.
One of the film's most dramatic
segments shows what Jacobovici
contends is the actual Mount
Sinai, and it's much smaller than
the image theologians have sug-
gested as the place where Moses
received the 10 Commandments.
Another highlight is a discus-
sion of the Santorini volcano, an
eruption in the Mediterranean

that Jacobovici associates with the
development of the 10 Plagues
and the parting of the Sea of
Reeds, a different site than the one
thought of as the Jewish path for
escape.
An Egyptian hieroglyphic
inscription attesting to the Exodus
and a ring suggested to have
belonged to Joseph are among the
many relics shown to substantiate
his theories, which are based on
a new time frame for the Exodus.
While scholars have placed the
events in the 1200s BCE, the film
looks to some 200 years earlier.
"The combination of investi-
gative journalism, funding not
available to scholars and cross-
disciplinary analysis gave me the
tools to actually connect dots and
put together a picture that, until
now, has never appeared;' says

Simcha Jacobovici looking for evidence of the Exodus in Egypt

Jacobovici, 53, an award-win-
ning Canadian filmmaker whose
previous Jewish-themed projects
have included Quest for the
Lost Tribes of Israel, Expulsion
and Memory: Descendants
of the Hidden Jews and
Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies &
the American Dream.

New Research
"I did what I would call investiga-
tive archaeology, bringing to the
film some of the top minds in
biblical history, geology and vol-
canology. I realized that credible
minority voices in each of these
disciplines agree with each other
but don't know it because they