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worldclassmusic.live is very proud to present LILY HENLEY - a truly remarkable singer, fiddler and guitarist who blends ancient Sephardic ballads with American roots music!
SHOWTIME: 8PM / doors: 7PM
'Carrying the voices of women through history, and Henley’s work in American roots music, it’s a fascinating and beautiful release.' —THE GUARDIAN
When singer, fiddler and songwriter Lily Henley set out to make an album of Sephardic Jewish ballads set to new melodies, she was looking for her own way to interpret a critically endangered tradition. On Oras Dezaoradas (out on Lior Éditions Records), Henley highlights the Ladino language, a threatened tongue that fuses old Spanish with Hebrew, Arabic, and Turkish elements that is spoken by less than 100,000 people in the world today. She found herself directly connected to centuries of women spread across a forced global diaspora. The album is not a reinterpretation project—Henley’s newly-penned songs and melodies are a reclamation and contribution, a living line between her musical roots in American and Celtic traditions and the rich history and culture of her Sephardi ancestors..
These songs carry the hopes and dreams, daily worries, and existential thoughts of the Sephardic people. They tell stories of everyday life, loss, exile, lovers quarrels and advice-seeking daughters. Known for her expressive songwriting, gifted fiddling, and bell-like vocals, Henley brings new life to these songs and the independent female characters in them—drawing from a well so deep that disparate listeners all feel a connection to their own heritage.
With a repertoire encompassing both her Sephardi musical lineage & and a broad expanse of influences from across the folk world, in concert Henley weaves ancient and modern languages, cultures and styles to reveal their interconnectedness, and ours.