As Shabbos ends and we begin a week that will hopefully bring solace and healing, I decided to make a quick roundup of some of Shragee Gestetner's music, as what could be better than to give him zchusim by our getting inspired through his music.
The first thing that strikes me as I compile this list is how underrated he was. As I'm perusing his music and the memories of all the songs come back, I am realizing that he had no songs that were not beautiful. Each song to which he lent his voice, both on his own albums and on the albums of others, is magnificent. There is no need for a skip button, everything is so heartfelt, upbeat, and ne'imusdik.
His own flagship album,
Shragee, is a masterpiece. Beautiful songs, powerful vocals, and unsurpassed music. It was a TEEM production (Yossi Tyberg and Gershy Moskowitz), who, IMO, was the absolutely greatest production duo in Jewish Music. The album was marketed as "Songs composed by Yossi Green," however there were a number of excellent songs that were composed by others as well, including three stunning songs composed by Shragee himself (Malei Mishalos Libi, K'shem, and my personal favorite, Uvruchim Heim).
His second full-album appearance was on
Shades of Green IV Varmkeit, on which he was the featured singer, with backup vocals from Yossi Green. This album, too, is gorgeous from beginning to end, and the songs are some of the greatest from Yossi Green's height. Try listening to it now - despite the songs being years old, the album is more enjoyable to me than any of the new albums in the same genre.
Shragee sings two English songs on the
Amein V'amain album, "Golden Nuggets" (together with Yossi Green, lyrics by Abie Rotenberg) and "A Special Advocate." His voice gives such meaning to these heartfelt lyrics. He also get a special thanks on the CD booklet's first page, "Extra special thanks for Shragee Gestetner from Shragee's Studios for imparting his studio's professional touch and eagerly assisting with the project 24/6 with a smile!"
He sings, together with Michal Weiberger, the Lag Ba'omer medley on
Kdai Reb Shimon. The closing track on a gem-filled album.
He joined Shloime Daskal in singing Usgadlem ("Lilmod Torah, Torah") on
Mona 7. An upbeat song through which ahavas haTorah shines.
Perhaps most poignant, Shragee sings two songs on Yitzy Schwartz's
The Second Dance II. While the first song he sings is a fast paced Merakdin, the second song, Be'ezrat Hashem, is really meaningful now. "בעזרת השם, יהיה בסדר, בעזרת השם, יבוא יבוא גואל, בעזרת השם, יהיה בסדר, לתפילה, לשלום, לאחדות ישראל"
Lastly, I need to mention one brilliant composition of Shragee's that was wildly popular for a number of years, though I haven't heard it anytime recently. I doubt there are many people who know that it is his composition, but Anim Zemiros on
Shloime Daskal's 2008 album Poseach was composed by Shragee, and it was the classic wedding meal song for years. It was also rerecorded on the subsequently released
Project Relax 2.
These are some of the songs that I personally have enjoyed and been inspired by. This list is far from exhaustive. Please feel free to post the songs that touched you.