A trio of Anglo doctors sing their way to annual folk fest

Israelis love nothing more than a music festival, and the annual Jacob’s Ladder Festival held each May is known as the “Anglos” festival, for its gathering of English-speaking immigrants on the shores of the Sea of Galilee for a line-up of folk, blues, a little bit of country, and some rock ‘n roll.

This year’s Jacob’s Ladder festival is being held May 10-12 at Nof Ginosar at the Sea of Galilee, with two- or three-day tickets available that also include free lawn camping.

The long weekend of performances includes visiting artists, local folk bands and solo artists, and one trio of English-speaking doctors who moonlight as The Unstrung Heroes, a band that has played together for more than 20 years.

Mark Clarfield, a professor and director of the Medical School for International Health at Ben Gurion University, is the lead singer of the band, along with his wife, hematologist Ora Paltiel-Clarfield and their fellow band member and colleague, Barry Knishowy, a family doctor in Mevasseret Zion.

Sometimes, the Clarfields’ son Jonesi plays with them, as well as drummer Abe Doron.

The trio has been singing together for more than 20 years, and the Clarfields, originally from Canada, have been singing together for the 40 years of their marriage.

The couple first performed only for family and friends. It was when they moved to Israel that they came upon the local folk music scene by way of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel. The first time the Clarfields went to the weekly folk music club, they were asked to perform five songs.

“Ora said, ‘Are you nuts?'” said Clarfield.

“We did really well and joined this active folk scene,” he said. “Then we met Barry and he’s a fiddler with a gorgeous voice.”

All three of the Clarfield children are musicians, although their son Jonesi tends to perform with them the most.

This isn’t Unstrung Heroes’ first time performing at Jacob’s Ladder; they’re frequent performers there, usually appearing every other year, performing their mix of folk and bluegrass, an occasional song in French stemming from their upbringing in Canada, as well as a solid dose of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

“Our band sings songs from all the English-speaking countries,” said Clarfield. “One of our major strengths is simply that we have a great repertoire. Anybody can do that, it just takes judgement. Our harmonies are really nice and we practice a lot; we try to be as tight as possible and audiences appreciate when you do a reasonable job.”

This year, the band’s playlist includes some Bob Dylan, James Taylor, a Yiddish song, Joni Mitchell, some traditional English music, and one Bruce Springsteen selection.

The rest of the weekend of country, rock, swing, bluegrass, folk, Celtic, Viking, honky-tonk and global beats will also include two groups from abroad: Spiritual Seasons from the Ukraine and Ukus in Fabula from Italy.

https://youtu.be/B6tYeU0zeR0

Local bands will include Celtic Fusion, Kim in the Sun, Bernie Pearl, Tarante Groove Machine, Libi & the Flashback, the Heeby Gee Bees and others.