Thursday, June 18, 2009

Having 2 Shwekeys? Can there be only one?

As you may have heard Yaakov Shwekey's younger brother, Yosef Chaim has his debut album out and it's generating a lot of buzz. Now comes the question is can they both be big stars or when stars collide...well never mind. I found it interesting that they are both in different corners. Yaakov Shwekey is represented by Yochi Briskman and his album is distributed by Aderet. Yosef Chaim Shwekey is produced by (according to wikpedia but who knows) Moshe Laufer and is disributed by Sameach Music. I heard something a while back about an agreement that Yosef Chaim would not use the famous last name "Shwekey"on his record so people don't mix up the two borthers or something along those lines. Whether true or not, his last name is not on the album so that too is interesting. It wouldn't be a far stretch to imagine that he certainly wants to make a name for his own. There is no question after listening to Yosef Chaim's his sampler he does sound somewhat similiar to his older brother. It should be interesting to see how people will view him i.e. oh we can't afford Yaakov, let's get his brother? Certainly at least in the beginning he will be living in Yaakov's shadow to some degree or another. Yosef Chaim has already built his reputation by singing at Jewish weddings as the video below shows.The sampler does get your apettite wet and it sounds like there is some big potential there. I hope to review the album in more detail down the road.

Here is Yosef Chaim Shwekey performing live at a wedding in Crown Heights:


4 comments:

Ezzie said...

Another brother in Cleveland davens for the amud and is amazing.

AS said...

Are you speaking of Meir? He was in the miami boys choir with Yaakov for just a short stint.

Anonymous said...

i think you hit the nail on the head, this is probably why shwekey/yochi didnt want him to use the last name.

Why should people spend tons of money on yaacov when they can have ysoef chaim for considerably less ...

Anonymous said...

Jewish Blogmeister,

I think he was talking about Moshe Dovid, who also happens to have composed about half of Yosef Chaim's album.