And now, as they say, for something completely different. Swedish band Louisa Lyne & di Yiddishe Kapelye are touring their show Leonard Cohen in Yiddish and it made its Toronto stop at Lula Lounge on Tuesday evening as part of the Ashkenaz Festival. It makes sense right? Cohen’s roots were in the Yiddish speaking community in Latvia and somehow Yiddish seems apt for his typical subject matter.

So what we got was a selection of Cohen songs translated into Yiddish and some original pieces inspired by Cohen. What made it for me; being neither hugely knowledgeable about Leonard Cohen or a Yiddish speaker, was the sheer verve and skill of the performance. Louisa Lyne is passionate, engages with the audience well and is a terrific mover and singer. She’s just great fun to watch.

The band; violin, cello, bass, guitar (electric and acoustic), accordion, keyboards and percussion were excellent. The arrangements were thoughtful (there was no drum kit – thank whichever God you fancy) and gave all the instrumentalists a chance to shine. I particularly noticed some very fine fiddling and accordion playing.

So I probably didn’t get as much out of it as the (as far as I could tell) mainly Yiddish speaking audience but I had fun. There was lots of positive energy and the sound was really good; which isn’t always the case at Lula Lounge! Definitely worth the trek out west!

Photo credit: Dan Rosenberg