Craig Wedren's New Hanukkah Song Out This Friday

Acclaimed songwriter, singer, film & television composer and Shudder To Think frontman Craig Wedren is set to close out 2019 performing live in Los Angeles & New York City; sharing a new song on Randall Poster's Hanukkah+ album, out this Friday via Verve Forecast; and announcing a new podcast titled Sabbath Sessions, set to launch in early 2020.

Wedren will perform this Thursday, November 21 in Los Angeles supporting Joe Wong & Nite Creatures at Hollywood Forever's Masonic Lodge and then head to New York City and support that dog. at Brooklyn's Warsaw on Saturday, November 23. Craig and that dog. frontwoman Anna Waronker also composed the music for the acclaimed first season of Hulu's Shrill earlier this year and will return for the second season, due in early 2020. Wedren's composing work can also currently be heard on HBO's Mrs. Fletcher.

On Friday, Verve Forecast will release Hanukkah+, a complication of new originals and standards of the Jewish holiday produced by Grammy-winning music supervisor Randall Poster and featuring tracks from Yo La Tengo, Jack Black, HAIM and more. Craig contributed a track that he wrote especially for the album, "Sanctuary," noting:

I used to spend Chanukah at my grandparents' house in Cleveland. I picture it from the outside, as if I was standing across the street staring in through the windows, which are golden, lit from within.

There's a giant, handmade electric menorah (courtesy of Grandma Eudie, a legendary first grade teacher) beyond which I see my family silhouetted, moving, eating, heads thrown back with laughter and midwestern shrieking.

Growing up, this was my sanctuary. It was the house where my first bands practiced and where I could take a deep, peaceful bath.

There was unconditional support (though not without questions and healthy criticism) there which scaffolded me and provided strength to get through a whole lot of other crap, then and for the rest of my life.

That's a lot of fuel. A lot of oil.

For this compilation, I wanted to do something more serious than the usual fun/funny songs which comprise the general Hanukkah canon. That led me back to Chesterton Rd., back to the original sanctuary.

Throughout his illustrious career, Craig Wedren has made a name for himself in the world of film & television beginning with soundtrack work for the late-'90s films High Art and First Love, Last Rites which he worked on with his bandmates in Shudder to Think. His recent projects also include scoring the New Amsterdam (NBC) and GLOW (Netflix). His resume of composing and scoring for film and television projects includes the Wet Hot American Summer movie and television series, Role Models, The School of Rock, Laurel Canyon, Reno 911!, The State and much more.

2019 has been another prolific one for Wedren. He released Adult Desire Expanded, toured with his longtime friends in The Messthetics featuring his former Dischord labelmates in Fugazi, and released My '90s--a limited edition hard-bound book featuring photos he took on his Polaroid Spectra in the 1990s and early 2000's. The photos documented his late nights and early mornings on the road with Shudder to Think and time with friends including Fugazi, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, members of The State and more. Read more on My '90s and see photos via Vanity Fair HERE. Not one to slow down, Wedren is planning on releasing his Sabbath Sessions podcast in early 2020. Watch this space for details on that and more exciting news from Craig.

Photo Credit: Meggan Lennon

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