At Dragon*Con this year, during his Friday night concert, filkertom explained that his first Twenty-Four Hour Comics Day songwriting project was to solicit suggestions of two words and a musical style from his LiveJournal readers, and to write as many songs as possible.[1] One of the suggestions had been "Badger, Pajama," and Klezmer music, which Tom mentioned he'd had to look up, because he didn't know what it meant.[2] Later, during the open filk, adrianna_r mentioned that Heather Alexander, a Celtic-style musician/filker, is very popular in Israel.

When I got back, I took a step back and realized that a lot of filk seems to be derived from that area of the world: the Brobdingnagian Bards, Heather Alexander, and Emerald Rose, to name three, are all steeped in Irish or Celtic traditions. I guess this is largely because folk music, from which filk comes, is heavy in that tradition too, but it still caught me off guard. As I thought about it, the first lyric, "Why are there so many/Filks about Ireland" popped into my head, and I ran with it.

This song isn't seriously decrying a problem in filk, just taking a thought I had and running it to its logical extreme. There may be a few terms you don't know, or references you can't identify, so if you have any questions, just ask.

"The Klezmer Connection"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "The Rainbow Connection" by Kenny Ascher and Paul Williams

Why are there so many filks about Ireland
Or legends in Celtic style?
If you took the Irish filks and laid them out longways
You'd reach...well, at least a mile.
I've heard them too many times to ignore them
There's other traditions, you see
Someday we'll find it
The Klezmer Connection
The filkers
Bar Mitzvahs
And me

Who said that every song performed at a filksing
Has got to sound like "Danny Boy"?
I have always preferred a bright reedy style
I'm sure could please even a goy.
So many times I have held in a hora
With step-dancing all that I see
Someday we'll find it
The Klezmer Connection
The dances
The music
And me

All of you, listen to me
I know that there's just as much magic...

(Break into "Hava Nagila"--do as much as you think you can get away with)

You think you're the only ones who sing about drinking?
'Cause we've got "L'Chaim" and more
Some holidays have certain special commandments
To drink 'til we can't see the floor
"Whiskey" and "Vodka" both have the same meaning
The "water of life" flowing free
Someday we'll find it
The Klezmer Connection
The whiskey
The vodka
And me.

And, as a special treat (or possibly a special hell), I've recorded this one again:
http://www.stwing.org/~wmfrank/music/Klezmer.mp3

[1] My contribution, by the way, was "Space squid," and the music style was rock-and-roll.
[2] If you don't know either, call it Eastern European Jewish jazz; at least, that's how I always hear it.