arts & entertainment
Oak Park native, now living in
Israel, brings her guitar and
self-penned folk songs to four
venues in Michigan.
Sandy Cash
I
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
S
andy Cash sings stories she has
written and accompanies herself
on guitar.
Among her deepest story-songs is
"Gilad's Guitar" which is about the instru-
ment she plays, a gift from an aunt after the
aunt's music-playing son died in the Yom
Kippur War.
The song, adapted from Stuart Kabak's
"Mom's Guitar" is on her latest recording,
Voices From the Other Side, and might be
part of any of her programs as she performs
around Michigan in February, briefly return-
ing from Israel to the state where she grew
up.
Cash will appear Feb. 20 at the University
of Michigan Hillel, Feb. 22 for the Flint
Folk Music Society, and Feb. 23 in the West
Bloomfield Library and at Congregation Shir
Tikvah in Troy.
"My material comes out of my personal
experiences:' says Cash, 51, in a phone con-
versation from Israel, where she has lived for
30 years.
"Some of it comes from the everyday nor-
malcy of life for any family, whether ifs in
America or Israel. It's about family and mar-
riage as well as finding the humor or poetry
in everyday experiences.
Jews
"Other parts to my writing have to do
with my being a wide reader in history and
nonfiction. I've written songs based on great
historical stories related to Jewish history
and American history. 'Banks of Freedom:
for instance, is an American history song
about the Underground Railroad and also is
on my latest album"
Through her songs, presented in English,
Cash wants to take politics out of the
American-Israeli relationship. She has
recorded four albums, three for adults,
including A Thing So Real and Exact Change;
and one for kids, called Waltzing with Bears,
which has her favorite songs for children.
Cash has been singing since she was a
youngster appearing in choirs.
"I grew up in Oak Park and went to
Berkley High School, where I sang in the
choir and performed in musicals" she recalls.
"I also spent a number of summers, like my
brother and sister, at the National Music
Camp at Interlochen, where I was a voice
and theater major.
"That got me exposed to opera and serious
work in theater. It turned me into the artist I
am today. I went to Yale University because
there was a strong theater program, and I
was in musicals all the time. At one point, I
worked for a children's theater company"
Judaism became more important to her
while in college, and she turned more obser-
vant, ultimately deciding to major in Jewish
Nate Bloom
Steinfeld, 17).
Special to the Jewish News
But first, he must complete one last
mission — even if it means juggling
two tough assignments: hunting down
the world's most ruthless terrorist and
looking after his teenage daughter for
the first time in 10 years while his wife
is out of town.
Barefoot is a romantic comedy,
based on a 2005 hit
German film. Evan
Rachel Wood, 26,
plays Daisy, who
grew up shut away
from the world. She
is living in a mental
institution when Jay
(Scott Speedman),
Wood
At The Movies
French filmmaker Luc Bresson (Taken)
is famous for making exciting action
films that are fun to watch even if the
plots are improbable. His new flick, 3
Days to Kill, stars
Kevin Costner as a
top international spy
who, like the hero of
Taken, wants to retire
so he can finally
repair his relationship
with his estranged
wife (Connie Nielsen)
Steinfeld
and daughter (Hailee
34
February 20 • 2014
studies and thinking about perhaps becom-
ing a rabbi.
With those interests, Cash thought it
would be helpful to move to Israel and
arrived in 1986. She found part-time work as
the first female cantorial soloist in the coun-
try but chose to return to theater and spent a
year studying drama at Tel Aviv University.
Cash had learned Hebrew with instruction
at Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak Park
and was able to memorize classic mono-
logues in Hebrew, although at the beginning
she still had some trouble with everyday use
of the language.
"I was able to get professional work sing-
ing with the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv"
she says. "I also became a chorus girl in a
production of Les Miserables with Dudu
Fisher in the lead. I went on to a production
of Evita.
"I made my connection with the English-
speaking community by taking my guitar
and singing theatrical songs in folk clubs.
Over the years, it got more and more serious.
After choosing other people's songs that were
fun to perform, I started writing my own."
Cash, who considers herself an Orthodox
liberal because she performs before audi-
ences with both men and women, is married
to engineer Jonathan Lipsky. They have four
children between the ages of 13 and 20.
"I write whenever I consider that I have a
good idea" she says. "I write the words, think
of a chord progression and add guitar"
Although Cash's upcoming tour will take
her to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York
and Philadelphia, she is most excited about
coming to Michigan, where she will stay
with her mom, Barbara Cash, now living in
Southfield. She also is the daughter of the late
Dr. Ralph Cash, a pediatrician often recalled
by people she meets in Israel.
"I've been in touch with friends from high
school and the neighborhood while I've been
in Israel, but I really want to introduce them
to the person I've become since I left says
Cash, whose favorite freetime activities are
working out at a gym and reading.
"I'm very happy to share my music with
American audiences all over the place. Israel,
as cosmopolitan as it is, has a very small
population subset that understands and
appreciates my songs.
"All over America, there are people who
get what I'm singing about. I like the oppor-
tunity, through my songs and introductions
to my songs, to explain what it's like to live
in Israel today. My songs are about looking
at the world as an Israeli and American.
I'm still both:'
❑
Sandy Cash will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, at the University of
Michigan Hillel Student Lounge with a $10 suggested donation; jmorgie®
yahoo.com . She will appear at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, for the Flint Folk
Music Society at the Sippin' Lizzard Coffee House in the Greater Flint Arts
Council Gallery, 816 S. Saginaw, $10-$15; (810) 653-7985. She will perform two
shows, at 3 and 5 p.m., on Sunday, Feb. 23, at the West Bloomfield Library,
4600 Walnut Lake Road; (248) 851-0463 or rmg9716@aol.com . At 7:45 p.m.
on Sunday, Feb. 23, she will be at Congregation Shir Tikvah, 3900 Northfield
Parkway, Troy; (248) 649-4418 or arnie@shirtikvah.org .
a gambler and the black sheep of his
family, chances to meet her. Jay needs
to go to New Orleans to attend his
brother's wedding and beg his rich
parents to bail him out. He persuades
Daisy to accompany him. She charms
them, and romance blooms.
On The Tube
Looking for a comic break after the
Olympics? Just stay on the couch on
Saturday night, Feb. 22, when, just
after the Olympics coverage ends
around 11 p.m., NBC will shift to the
pilot episode of About a Boy, preceding
the 11:30 p.m. local news.
Yes, it has the same title and plot as
the hit 2001 film, which was directed
by Paul and Chris
Weitz and starred
Hugh Grant and
Rachel Weisz. The
TV version, written
by Jason Katims, 53,
and directed by Jon
Favreau, 47, stars
David Walton in the
Grant role: an amiable
30-ish fellow who has inherited a lot of
money and is basically a layabout.
But things change when an oddly
charming 11-year-old boy and his
attractive mother (Minnie Driver in the
Weisz role) move in next door. After
the pilot airs, the series will move to
Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ❑