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Larry Karol - News & Reviews

Artist of the Week: Larry Karol. September, 2015

Artist of the Week: Rabbi Larry Karol
S. Derrickson MooreLasCruces

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LAS CRUCES >> His soulful, spiritual voice and poetic lyrics have garnered comparisons to singer-songwriters Paul McCartney, Elton John and Cat Stevens.

Rabbi Larry Karol, who has served at Temple Beth-El in Las Cruces since July 2011, is reaching a wider audience online with "House of Prayer," a timely message of tolerance, love, spiritual community and the power of prayer.

"The phrase from Chapter 56 of the book of Isaiah, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.' resonated with me after the murders of the members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in June, as did the verse that opens that chapter: 'Observe what is right and do what is just,'" Karol said.

"In these times, I believe it is important that we have a vision of walking together, of seeing houses of prayer as open places where people can seek to grow personally and spiritually and to join others in doing good work in the community. That is what moved me to write the song. And that passage — and the song — became all the more meaningful and poignant in light of recent targeting of local houses of worship," Karol said, referring to the Aug. 2 explosions at Holy Cross Catholic Church and Calvary Baptist Church in Las Cruces

"Music seems to find its way into every service," said Karol, whose musical family includes his wife Rhonda, a pianist, and his son Adam, "an aspiring R&B/soul singer and songwriter," now based in New York City, who sang and played keyboard on his dad's CDs.

Karol grew up in a musical family.

"My mom and dad sang in our temple choir. In junior high, I moved from cornet to guitar because I wanted to sing. I did some of my own secular songs in the 1970s and early 80s," said Karol, who has performed at universities and in coffee houses.

He took a break from performing for nearly two decades.

"I was just starting my rabbinical career and I got busy, devoting my time to that. What triggered getting back into performing and songwriting was attending the National Jewish Songwriters workshop in 1999," he said.

Moved by world events, Biblical passages and prayer, he said he found there were "things I wanted to say in my own words. Sometimes things just come to me and sometimes I may write something down and ruminate and think about it for a year. With 'House of Prayer,' the idea was, let's try to rise above verbal conflicts and think about what people getting together could look like."

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Debbie Levy of Las Cruces looks forward to hearing Karol sing on Friday nights at Temple Beth-El.

"To me, he is totally in the zone when he sings. When I see him singing, it seems we feel most connected on a spiritual level. It's sort of like that's his strongest way to connect, when he brings the spiritual soup down to us. It's so moving to hear him. He's so in his comfort zone. It's a beautiful thing," Levy said.

"It's really given me extra avenue of expression. I can work on prepared materials, speak off the cuff and lead discussions and I think song sometimes ends up going deeper into a theme; sometimes when you put it with music, it's something completely different, bringing emotional dimensions," Karol said.

"My music is about hope, faith, community and creating understanding between various religious groups. I try to use the music as a way of expressing biblical passages; I take the traditional texts and link them to various aspects of our lives. Song allows us to express emotion through the interplay of word and the music... It's a much richer way to create a feeling of illustrating a lesson," he said in a 2006 interview with the Dover (N.H.) Community News.

He's been gratified by the response to his music.

"There are more and more rabbis with musical talent who are being ordained now. In smaller congregations, they serve as cantors, too," said Karol, a native of Kansas City, Mo., where he was a member of the junior choir at Congregation B'nai Jehudah in Kansas City,

"I learned my first guitar chords for Jewish music at Reform Judaism's Kutz Camp in Warwick, New York. in 1970," he reports on his website.

Music continued to be a part of his life as he led worship and youth group events at the University of Illinois, and during his years in rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, as a student rabbi, and at Cincinnati Jewish Folk Festivals as an organizer and performer. After his ordination in 1981, he served as assistant rabbi at Temple Israel in Dayton, Ohio, where music led to another crucial milestone in his life, when Dayton Jewish Center Summer Day Camp director Rhonda Marks asked him to share his music. They were married a year later.

In 1984, Karol became rabbi at Temple Beth Sholom in Topeka, Kan., where he also was a co-soloist and a religious school music teacher. He became rabbi of Temple Israel in Dover, N. H., in 2006. He has remained active in Jewish singing and songwriting groups.

Karol and his wife are enjoying life in New Mexico, he said.

"We like the vistas. We have a wonderful view of sunsets every night. And we enjoy being in a diverse community."

Karol has produced three albums: "Two are Better Than One," "A New Beginning" and his latest, released in December, "The Road Ahead." "One Light Above: The Larry Karol Songbook," was published in 2007.

He estimates he has "another 40 songs" in the works for a future album.

To see Rabbi Larry Karol singing "House of Prayer" visit his website, larrykarol.com or on SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/larry-karol-music/house-of-prayer or YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcX7aucwYIo.
His music and albums are available on iTunes, cdbaby.com, reverbnation.com, oysongs.com and soundcloud.com.

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