Two great traditions – bowling and Judaism.
That’s according to Walter Sobchak, the antihero played by John Goodman in the Coen brothers’ classic slacker film The Big Lebowski.
But if you substitute bowling for country music, the dangerous Walter becomes an affable, burly, bearded, cowboy hat-wearing, picking and grinning Texas Jew by choice named Joe Buchanan.
Self-described as a “bold blend of classic Texas country and Jewish spirit,” the Houston-based Buchanan belts out barn burners in a rich baritone twang that resembles one of his musical heroes, George Strait.
But ole’ George never sang about the binding of Isaac or reinterpreted the Friday night hymn “L’cha Dodi,” like Buchanan does on his three albums of country music steeped in the Torah, demonstrating that it’s a short walk from the barroom stage to the bimah.
Country music and Jews are not total strangers. Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys were satirical staples on the fringes of bad taste in the 1970s. But Buchanan may be the only bona fide country songwriter incorporating earnest Jewish themes and spirituality into virtually every song. And he’s not just good for a Jewish country novelty act, he’s gooood.
Buchanan has two upcoming performances scheduled in Israel
This month, he’ll be demonstrating how that synthesis works as he arrives in Israel to perform two revival/hoedowns, on November 13 at the Terminal in the First Station and on November 18 at Shablul in Tel Aviv.
In the ten years since joining the Tribe, he’s released three albums, including his latest, Heaven & Earth, and spends about three weekends a month at synagogues around the US playing concerts and giving a workshop titled ‘Choosing to be Chosen.’
“Judaism arrived in a wild way for me, in that I was married to my wife for 13 years before I found out she was Jewish,” Buchanan said last week in a Zoom call with the Post from his home studio/workshop.
“We had just visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, and she told me that she wanted to connect with her faith, and I said, ‘What??’ She couldn’t believe that I didn’t know, and I couldn’t believe I didn’t know.”
Buchanan, his wife, April Mitchell, and their then-12-year-old son Nathan had gotten along just fine until then without religion in their lives. But the revelation of Mitchell’s Judaism awoke something dormant in all of them.
“I GREW UP really struggling with the idea of God. My idea of a creator was the one taught by my grandparents, which was to live a good life, and there’s a hand of design in all things,” said Buchanan.
“So I was really hungry for knowledge and went to a lot of places to get some understanding, but eventually decided to put things on hold. I wasn’t getting answers, but when my wife told me she was Jewish, I said, ‘Let’s find a rabbi and find out what this means.’”
The family arranged a meeting with Houston Rabbi Stuart Federow, and, like the straight-talker he is, Buchanan laid it out simply.
“My name is Joe, this is April and Nathan. They’re Jewish, I’m not, and none of us know anything about what this means.”
“In short, the rabbi said, ‘You do good things because it puts more good into the world, and that’s the reward for doing good, not for what comes later. You’re loved by your creator exactly as you are. All we know is that the life we have is a gift and you’ve got to take care of it.’
“For me, it was like ten years of therapy all at once. I never had an adult talk to me so straight like that, and it changed my life. I just dove into it from there.”
Buchanan, who cagily declared his age as “old enough to know better and young enough not to care,” began undergoing the conversion process and, along the way, began to write a song to explain and understand the changes he was going through.
Until then, music was a hobby for Buchanan, who was making a living in the industrial oil and gas arena up and down the Texas Gulf Coast.
“My rabbi heard about it and asked me to play him a song, and then someone else from the community heard about it and asked me to do a show,” said Buchanan. “And then a buddy from California said, ‘Hey, let’s make an album.’ Now, we’re three albums in and it’s a full-time job.”
BUCHANAN SAID that he wasn’t initially deliberately latching onto a genre of Jewish country music; he was just writing songs. But with his drawl and upbringing of listening to the likes of Dwight Yoakam 24/7, they just came out that way.
As foreign as it may sound, country music and the Torah have a lot in common – the sin, the redemption, the deception, and the heartbreak. At its essence, according to Buchanan, it’s all about storytelling.
“Country music is all about telling stories. Growing up, I’d listen to “The Gambler” (by Kenny Rogers) and I could see it unfolding in my mind. So the storytelling tradition of country became deeply embedded in me,” he said.
“When I started writing songs, I wanted to connect with the Jewish prayers and capture the communal singing. And I discovered that the stories in the Torah made so much sense in the context of country songs. There are so many beautiful and uplifting, but also heartbreaking stories in the Torah. There are all these great stories we have that I felt I could not so much reinterpret as to find a new way to share them with the folks outside.”
He’s been doing that regularly, with a well-developed Shabbaton program he brings to Jewish communities around the US, that includes a Friday Night Lights musical service, a Shabbat morning talk on choosing to be chosen, and then a full-fledged Saturday night concert.
Although he considers himself religiously observant, Buchanan plays instruments and uses electricity for the Shabbatons.
“For certain communities, I can certainly do it without instruments, but a lot of what I do is built on the kavana (intention) generated through the instruments. Of course, Orthodox communities won’t bring me for a Shabbaton, but I do go for special events like Lag Ba’omer or community gatherings,” said Buchanan, adding that his first visit to Israel was in early 2023, musically accompanying a Florida congregation.
An online buzz has been growing about his shows in Israel around the English-speaking musical community, so much so that Buchanan has been approached by some local musicians offering their services.
“My Jerusalem show is going to be an intimate night of music and stories, but I’ve had a lot of people reaching out, so it may change,” he said with a hearty Texas chuckle. “Maybe we’ll have a full band by the last song.”
Country music and Judaism. As Joe Buchanan unites them, they’re indeed two great traditions.
For more tickets: firststation.co.il/events/joe-buchanan/shablul.smarticket.co.il/BOX_SET_1841/?id=4393