This article appeared in the August 9, 2013 Jewish Advocate.

http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/news/2013-08-09/Arts/Dream_Syndicate_frontman_to_perform_in_acoustic_tr.html

Dream Syndicate frontman to perform in acoustic trio at Passim

Alternative rock pioneer Steve Wynn discusses his Jewish background’s influence on him

By Susie Davidson

Special to the Advocate

Steve Wynn (right), frontman of The Dream Syndicate (seen here in 2012), will perform at Cambridge’s Club Passim on Aug. 10.

“Thanks for adding Steve Wynn to the Jewish punk list,” posts Craig Dalrymple of the band Lurking Fear on Jewdaic Rock Fans Anonymous!, a chat room on the Musical Family Tree website.

“I saw his ’80s band The Dream Syndicate a few times and met him. And he remembered me every time and was very nice, friendly and down-to-earth,” Dalrymple (who proudly cites the Jewish heritage in his own family tree by virtue of the Lobstein branch) writes of Wynn, a longtime alternative rock musician and songwriter who will appear as part of his acoustic trio this Saturday night, Aug. 10, at Club Passim in Cambridge.

Rounding out Wynn and guitarist Jason Victor at Passim will be Josh Kantor. An old college pal of Victor’s, Kantor has performed with Wynn’s The Baseball Project, Jon Langford of The Mekons, Ken Stringfellow of The Posies, The Split Squad (a new “supergroup” featuring Keith Streng of The Fleshtones, Eddie Munoz of The Plimsouls, and Clem Burke of Blondie), Kevn Kinney of the Golden Palominos, and other giants of the U.S. alt rock set.

“But his ‘day job’ is playing the organ at Fenway Park, where he has worked – and not missed a game, I believe – for the last 10 years,” said the ever-gracious Wynn. “I’m really excited about this particular trio, and the Passim show will be the first time we have played together.”

When we caught The Dream Syndicate’s first U.S. show since 1988 at Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival at MASS MoCA in North Adams last month, he wore a showman’s suit coat that would not be out of place in a glittery 1940s musical, and got into long conversations with anyone who approached him backstage.

Asked about his Jewish background, he expressed excitement to be associated with a possible new, and definitely “heimische” genre of listeners, and discussed how much he was influenced by the traditional and secular Jewish music he heard at synagogue, Hebrew school and Jewish summer camps while growing up in Santa Monica, Calif. “If you write about me, could you send me a few copies for my mother?” he asked, establishing his true M.O.T. bona fides as he added, “My mother, as well as [guitarist] Jason [Victor]’s mom, would love it. Certain articles are just made for moms!” “Fiddler on the Roof,” he quickly added, was a big hit in his childhood household.

The Baseball Project, another band featuring Steve Wynn (second from right), performs songs only about baseball.

“The Jewish music I was influenced by was mostly minor-key music,” he said. “It was haunting and yet comforting, foreboding and grounded.” Wynn was also listening to radio and hanging around record stores from a very early age. Leonard

Cohen and Bob Dylan, he said, were big influences. “‘Every Grain of Sand’ [by Dylan] and ‘If It Be Your Will’ [by Cohen] rank right up there with any spiritual music ever written,” he said.

“More details about my synagogue and Jewish camp-filled childhood might be revealed in the memoir I still keep threatening to write,” he wrote later by email.

Wynn, who was called “One of rock’s true heroes of the underground” by The Philadelphia Weekly, is just back from a European tour of Dream Syndicate shows, 31 years after their first gig in a Hollywood club. Last year, they played at the Primavera Festival in Spain, and then in Madrid, Barcelona, Mallorca and Valencia. International fans fill their online sites with praise and pleas to return. They must have been impressed at The Dream Syndicate’s shows this year in Belgium, the United Kingdom, Norway, Italy, Germany and Greece.

Wynn hopes to add Israel to that list. “A promoter is considering bringing me over to Israel in December,” he said. “My friends in another group of mine, The Baseball Project, went down a few years ago for a few shows backing [British musician] Robyn Hitchcock,” he explained. (Among other shows, they played at the Ozen Bar and Barby Club in Tel Aviv last March.) “They relayed the news back to me that the promoter was a fan of mine, and so we’ve been talking about the right time and setting to make my debut over there.”

Wynn could not do a proposed show in Israel last summer because he was already booked in Norway. “I’m still working on that ‘being in two places at one time’ thing,” he quipped. “Anyway, I have a feeling it will happen in the not-too-distant future.”

It’s all a long way from his current home in Jackson Heights, N.Y.

The band, which was formed at the University of California, had its heyday from 1981 to 1989, spearheading the Los Angelesbased psychedelic alternative revival of the time. They were signed to the Slash record label and eventually A&M, and opened tours for R.E.M. and U2. Despite the major critical acclaim and huge cult embrace of their 1982 record The Days of Wine and Roses, the band never achieved widespread commercial success. But more than 300 of Wynn’s songs have been recorded by groups that include R.E.M., Luna, Concrete Blonde, The Black Crowes and Yo La Tengo. His catalogue was called “a veritable Ph.D. of timeless rock songcraft” by The Chicago Tribune and “a force to be reckoned with and cherished” by The London Sunday Times.

The Dream Syndicate lineup includes Wynn, drummer Dennis Duck, bassist Mark Walton and guitarist Victor. Besides Wynn, The Baseball Project features his wife Linda Pitmon, Scott Mc- Caughey of Young Fresh Fellows and Peter Buck of R.E.M. The latter group plays at SXSW (the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas), as do Wynn’s other bands, Miracle 3 (which also features Victor) and The Minus 5, as well as at various Major League spring training games in Arizona.

The Baseball Project, which has appeared on Letterman, performs songs only about baseball. Sports Illustrated has written about the group, which has also appeared on the television series “This Week in Baseball.” Fans have shown great appreciation, and their music has been played before and during games. Songs include “Buckner’s Bolero,” which takes a philosophical tack, implying that being remembered for a screw-up still beats being forgotten, and “1976,” which pays tribute to the late pitcher Mark Fidrych.

“I can’t thank you enough for helping me to reach a ‘new’ audience,” he told The Advocate. “Maybe it’s been my audience all along.”

Club Passim is located at 47 Palmer St. in Harvard Square. For tickets ($20/$18 in advance), call 617-492-7679 or visit www.passim.org.