Sheba's Caravan

MIRI HUNTER HARUACH "The Ways of Love"

Miri Hunter Haruach's knock-out debut "The Ways of Love" benefits from the production and contributions of Linda Tillery, but it is Miri's own creative inspiration that makes it all work. She uses as source material The Psalms, and brings them to present time relevance, with a spiritual/gospel feeling that is grounded in world rhythms, with spirit in abundance. I defy anyone to not be moved to their very soul!



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- Backroads Music, Califonia

Project Sheba Music
Miri Hunter Haruach returns with the Book of Psalms-inspired “The Ways of Love.” The sparse “My Soul Will Be Restored” has an effective polyrhythmic pulse. The title track’s haunting string arrangement adds drama to Haruach’s imploring lyrics. While the Afro-Middle Eastern influence is prominent, she takes a few inspired detours. “Let Your Hearts Be Alive,” is a gentle, pastoral acoustic and “Sing A New Song” is an acapella barbershop bounce. A great listen. -todd williams
- ROLLING OUT - Atlanta

Psalm-Thing to Sing About in New Album
By Karla Blume, June 30 2006, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
Have you ever thought about what makes a good song? The Virginia-born Miri Hunter Haruach, who lives in Los Angeles, is a folk singer, playwright, student of Judaism and proud purveyor of a doctorate in women’s studies, and she believes that to make a good song, you need a little some of this and a little Psalm of that. Haruach has always used her art to discuss the strengths and plights of women, but this time, with the release of her second album, “The Ways of Love,” she takes the strong and ethical messages of the Book of Psalms and sets them to music for a new audience to discover.
Haruach sings with a modesty and softness that enhances the simple and good-natured spiritual messages of her songs. That, in itself, is an unusual trait, because audiences have come to expect artists who make spiritual/new age, religious music to have overproduced studio performances. Haruach doesn’t make herself the main attraction of the album. The verses are intertwined with laid-back melodies and sparse, single-riff drumbeats that add an interesting feeling of emptiness and sorrow to the otherwise uplifting words of wisdom.
In the title track, “Teach Me the Ways of Love,” Haruach chants, “Open your eyes, let your ears hear the cry, unchain your mind from the bondage of shame, deliver your spirit, and set your soul free.” The nuances of her delivery are accompanied by a rhythmic rap in Hebrew by an Israeli poet, known only as Ofer, who translated the meaning of the song into an interesting lyrical loop.
“The album is actually based on the Book of Psalms. I have been reading the Psalms since I was a child. The ideas and themes stick with you. They cover all of the aspects of life, including joy, sorrow, ecstasy, repentance, confusion, acceptance, marriage and separation,” she says. The song, “It Would Be Enough,” is the only one based on the Song of Songs, and Haruach was given it to read as a punishment in the 11th grade, she says. In the process, she “fell in love with it.”
Haruach did take the liberty of interpreting the Psalms, not singing them verbatim, but updating them in hopes of reaching more people. Many of the songs are not gender specific, so she could be as inclusive as possible with the audience. None of that sentiment of inclusion is really surprising when you learn that Haruach is not only a converted Jew but also a mix of African American, European and Native American cultures.
“I was born a Southern Baptist, and I was really into going to church, because I liked to participate in the music aspect of the religious experience,” she says. “Then I had 12 years of Catholic school and moved around a lot, writing plays, getting degrees and teaching Israeli folk dancing at Berkeley Hillel.”
In fact, it wasn’t until 1994 that Haruach became interested in Judaism, a move provoked by reading a book on kabbalah.
“I was drawn to Judaism because I felt that it was a religion of life rather than death,” she says. “Through the music, dance and teachings of the Mizrachi Jews, I found a roadmap for living in this world.” And although Haruach refers to herself as a convert, she has not yet taken the big plunge of being bat mitzvahed. “But that’s coming eventually,” she notes. “I did a Conservative conversion, although now I consider myself a Reconstructionist. I am considering cantorial studies, too.”
In addition to her interest in music — psalms or otherwise — Haruach has also devoted much of her life to writing plays. The strong and determined women in her performances range from her own slave ancestors to the mysteries surrounding the enigmatic figure of the Queen of Sheba. “As much as we’re engaged in the media, we don’t see a lot of strong women. It’s important for us as women to portray ourselves as strong so that the strife of our ancestors won’t have been in vain.” It would be an interesting twist, if someday Haruach’s descendants were writing plays about her.
- Jewish Journal - Los Angeles

Miri Hunter Haruach breaks with many conventionalisms related to World Music and Folk with admirable ease, only taking those elements truly motivating her, and shaping them as the pillars on top of which she will build a very personal style, generous in warm melodies as well as rhythms of a great vitality. In the nine tracks of this album we also find plenty of American folk influences, together with Hebrew, Afro-American and Gospel shades. The beautiful voice of the singer and composer is remarkable in many passages. - Amazing Sounds

“Haunting” isn’t a word I often use to describe music, but it applies to The Ways of Love. It has nothing to do with ghosts, and everything to do with Miri Hunter Haruach’s “warm” and “soothing” voice (adjectives accurately used in the promo material), the soft up-front drumming, the lyrics centering on spirituality, and the overall mood of quiet contemplation. Several of the melodies are haunting too, in a subtle kind of way.

Haruach’s musical genre isn’t strictly Caribbean or African in origin – it’s sort of a fusion of world and folk and new-age music – but it certainly shares some common elements with many reggae songs. As one shared aspect, all the songs on The Ways of Love have their source of inspiration in the Psalms, here given a woman-centric slant instead of a Rastafarian one. Another factor in common is Haruach’s mixture of mysticism with an admitted and emphatic attempt to “empower” her listeners to live wholesome lives, to love others, and to find internal peace. (Not that reggae artists ever use the e-word, thank goodness, but empowerment is often what they’re advocating nonetheless.) And then there’s the intrinsic role of rhythm within the song structure that Haruach’s songs share with reggae. In her case, we’re not talking heavy bass, but we are talking djembe, shakers, handclaps and other percussion that propel the songs forward with a relaxed urgency that turns out not to be unique to reggae. There’s even the occasional appearance of a chanter/rapper.

The musicians are notable for their restraint – which isn’t the same as saying the performances are wimpy, by the way – and their unfailing enhancement of the overall mood. They don’t ever exactly rock out, of course, but you wouldn’t expect them to and it would be inappropriate within this context. Unfortunately. Maybe what I’m getting at is that although there is good variety in the arrangements, there’s nothing …well, remotely rambunctious. Respectfully animated is as strong as it comes.

The comparisons that some listeners have made to Joan Baez are reasonable. That brings us back to “haunting,” a Baez specialty. It’s an excellent quality for music to embrace, and The Ways of Love does just that.
- Jah-Works