“Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita, adiós mis amigos, Jesús y María.” Woody Guthrie wrote those names into “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)” in 1948 after 28 migrant workers died when their charter plane crashed in California, the news reports listing them only as “deportees.” Nearly 80 years later, The Klezmatics and Sofia Rei have reimagined the song as a trilingual statement, weaving English, Yiddish, and Spanish through klezmer, ranchera, and what the band calls Dueto Azteca style. The track appears on We Were Made For These Times, the New York ensemble’s 14th album, out 1st May via Shamus Records.
The Klezmatics formed in New York’s East Village in 1986 and won a Grammy in 2007 for Wonder Wheel – Lyrics by Woody Guthrie, the only klezmer band to take that award. Now entering their 40th year, the group has built a catalogue that pulls Yiddish song into contact with gospel, jazz, punk energy, and global rhythm work. Founding member Sklamberg grew up singing Guthrie’s children’s songs after his mother won an album in a radio contest. “I’ve known ‘Deportee’ for a long time,” he says. “I never imagined that an 80-year-old song would mean so much more in these challenging times.”
Sofia Rei, the Buenos Aires-born, New York-based vocalist, songwriter, and producer, worked with Daniel Kahn on translation. She describes the song as “an act of radical empathy” and the session work as “weaving many strands of resistance into a shared voice across cultures and borders.” Rei has performed in over 35 countries and appeared twice on NPR’s Tiny Desk. Her own album Antónima is due in spring 2026.
“We Were Made For These Times draws from protest songwriters including Guthrie, Holly Near, Dovid Edelstadt, and Chaim Zhitlovsky, addressing migration, labour, war, and collective responsibility. The album brings together gospel singer Joshua Nelson, the Lavender Light Gospel Choir, Crimean Tatar guitarist Enver İzmaylov, jazz musicians William Parker and James Brandon Lewis, Janis Siegel of The Manhattan Transfer, and Colombian percussion group La Manga. The album releases globally on 1st May, International Workers’ Day, and The Klezmatics tour North America from May through August.
Listen to “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)” featuring Sofia Rei HERE and pre-order We Were Made For These Times via THIS LINK