Say good day to Mirah

Jewish Telegraph, July 2005

EVERYDAY is a good day for singer Mirah. For her full name is Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn.
Born on Rosh Hashana on the kitchen table at her parents’ home in Philadelphia, Mirah taught herself guitar after graduating from school.
She released her first album Storageland in 1997. Two years later, she changed record labels and began working with her best friend Phil Elvrum. Her albums have been You Think It’s Like This But Really It’s Like This, Advisory Committee and Songs from the Black Mountain Music Project.
Last year, her mostly covers collaboration with Seattle’s Black Cat Orchestra, titled To All We Stretch the Open Arm, was released on yoyo recordings (www.yoyoagogo.com).
Her new album, C’mon Miracle, is the first to see a full European release, courtesy of the Arrivederci Baby! label.
Mirah, who is openly gay, currently lives in Portland, Oregon, but she spends a couple of months each year helping her extended clan make maple syrup on the family farm in Pennsylvania.
Jerusalem, one of the songs on C’mon Miracle, was originally written for a Chanucah compilation but rejected as too political.
It draws on Mirah’s Jewish upbringing and Internet research to present a vision of violence and power and the need for peace.