From Brat Packer to Jewish Cowgirl

It’s rare that you hear about a celebrity’s foray into Judaism that doesn’t involve Philip Berg and the Kabbalah Centre. Madonna changed her name to Esther, but we haven’t yet seen an album bearing that nom de plume. Like Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher, many celebrities dabble in Judaism for a few months, get a Hebrew tattoo, and then move on to the next big thing. (It would be an interesting study to see how many Scientologists once tried davening.) When I first heard that the actress and musician Mare Winningham recently recorded a CD of Jewish country music following her recent conversion, I looked to see if Berg was thanked in the liner notes. Not only was his name missing, but it was obvious that Winningham’s conversion didn’t begin with a course on Jewish numerology. Unlike many other Hollywood searchers who find Judaism as a way of making sense of the world, she isn’t a dilettante—she’s a ger tzedek.

On her album Refuge Rock Sublime, released this year, Winningham transposes traditional Jewish songs such as “Etz Chaim” and “Al Kol Ele” onto a country template. The result is an almost uncomfortably passionate expression of being a Jew. Winningham says she has a hard time talking about religion, but she lays herself bare on these songs, investing them with something that you don’t ordinarily hear in Jewish music: raw emotionalism.

http://www.jewcy.com/interview/2007-08-21/from_brat_packer_to_jewish_cowgirl