SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
When you're married but also play in the same band, there's really no getting away from each other.
ERIC LINDBERG: There's been times where we've had terrible fights...
DONI ZASLOFF: Yeah.
LINDBERG: ...Before we go on stage. And then they announce us, and we go out and we see a few hundred people and we look at each other and go, all right, OK. I love you. Let's go do this thing.
(SOUNDBITE OF NEFESH MOUNTAIN SONG, "THIS IS ME (FEAT SAM BUSH & JERRY DOUGLAS)")
SIMON: For nearly a decade, Eric Lindberg and Doni Zasloff have performed in Nefesh Mountain. But they play music that includes all kinds of sounds from bluegrass to folk to jazz. And they have just released a new album called "Beacons" that is influenced by current events, but also contains a message of hope and optimism.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THIS IS ME (FEAT SAM BUSH & JERRY DOUGLAS)")
NEFESH MOUNTAIN: (Singing) I had two feet dug in home plate and both eyes on the mound. But my head was in a Carolina dream. I didn't know that I was searching that I needed to be found, but I heard a voice calling, calling out to me.
SIMON: Eric Lindberg, how's a nice guy from Brooklyn wind up playing bluegrass?
LINDBERG: (Laughter).
SIMON: Or why not, I guess, but go ahead.
LINDBERG: Well, that question is one of my favorites, and it's why I wrote that song, "This Is Me," because I get it all the time. How did a nice Jewish boy - my grandma still calls me her Brooklyn boy. You know, how did I get into this stuff? And it found me somehow. I do have family down south in Georgia, which probably explains a good amount of it. But I've just been infatuated with this idea of the American landscape in American music, despite, of course, the pain in this country. And, you know, so much of what we know now today, it's just this country was built on so much pain, but there's so much beauty that came out of it, and I see it in the music.
SIMON: Doni Zasloff, what drew you to this - to Americana music?
ZASLOFF: I think since I was just a little girl, I've just been just on fire from all kinds of music. I've just been a person who's had it in my soul. And I think this song means so much to us, because it speaks to that music in our hearts and sort of how we ended up where we are and who we are.
SIMON: Well, let me ask you about who you are, because Nefesh Mountain - Nefesh is - means soul or life in Hebrew, doesn't it?
ZASLOFF: Yes, it does.
SIMON: And where do your faith and your music come together? How are they all wound up in each other?
LINDBERG: These days, especially, I actually think of them as being pretty separate. Whatever faith and spirituality that Doni and I have I don't feel is always represented in our music. I feel like our music is very secular and very openly trying to be who we are as American folks and bluegrass musicians - also as Jewish folks. You know, so many of my heroes that I know are Jewish. I wish they spoke openly about it. You know, we see so much hate and antisemitism just out there in the world, and we just want to be open about it and put out positive messages of unity and healing as Jewish folks.
SIMON: Oh, I have to ask you about one of your songs, "Better Angels."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BETTER ANGELS")
NEFESH MOUNTAIN: (Singing) We're only strangers who get to be friends. We'll be in pain, too. We can make amends. These stubborn stains will come out in the air. Oh, better angels, guide us all again.
SIMON: This is following the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. Why did you want to write this song?
ZASLOFF: I think, after October 7, we didn't know what to do with ourselves, really. And we really just - you know, we're not politicians, and we're not experts on the situation. We are musicians. And we kind of immediately decided, OK, we're going to just start putting out our music, because that's really the only thing that we know how to do. You know, there's just so much negative going on right now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BETTER ANGELS")
NEFESH MOUNTAIN: (Singing) She said, son and daughter, listen well. Don't you take our words to heart.
ZASLOFF: Both Eric and I have spent many times putting videos, shouting into the phone, saying things, but realizing that that's not going to help the world at all if we just start putting out more negative and more yelling and more anger. And so this song, in particular, was an attempt to try to remind ourselves that we do have better angels and that we can, even in this country, you know, to try to find a way to look into each other's eyes and just remember that we're all human beings. And even if we really disagree, like, we got to get through this.
(SOUNDITE OF SONG, "BETTER ANGELS")
NEFESH MOUNTAIN: (Singing) We can make amends. These stubborn stains will come out in the air. Oh, better angels, guide us all again.
SIMON: You're married.
ZASLOFF: Yes.
LINDBERG: Uh-huh.
ZASLOFF: (Laughter).
SIMON: So does that make it easier or sometimes more difficult to sing together?
ZASLOFF: Honey, you want to answer...
LINDBERG: Honey.
ZASLOFF: ...Honey?
LINDBERG: I think it makes it easier, on the whole. I mean, there's many challenges to...
ZASLOFF: Yeah.
LINDBERG: ...Doing this thing together. I mean, we'd be kidding ourselves if we said it was all easy.
SIMON: Doni, you want to tell him where he's wrong?
ZASLOFF: Oh, where can I - we're starting to get - no, I mean, I think...
LINDBERG: She'll tell me after, Scott.
ZASLOFF: ...I will tell him later. I'll tell him...
LINDBERG: I'll e-mail you.
ZASLOFF: ...Later. No, I mean, it is such a wild ride to be doing this. We're on tour with our baby, and sometimes I think we are nuts. But it's who we are, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
SIMON: Can I ask you about another song? - "Regrets In The Rearview."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "REGRETS IN THE REARVIEW")
NEFESH MOUNTAIN: (Singing) I will stay on this old highway. Though, I may make mistakes every mile, but I won't look behind. Keep today in front of mind and my regrets in the rearview all the while.
SIMON: Lot of hard-earned wisdom in the song?
ZASLOFF: Yeah. I feel like that chorus kind of sums up life. My life, at least. In the last year, I sort of decided that I wanted to talk about something that I had never talked about before, which is that I'm sober. And I've been sober for 20 years, and I never talked about it. And at my 20-year anniversary of sobriety, I realized that it's time to share it, because maybe someone out there is struggling. And I've had the fortune of living a whole second life and having this beautiful chapter where I got to experience my life sober. And anyway, I just - it's something that I'm starting to open up about for the first time. And that, to me, this song really, you know, speaks to that, as well.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "REGRETS IN THE REARVIEW")
NEFESH MOUNTAIN: (Singing) I will stay on this old highway. Though, I may make mistakes every mile, but I won't look behind. Keep today in front of mind and my regrets in the rearview all the while.
SIMON: Good for you. And I'm glad you're talking about it. That's what gives people hope.
ZASLOFF: Thank you (laughter).
SIMON: Eric Lindberg and Doni Zasloff of Nefesh Mountain. The new album "Beacons" out now. Thank you both very much for joining us.
LINDBERG: Thank you so much.
ZASLOFF: Thank you.
SIMON: I mean, I feel like celebrating.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Is there a song you can play us to celebrate? Any song? I know you got your instruments in there, whatever.
LINDBERG: Let's do "World On A String." We can do it. Brand new, but we'll - let's try one that I think is very poignant.
(Strumming guitar).
ZASLOFF: (Singing) Oh, how she sings. She'll make you feel like a child with a world tattoo string and hope. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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