Zoe & Cloyd's roots are showing

From the rich bluegrass heritage of John Cloyd Miller's grandfather, bluegrass artist Jim Shumate, comes "We'll Meet Again Sweetheart." And Natalia Zoe Weinstein takes the lead on the Yiddish standard "Bei Mir Bistu Sheyn."

The songs will appear on their forthcoming disc, "Songs Of Our Grandfathers," coming May 19 on Organic Records. Zoe & Cloyd mix bluegrass, klezmer, folk and old time sounds.

"This classic bluegrass number was one of four sides my grandfather Jim Shumate recorded with Flatt & Scruggs for the Mercury label in 1948," Miller said. "That early lineup of the Foggy Mountain Boys — featuring Jim, Mac Wiseman, Cedric Rainwater and, of course, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs — was a force of nature and set the standard for bluegrass moving forward. We were excited to revisit the energy and tastefulness of that iconic recording."

The song features Miller's lead vocal, bassist Kevin Kehrberg's echoes of Rainwater's active bass work, banjo man Bennett Sullivan's recap of some of Scruggs' signature licks and Weinstein's recreation on the same fiddle used in 1948 of Shumate's original work.

Weinstein said, "'Bei Mir Bistu Sheyn' was originally written in 1932 by composer Sholom Secunda and lyricist Jacob Jacobs for the Yiddish theater. The title means 'To Me You Are Beautiful.' The Andrews Sisters recorded the English version in 1937, and the song became a worldwide sensation. Not surprisingly, this song was in my grandfather's repertoire as well, and I used to play it with my father on piano. For our recording, I even learned the Yiddish lyrics."