Klezmer band The Klezmatics has released an expanded 20th anniversary edition of their Grammy Award-winning album, Wonder Wheel. Two decades after Wonder Wheel and forty years into The Klezmatics’ journey, Woody Guthrie’s words still resonate. Wonder Wheel is “still a living conversation between past and present”, where “songs from another era continually finding new meaning in the world we inhabit now.”
Of the album, Nora Guthrie (Woody’s daughter) says:
Who else but The Klezmatics could turn Woody Guthrie lyrics into such joyful, playful, soulful, passionate and yes, even danceable masterworks! I’m so proud of their dedication to the cause, revealing this surprising part of Woody’s life. ‘Wonder Wheel’ is a wonderful adventure for people of all faiths.
The new 20th Anniversary Edition expands the original 12-track album to 19 tracks, opening The Klezmatics’ archives with seven additional recordings, including previously unreleased material and alternate and live versions.
For the first time, Wonder Wheel will also be released on vinyl as an expanded 2LP gatefold edition, preserving Steve Keene’s distinctive original artwork while adding archival lyrics, imagery and material documenting the album and The Klezmatics’ twenty-year journey with these songs.
The band has multiple live dates later this year, including two nights at The Freight in Berkeley, CA around the new year. They’re also announcing a dedicated Wonder Wheel anniversary concert at Sony Hall on March 24, 2027, featuring original album collaborators Susan McKeown and Boo Reiners. Tickets and more info are available here.
The album celebrates one of the band’s defining collaborations with Woody Guthrie. Seven years in the making when it first appeared in 2006, Wonder Wheel brought previously unrecorded Guthrie lyrics into the 21st century. Rather than recreate the sound of Guthrie’s America, The Klezmatics gave his words a musical life of their own, drawing on Eastern European and klezmer traditions alongside folk, Latin, Celtic and Afro-Caribbean influences.
The anniversary arrives during another major creative chapter for The Klezmatics. In 2026, as the band celebrated its 40th anniversary, they released We Were Made for These Times, a new collection of songs of “protest, resilience and radical joy.” The album has been submitted for consideration for the 2027 GRAMMY Awards.
Tour Dates:
Nov 5 Dresden, Germany @ Societaetstheater
Nov 6 Plauen, Germany @ Malzhaus
Nov 7 Wien, Austria @ Stadtsaal
Nov 8 Bratislava, Slovakia @ Slovak Radio Concert Hall
Nov 9 Budapest, Hungary @ Müpa Budapest
Nov 11 Opava, Czechia @ kostel sv. Václava
Nov 12 Wrocław, Poland @ Stary Klasztor
Nov 14 Hlavní město Praha, Czechia @ Spanish Synagogue
Nov 15 Nogent-sur-Marne, France @ La Scène Watteau
Dec 2 Phoenix, AZ @ Musical Instrument Museum
Dec 3 San Diego, CA @ Price Center West
Dec 5 Mercer Island, WA @ Stroum Jewish Center
Dec 13 Union, NJ @ Enlow Recital Hall (with La Manga)
Dec 29 Berkeley, CA @ The Freight
Dec 30 Berkeley, CA @ The Freight
Mar 6 San Francisco, CA @ SF JAZZ Center
Mar 7 Irvine, CA @ Irvine Barclay Theatre
Mar 24 New York, NY @ Sony Hall (with Susan McKeown)
