Picture Yourself In A Boat On A River

George Harrison had been curious about Indian Spirituality since he first saw a sitar on the set of The Beatles film, Help! in 1965. During a dinner party at their dentist’s house, George and John Lennon discovered their coffee had been dosed with LSD. Harrison explained, “In the back of my consciousness. It was like somebody was whispering to me ‘Yogis of the Himalayas.”

Ravi Shankar and George Harrison practicing sitar on the banks of Dal Lake in Sringara, Kashmir .

A year later a friend introduced  Harrison to Indian music virtuoso, Ravi Shankar. They lived together on a houseboat in Kashmir so the moptop could immerse himself in the instrument and the philosophies that surround it. He read Rajas Yoga by Swami Vivekananda and Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda,  practiced Hatha Yoga and pranayama (yogic breathing).

Krsna Consciousness Comes West

Shyamasundar das was born Sam Speerstra in Oregon, USA. The son of a farmer, this Fullbright Scholar lived in Switzerland for a year. He recalls, “I went there to ski basically. But meeting all of the young people at this school, I suddenly realized Wow, there’s a lot of us out there looking for the truth. And Rock Scully was one of those. He was a rare soul.”

Rock Scully (L) and Sam Speerstra (R) roommates at a ski college in Switzerland 1960s

The duo moved to San Francisco, where Sam became an enterprising drug dealer. He imported hashish from Tangiers, gave Owsley’s “Purple Haze” to a then unknown guitarist named Jimi Hendrix, and hung with Grace Slick during the “White Rabbit” era. But he and his friends were seeking “the real thing” – a teacher, a guide, a guru. They found him in AC Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupad.

Beat Poet Allen Ginsburg Accompanies “The Swami” to San Francisco – SFO January 17, 1967. Sam third from left.

Beware Of Darkness

Harrison and then-wife Pattie Boyd were visiting her sister in America. George later recounted, “I was really afraid because I could see all of these spotty youths and they were still under the current of Beatlemania, from a kind of twisted angle..and trying to give me drugs, I’d say ‘no thanks I don’t want’, we were walking quicker and quicker.”

George Harrison and Pattie Boyd in Golden Gate Park

The ominous crowd aggressively followed the couple through the park and into a getaway car.  George continued, “Got on the jet, and as it took off the plane went into a [engine] stall [and started to plummet]. And the whole dashboard lit up saying ‘UNSAFE’ right across.…so at that point I stopped taking it actually, the dreaded lysergic, that’s where I really went for the meditation.”

Mantra-Rock-Dance 

Sam and a childhood friend scraped together a few hundred bucks to rent a storefront turned temple space in the heart of The Haight at 518 Frederick Street. Rock was living at 710 Ashbury Street with a new band he was managing, The Grateful Dead. They requested “The Dead” perform a benefit concert to raise money for The Swami to come to San Francisco. Guitarist Jerry Garcia agreed, “Sure why not? Sounds groovy man.” Hundreds attended the revolutionary Mantra-Rock-Dance event. AC Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabupad addressed the crowd,

“This chant comes from India. It will lead us to the spiritual world…
The mantra is not only for Indians. Hare Krishna chanting is for all people…
The words of this chanting are ‘Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”

Mantra-Rock-Dance Poster Avalon Ballroom 1967

The next morning the temple program was packed and the West Coast movement had begun.

Shyamasundar das reflects, “No, we didn’t think that it would be historical. The dance and all that achieved so much fame later, but at the time this whole scene was starting up, the groundswell was happening, and we all just kind of jumped into it together.”

Within You, Without You

Some of the Beatles, wives, and friends attended a Transcendental Meditation (TM) program with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at a Hilton Hotel in Wales. The “fifth Beatle” business mastermind, Brian Epstein stayed behind. The newspaper headlines read, “EPSTEIN (the Beatle-Making Prince of Pop) DIES AT 32.”  While committing to their inward lives, the person responsible for their outward identities left this world. (I read the news today, oh boy…).

The Beatles, their wives, Mike Love of the Beach Boys, Donovan, Mia and Prudence Farrow with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Reeling from this seismic shift, the group famously traveled to  Rishikesh for an extended two-month TM retreat. The Maharishi advised them, “You are a powerful force, If you hold on to Brian it will stop his soul from going to its next evolution. You know you have to grieve for him and love him. Now you send him on his way.” These experiences became Beatles’ songs including, “Across the Universe,” “Sexy Sadie,” “Dear Prudence” and much of the White Album.

Every Town + Village

Sam and his girlfriend Melanie were married, initiated by the Swami, and given the spiritual names Shyamasundar das and Malati devi dasi. These 20-somethings gave up drugs (and drug running), alcohol, caffeine, cigarettes, meat and “free love.” They immersed themselves in the ardent study of ancient wisdom and action; received personal instruction on holy texts like the Bhagavadad Gita, devotional call and response singing known as “kirtan,” the art of cooking blessed food called “prasadam,” the act of selfless service referred to as “seva” and much more.

Prabuphpad, Shyamasundar das and Friends, early days

“Well, we had seen a lot of people who had presented themselves as big gurus, but they weren’t that convincing to us yet,” Shyamasundar das explained. “But seeing, Prabhupad, we knew immediately that this was a bonafide, genuine article. He was a transcendental personality. He exceeded everything we could imagine. It was a magic time, a magic experience.”

Shyamasundar das became Prabhupad’s personal secretary working intimately with the Swami on correspondence, transcriptions, recordings, outreach, special projects, and even carving the first Jagannath (sacred statue) in the West.

The first Ratha Yatra Festival in America. Shyamasundar das behind the wheel.

Together with childhood friends recently renamed Mukunda das, Janaki devi dasi, Gurudas, Yamuna devi dasi, this group became religious and cultural pioneers ushering in a new era of spirituality. They sufficiently spread the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra into music, movies, stage plays and nervous newspaper men in America.

Then they packed it up to do it all over again.

Chant + Be Happy

The outer pressure of Beatles-life was becoming unbearable. So the lads considered buying a private island where they could breathe. En route to their real estate trip, George picked up “The Happening” — a 33 1/3 album of Swami Prabhupad chanting The Hare Krsna Maha Mantra. He later said, “We sang it for days, John and I, with ukulele banjos, sailing through the Greek Islands chanting Hare Krishna.”

Beatles In Greece

George continued, “Like six hours we sang, because we couldn’t stop once we got going. As soon as we stopped, it was like the lights went out. It went on to the point where our jaws were aching, singing the mantra over and over and over and over and over. We felt exalted; it was a very happy time for us.”

If I Needed Someone

In September of ’68 Shyamasundar das convinced the crew to move from their tight community of sunny San Francisco to a big, drafty warehouse in London. These OG devotees were on a mission to spread the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra, but it wasn’t coming together as quickly as it did in California. And now he had a family to support too. Shyamasundar das and Malati’s daughter was the first child born into the Hare Krishna movement, Baby Saraswati. On a December afternoon the phone rang. It was Rock Scully, who was in town and headed to a Christmas Party at Apple Corp.

Malati, Baby Saraswati, Swami Prabhupad, devotees and Shyamasundar das ( R) waiting in an airport.

I’ve Been Waiting To Meet You

Shyamasundar das had butterflies in his stomach as he made his way through the mob outside 3 Saville Row. A broad-shouldered bobby in a black suit yelled, “Stop!” He tried to explain, he was invited, that his friends were inside, but the unconvinced guard asserted, “Run along now laddy.” Their exchange was interrupted by the sound of teenage girls screaming, and a white Rolls Royce pulling up.  It’s then that Yoko Ono saw Shyamasundar das in the crowd and said, “You must be one of George’s friends come in.”

The room was filled with the so-called beautiful and important people, all anxiously awaiting an appearance by The Beatles. The fab four were having a heated meeting with new management behind a set of closed doors. Shyamsundar das took a seat in a far-off corner, away from the unruly energy of the Hells Angels, who had just dismembered and devoured a turkey before it could get to the buffet table. One by one John, Paul, and Ringo poked their heads out and rushed to the exit.

Beatles

“George, he peered out there, he started to leave, but he saw me and he just SHOT through all of these people. He sat down right beside me and said, ‘‘Hare Krishna! Where have you been? I’ve been waiting to meet you.” Shyamsundar das grins, “And it was like seeing my brother that I hadn’t seen in a long time.”

They talked of the sitar, Ravi Shankar,  Vivekananda, psychedelics, the plane plummeting, The Happening Record, The San Francisco Temple, The Mantra-Rock-Dance concert but mostly they spoke of Swami Prabhupad, Krishna, and the search for God, Santana Dharma. Jealous and confused party-goers gawked over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. As the discourse continued George said, “Shayam-sunda, you know, I feel like I’ve always known you somehow, maybe from a life before, like maybe we were brothers or something.” He scribbled his address on a napkin and left.

Whisper Words of Wisdom

Tensions were mounting at Twickenham Studios. With documentary cameras rolling, The Beatles were battling their way through ten plus takes of George’s Song “I-Me-Mine” based on the Gita passage 2:71;

“They are forever free who renounce all selfish desires
and break away from the ego-cage of
‘I,’ ‘me,’ ‘mine’.”

Harrison’s bandmates seemed unable to really hear him, so he asked Shyamsundar das to explain. “All right, what’s it all about then?” John Lennon asked. Among other things, Shyamasundar das said, “So now all of you, you four guys, you’ve taken these very highly elevated births through so many previous austerities and pious acts. Krishna says, ‘Yad yad acarati sresthas tad tad evetaro janah’‘ Whatever action a great man performs, common men will follow.’  So now each of you has this golden chance to find the perfection of life and then lead everyone else up the path to self-realization.”

John Lennon, Shyamasundar das and Paul McCartney at the Let It Be Sesssions at Twickenham Studios

He continued, “Krishna consciousness doesn’t say, ‘Give up your life, your occupation.’ No. You can be a doctor, a mother, a bum, a Beatle—but be a doctor for Krishna, be a rock star for Krishna, dedicate everything to Krishna.”

After this exchange, George wrote, “Hear Me Lord.”

“Forgive me Lord, please / Those years when I ignored you
Forgive them Lord / Those that feel they can’t afford you.
Help me Lord, please / To rise above this dealing
Help me Lord, please / To love you with more feeling.”

Four days later he left The Beatles.

Here Comes The Sun

In late February of that long, cold, lonely winter, the Krishna crew piled into Shyamsundar das’s rusted out pick-up truck and drove to George and Pattie’s house. Malati placed hand-made flower garlands over their hosts’ necks, and cooked Prasadam in the kitchen. Mukunda noticed a harmonium in the corner. George asked, “Shall, we have a kirtan then?”

George and Pattie sharing Kirtan and offering Prasadam

As the instruments were being shuffled around, Harrison started to pluck out a few chords on the guitar and said shyly, “This is a little song I’ve been working on do you want to hear it?” Then sang,  “Something in the way she moves, attracts me like no other lover, something in the way she shows me, I don’t want to leave her now, you know I believe and how…” Shyamsundar das, remembers “We were awestruck, of course, trans­ported beyond space and time We didn’t know if we should look at him or close our eyes.  When it was over, he said, ‘Do you think it’ll sell?” We all laughed, Then George said, “It’s about Krishna, but I can’t say that, can I?”

So moved by this song, the group began a soft and slow version of “Hare Krishna” with Yamuna leading on vocals. Over the following hours it revved up into a fully ecstatic devotional expression, with booming mridanga drums, kartals clanking, and baby Saraswati bopping along in their laps all the while. After the final blissful chords George shouted out, “That’s it! We’ve got to make a record! The Radha Krishna Temple—I can see it now, the first Sanskrit song in the Top Ten!” That evening a smile returned to George’s face, it had been years since he felt this way.

John Lennon, Shyamadundar das, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, George Harrison and Pattie Boyd talking Santana Dharma

As the guests were leaving Janaki turned around, saying “I forgot to give you this” and handed George an embroidered bead bag, with a japa-mala inside. She thought it may help him keep his mind (and heart) on God.

A few months later, Harrison called Shyamsundar das from a villa in Sardinia, and sang some lyrics,

“Little darling / It’s been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darling / It feels like years since it’s been here
Little darling / The smiles returning to their faces
Little darling / Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun /And I say, it’s all right .”

Shyamasundar das remembers, “I was speechless. I loved it. He asked if I thought people would like it. Then he said, ‘You know it’s about Krishna coming into my life but I’ve got to disguise it a bit.”

Prayer To The Spiritual Masters

John, Paul, George, and Ringo decided they could work it out, and finish what they had started. Harrison called Shyamasundar das saying, “I’m over here at Abbey Road studios. We’re making our Beatles album here, but John’s got into a car crash and he’s going to be late, so we’ve got a few hours free in the studio can you all come over right away? Let’s make a record together. Hare Krishna!”

Paul McCartney was perched in control booth. Mukunda sat at the piano. Yamuna, Gurudas, Janaki and friends got situated behind mics, adjusted their instruments and attempted to sync into rhythm.

Shyamasundar das retells, “George, fresh from his holiday in Sardinia, shifted from harmonium to guitar and back, then settled behind his psychedelic sit-down harmonium…there were only eight tracks in those days, so we had to get it right early on…one take, two takes… into the third take we know this is the one. The maha-mantra leapt off our instruments and tongues and grew and gained momentum and weight and spiritual depth as it whirled in a three-minute, thirty-second package to the end: Bongggg! as Malati hit the gong.”

As abruptly as they came, George and Paul rushed off to work on their Beatles album, and the devotees went back home, wondering if anything would come of it.

Hare Krishna Mantra Single

Apple released the Radha-Krishna Temple’s “Maha Mantra” as a single. It sold 70,000 copies in one day, and though it didn’t hit the Top Ten, it played before Dylan took the stage at the Isle of Wight Festival and during half-time of a Manchester United football (soccer) match. The rowdy stadium crowds were able to sound out the syllables, “Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Rama, Rama Rama…”

The following year the “Radha-Krishna Temple” returned to the studio to make a full-length album. The infamous George Martin co-produced, while some of Harrison’s best friends added their talents, including Cream guitarist, Eric Clapton bassist Klaus Voorman, and Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. Wanting to emulate that Sergeant Pepper’s / Hey Jude full-string sound, Martin booked the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

George Harrison, Shyamasundar Das, Malati, Baby Saraswati and the Radha Krishna Temple in the studio

The album offered obeisances to AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, the 16th century saint Sri Krsna Chaitanya Maha Prabhu, the Hindu God Krishna, his beloved consort Radha, and their many pastimes from texts like the Bhagavad Gita, The Brahma Samhita, the Srimad Bhagavatam and more.

Decades later George said joyfully, “It was to be of service…but it was the greatest fun of all, really, to see Krishnas on Top of the Pops.”

Instant Karma

John was recording the“Instant Karma”  when super-producer Phil Spector said to Harrison, “You should consider doing your own record.” Spector later recounted, “I went to George’s Friar park which he had just purchased, he said ‘I have a few ditties for you to hear.’ It was endless! He had literally hundreds of songs and each one better than the rest! He had all of this emotion built up… I don’t think he had played them to anybody…”

Phil Spector and George Harrison “All Things Must Pass” Sessions

They were songs like, “All Things Must Pass” a deep track about the Tao, inspired by Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, overlooked for both the Abbey Road and Let It Be Records. “Wah Wah” a dissonant track mimicking  inner-Beatle conflict written the night George left the band, “What is life?” pondering the make-up / break up state of the Beatles and a post-Beatle era.“Isn’t it a pity” a ballad reflective of  the pending dissolution of his marriage and complications of a close friendship, “Beware of Darkness” a cautionary tale about letting yourself be pulled into the mundane parts of life, “Hear Me Lord” a longing for Krishna, and “Awaiting On You All” – an upbeat anthem about japa, long-rumored to be inspired in-part by the bead-bag Janaki gave him.

“By chanting the names of the Lord and you’ll be free
Yes, the Lord is awaiting on you all to awaken and see”

Spector and Harrison co-produced, enlisting friends and musical family in the collaborative (if perfectionistic) six-month odyssey. And though the EMI/Apple production team took meticulous session notes, it was near impossible to clarify who exactly played on the multiple takes and tracks – many were not credited. Derek and the Dominos guitarist Bobby Whitlock has said, “[George} included everyone on everything, he did because there was enough for all.”

All Things Must Pass Masters

The musicians included; Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton; Allen White and Dave Mason of Yes, keyboard/organ players Billy Preston, Gary Brooker and Gary Wright, members of the band Bad Finger, a pre-genesis Phil Collins, Bob Dylan co-wrote a song, and George covered on of his. Alan White wrote the orchestral arrangements, John Lennon and Bee Gee, Barry Gibbs are said to have played on two tracks. In the liner notes, Beatles roadie Mal Evans was credited with “tea and sympathy,” while the heart of Apple Records Chris O’Dell was known for providing the same.

It seemed to be a masterpiece in the making, but they couldn’t agree on a single.

My Sweet Lord

Amidst all the upheaval and artistic expression, George purchased Friar Park, a 100 + room 18th Century Castle, left to the Catholic Church in desperate disrepair. With 35+ acres of  lawns, gardens and underground grottos to care for he asked Shyamsundar das and the crew to move in with him. Three couples (with four young children between them) took residence in one of the wings of the estate. They engaged in construction, renovation, and landscaping projects, built a Krishna Temple on the ground floor, cooked prasadam, chanted kirtan, and kept a devotional mood.

Friar Park Vintage Postcard

Because it was the largest and warmest room of the massive mansion, the 1,000+ ft Victorian kitchen became the hub of the home, “Everyone more or less lived in the kitchen.” Shyamasundar remarks,” it had beautiful wood work covered with brown or green paint. So the idea was to scrape it off and paint it white.” What started off as an ordinary morning, would effect the material and spiritual worlds for years to come.

Shyasundar das remembers,

“It was foggy, and kind of dismal, but the sun was coming out.
I got up early, had some porridge, and I was up on the ladder,
scraping paint when the guys came in,
they were all pumped up from something
they had been playing in the studio all night.

Billy [Preston] went over to the electric organ and started playing
gospel riffs [he sings] ddaaaa daaaa daaaa daaa daaa daaaaa.

Klaus [Voorman] plugged in his bass, George grabbed his guitar.

They all start singing
‘Myyyy Sssswweeettt Looooorrrddd,
Mmmmyyy Ssswweettt Looorrrddd’.
When they were doing the ‘Hallejulah’
I yelled out, ‘Haaarreee Krrriisshhnaaa,
Haaarreeee Krrrriissshnnaaa.”’
They all turned to look up.
Pretty soon we’re all dancing around and singing on the top of our lungs.

‘This one is gonna be on the album’ George says.”

George Harrison All Things Must Pass Photoshoot Outtake

It soon became a favorite around the studio, and with Spector, who knew it should be the single,  but the corporate music machine and Harrison himself had concerns.  Phil later said,

“I picked ‘My Sweet Lord’ of all of the songs,
because I told him that’s the hit, and everybody fought me on that
‘cause they said it had religious overtones in it, and I just said,
‘It didn’t matter — it’s the most, commercial, song.

George was even nervous about it,
because the Hare Krishna in it,
and was the public ready for it?
I said it didn’t matter it’s a hit record.”

My Sweet Lord Lyrics handwritten by George Harrison

Years later Harrison remarked,

“I thought a lot about whether to do ‘My Sweet Lord or not.
Having written it, I thought it’s really committing myself to something.
There’s gonna be a lot of people who are gonna really hate me,
because people fear the unknown, ya see.
It’s sort of an instinct in people.

The point was, I was sticking my neck out on the chopping block.
But at the same time I thought,
‘Well nobody is saying it.
I wish somebody else was doing it,
ya know cause everything should be represented in a way.
Because if everybody’s just going [mimicks pop music] be bop baby, then yea ok…”

By Chanting The Names Of The Lord, You’ll Be Free

My Sweet Lord became, the #1 single worldwide. It sold 5 million copies initially, and another 10 million copies in subsequent years. It was awarded song of the year, single of the year,
and world’s single of the year by inner-industry publications.

All Things Must Pass Album Cover

All Things Must Pass was the #1 album on the UK charts for 8 weeks. It topped the Billboard chart for 7 weeks, sold more than 7 million copies and aas certified platinum 7 times over.

That’s The Way God Planned It

In an analogue era, Shyamsundar das hadn’t heard the good news about the song, or the record. He had been traveling the world with Prabuhuapd and found himself in New York City in the Summer of ’71. He learned George was nearby at the Plaza Hotel.

“Shayamsundar! Hare Krishna! Hey, what a great surprise. It’s really good to see you!” George remarked, before sharing about his charity initiative, The Concert for Bangladesh. George had wanted to have a kirtan as part of the show but no one else thinks it’s a good idea. “That’s Alright, George” Shyamasundar das said, “You’ll be singing My Sweet Lord and that’s got the mantra. What you’re doing is the highest form of service to Krishna: spreading His name to millions of people. Krishna will help you, you’ll see. The concert will be perfect.”

Phil Spector co-produced with an all-star line up: Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Ringo on drums. Klaus Voorman, Jim Keltner, Billy Preston, Soul singer and piano player Leon Russell, part of Joe Cocker’s back-up singers including, “Miss Brown Sugar”, Claudia Lennear.

The concert began with Ravi Shankar, the esteemed Ali Akbar Khan and Alla Rahka playing classical Indian music. Then George  pointed down at Shyamasundar das  in the front row, and said quietly, “Hare Krishna.”

The Concert For Bangladesh

The band broke into an electrified version of Wah-Wah. They sang “Beware of Darkness,” “Awaiting On You All” and a ten minute version of “My Sweet Lord.”

Shyamasundar das stared was in awe as everyone in the audience knew, and sang along to every word…

My Sweet Lord / Oh My Lord
My, my Lord (Hallelujah)
Mm, mm, my Lord (Hare Krishna)
My, my, my Lord (Hare Krishna)
Oh, oh my sweet Lord (Krishna Krishna)
Ooh, ooh, ooh (Hare Hare)
Now, I really want to see you (Hare Rama)
Really want to be with you (Hare Rama)
Really want to see you, Lord (Ah, ah)
But it takes so long, my Lord (Ah, ah, hallelujah)
Mm, my Lord (Hallelujah)
My, my, my Lord (Hare Krishna)
My sweet Lord (Hare Krishna)
My sweet Lord (Krishna Krishna)
My lord (Hare Hare)
Mm, mm (Gurur Brahma)
Mm, mm (Gurur Vishnu)
Mm, mm (Gurur Devo)
Mm, mm (Maheshwarah)
My sweet Lord (Guru Sakshata)
My sweet Lord (Parabrahma)
My, my, my Lord (Tasmayi Shree)
My, my, my, my Lord (Guruve namah)

He recalls, “My heart swelled with bliss at Prabhupada’s achievement, as George, Dylan, Ringo and Eric led 40,000 people singing ‘My Sweet Lord, Oh My Lord, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna…’–from that tiny moment in George’s kitchen when the song was born, to Krishna’s Name rattling the rafters at Madison Square Garden!”

Claudia Lennear later emoted, “That show was just something that was cosmic. If you were there to experience it will be something you will take to the grave.”

Inner Light

In the following 40 years George Harrison toured, remarried, had a son, recorded albums with friends, produced movies, went on pilgrimages to India, gardened in Friar Park and chanted to Krishna all the while.

‘My Sweet Lord’ remains in heavy rotation in radio,  has 587 million Spotify streams to date and is consistently ranked as one of the greatest songs of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine and other noteworthy lists.

“Something” became known as one of the greatest love songs of all times.

“Here Comes The Sun” remains the #1 streamed Beatle Song even today.

“Beware of Darkness” was re-popularized during the global pandemic after appearing in the TV Show Ted Lasso.

“All Things Must Pass” is considered  the most successful solo album of any former Beatle, consistently ranked in “Greatest Album of All Times” lists.  It is often credited as the first ‘Triple Album” by a single artist.  It was nominated for album of the year, and later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The 30th anniversary re-issue  received six-platinum certifications.

The Concert for Bangladesh would become known as a pioneering event and the first mega-concert for charity raising an initial $243,000. The album sold over 5 million copies globally, and charted internationally. It won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1973.

“Hari’s Son’s” as George is sometimes called, left this world in 2012.  Shyamasundar das reflects,

“There’s no doubt in my mind, looking back, that George and the other Beatles,
but especially George, were highly-developed yogis in their past lives,
born into this incredible opportunity to finish the job and get out of this material plane…

I still have dinner with Ringo and Barbara from time to time,
when I’m in LA—and Paul sometimes pops by the London Krishna temple
from his office just around the corner in Soho Square.

George. George and I were together right to the end of his life
—and we still visit in my dreams,
and sometimes,
I swear,
I hear him whispering,
“Hare Krishna, Shyamasundar…”

George Harrison and Shyamasundar das

Chasing Rhinos With Swami

To hear more of this first hand account of Shyamsundar das’ autobiographical trilogy, Chasing Rhinos with Swami is available on his website  ChasingRhinos.com and on Amazon here.

Follow Shyamasundar das on IG here.

Learn more about the first London Krisha Temple here.

Listen To My Sweet Lord here.

Photos Credits + Thanks

Photos are courtesy of Shyamasundar das, The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) and public domain. For sources, citations and permissions, please reach out to AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #HareKrsna

Amy V Dewhurst

To Check Out Amy’s Work Go To; Sense + Color, You Can Reach Her At IG:  Amy_V_Dewhurst  + AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #PutYourGoodWhereItWillDoTheMost

www.senseandcolor.co

The post My Sweet Lord: George Harrison and Shyamasundar das appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Venice West  has been hosting Local’s Night for LA performers for some time.  Last month, I watched Asa Anderson play a set to a packed house and I was blown away by his song “Help Me Breathe.”  This song is an hypnotic meditation on returning to source, on surrendering.

The lyrical phrasing has a lived-in warmth and elegance with tactile details.   What stood out most is the emotional through-line of breath as both literal and metaphorical anchor.  I loved the vulnerability of the line “So lover please be like a tree and help me breathe.”

Stylistically the track made me feel as if I was snorkeling through a crystal clear ocean.  Etherial and calming, its strength is its subtlety: the way desire is suggested rather than declared, the way growth is framed as something slow and organic, like roots finding their way through soil.

“Help me Breathe” becomes a refrain that doubles as a plea for calm, connection, and presence in a world that is constantly accelerating.  In a musical landscape often obsessed with urgency and immediacy, “Help Me Breathe”  dares to linger, and left a deep impression on me. This is a song that doesn’t just ask to be heard; it asks to be felt, one rhyme and inspiring respiration at a time.

Listen to “Help Me Breathe” and learn more about Asa Anderson.

Ira Israel

Ira Israel is a psychotherapist, author, and yogi.

iraisrael.com

The post Musician Asa Anderson’s Song “Help Me Breathe” Shares a Call to Connection appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Chanting brings me into the space of love within, which to me is my guru.
-Neem Karoli Baba

Mantra Artists Deva Premal and Miten Gather Community and Share Devotion

“In the space of no-mind, truth descends like light.” – Osho

A flock of seekers gathers in front of the Wilshire Ebell Theatre as the sun sets on Miracle Mile in Los Angeles. It’s a reunion of smiles. Silver-topped yogis arrived early to reconnect to people they hadn’t seen since before Covid. Old friends, teachers, and students, among them community icons including Shiva Rea and Donna De Lory, are here.

Younger devotees rolled in as the lights fell. The members of the ongoing worldwide sangha who had been chanting and connecting digitally came to share voices in real time with other humans.

Deva Premal and Miten (DPM) touched down in L.A. to bring the light and seal the North American leg of their 2025 tour before heading to north to Canada and then on to Europe. The perpetually transcontinental travelers returned in time to establish some peace, where the ashes from recent wildfires have settled into a cloud of fear and anger that has spilled into the streets.

Always welcomed, anticipated, and appreciated, DMP are part of a tribal order, a sort of Western mantra singer dynasty who opened the portal and carried the light to so many over the decades; Jai Uttal, Krishna Das, and Snatam Kaur are their contemporaries.

Deva Premal and Miten are here to transform song into meditation. “When voices are raised in harmony magic happens. The power of mantra is a door that leads us into a space of inner peace and meditation.”

“Any opportunity to be in person with mantra artists is a transformative, spiritual, rejuvenating experience,” LA Yoga Magazine Editorial Director Felicia Tomasko says; the flow of musicians touring and connecting with people in person was interrupted during the pandemic. “It feels like we’re still in the midst of a transition into a new future.” To set things off in a positive direction, they gifted 150 tickets to people who were negatively affected by the LA fires.

Deva Premal and Miten’s stated purpose is, “To create gatherings where fellow travelers can congregate and bathe in the scared and powerful energy contained within a mantra practice. Our vision is firmly based on the foundation and joy of meditation.”

This is the mantra artists’ first return to the US since 2019. They played Canada and Mexico in 2023, but not the U.S. Manager Hannah Green (Prabhu Music) says the audiences have been more welcoming than ever. “It really has been a phenomenal tour – reconnecting with friends. We stopped touring in March, 2020, due to travel restrictions and resumed European touring as soon as we could, which was in September 2022. During that window, (from March 2020 – September 2022), they continued to host in person groups in Costa Rica.”

Chant and Be Happy
-Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

L.A. YUGA

“Los Angeles continues to be a spiritual hub for the modern era and seekers who have been following Deva for decades will always come together in song and mantra vibrations that will reverberate long after the show,” Tomasko imparts.

In L.A., this part of Turtle Island some call Mexico, all devotional paths meet. Yogananda, Vivekananda, Prabhupada, Osho, Yogi Bhajan and Thích Nhat Hanh are all part of the sacred landscape. In this post-Covid, post-George Floyd city, humble by nature, still roiling, the gathering at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre feels like cosmic triage.

Disciplic succession is the path, Mantra is the teacher, DPM are stealthy sanyasis, creatures of the duty-free realms, micro-napping in business-class lounges at international airports, practicing pranayama in recycled air while seemingly effortlessly navigating this Kali Yuga.

Chanting is half the battle
-Paramahansa Yogananda

ABOUT MANTRA

Deva and Miten are also teachers and they have refined their skills over the years. It goes with the territory and is part of a larger energetic exchange.

From their website —
Thousands of years ago the Rishis of ancient India began receiving what can only be described as healings sounds during their meditations. So began a scientific investigation into sound and its effect on the mind and body. Sacred Sanskrit is the sound equivalent of the manifestation itself.

We use language to define our world. In almost every language, words describe our experience. What makes Sanskrit so unique, so universal, and so transformational, is that it is based on the energy of sound rather than its descriptive qualities.

A mantra that is central for Deva Premal and Miten is the Gayatri, a Sanskrit mantra that Deva’s father famously chanted to her in the womb.

GAYATRI MANTRA

Am Om bhur bhuvaha svaha Tat savitur varenyam Bhargo devasya dhimahi Dhiyo yonah prachodayat

Praise to the source of all things. It is due to you that we attain true happiness on the planes of Earth, astral, causal. It is due to your transcendent nature that you are worthy of being worshipped and adored. Ignite us with your all-pervading light.

With intentional catholicity, they offer the Mangala Charan Mantra Aad Guray Nameh calling upon the universal energy to surround us with a field of white protective light and transform the theatre into a church of all religions.

AAD GURAY NAMEH

(Dakshina) Aad guray nameh Jugaad guray nameh Sat guray nameh A Siri guru de——vay nameh.

I bow to the Primal Guru, I bow to the Guru woven through time I bow to the True Guru, the identity of the self. I bow to the Great Guru whose great glory will always be. Guru: that which brings us from darkness (GU) to light (RU). (Snatam Kaur Khalsa)

MANTRA AND SONG AS CEREMONY

The evening at the Wilshire Ebell is a ceremony, the mantras are offerings, the theatre a shrine and the audience a circle where everyone joins in the chants. Each Sanskrit mantra projected on a screen behind them onstage is an invitation to practice. Some new mantras, and many familiar to people here tonight.

The band is a tightly configured set up; Deva and Lady Phyl (Joby’s daughter) on keyboards and vocals, Miten on guitar and vocals and Joby on bass, strings, percussion, and vocals. The sound is a seamless, unbroken. The words are white light passing through a prism, contacting the Divine through mantra, returning us to our true nature; to love, light, and compassion.

Chanting brings me into the space of love within, which to me is my guru. -Neem Karoli Baba

It’s a practical magic that travels well, which is good as the four are currently touring across 11 countries with some 18 concerts. It’s also a big undertaking, but each destination stop along the path has a community to whom they are essential.

THE INEVITABLE BLOSSOMING OF THE HEART

Joby Baker has been collaborating with Deva and Miten for decades. He toured with them in 2019 and produced and plays and sings on Deva’s new release, The Inevitable Blossoming of the Heart. (The album released June 6, 2025)

DPM’s 2019 tour supported Miten’s release, Temple at Midnight. This time it’s Deva’s, The Inevitable Blossoming of the Heart, “a heart-opening journey of mantra, transformation, and divine connection that honors collaborations with soul friends across the globe.”

The second half of the evening brought Deva Premal front and center on stage. “She taught the entire audience a new language, but one we already knew, one of gratitude. ‘Afepakian’ means thank you in Maleku, the language of an indigenous community in Costa Rica, where they have been living and teaching for years,” Felicia Tomasko recounts, “She invited the audience to join in on sharing the vibratory qualities of gratitude. And she shared with exquisite grace, that the spirituality of mantra can be found in so many languages.”

This release, like her others, is part of an existing body of work which is an elemental part of the western mantra soundscape. Inevitable Blossoming of the Heart is a warm embrace. Sparse and spacious, organic and intimate, all parts humbly, sinuously conspiring to open the portal. Strings, percussion, bass, vocals delicately threaded to affect a heart opening.

“The 2025 audience welcomed them with open hearts and open voices in a melodic tribute to the power of the spirit.” Tomasko says. “Deva Premal, Miten, Joby, Lady Phil offered their gift to the world: Song. And their latest launch, The Inevitable Blossoming of the Heart, a welcome and timely addition to our collective playlist.”

“Darkness is not to be fought with – a lamp has to be lighted. In the presence of light, there is no darkness.”
-Osho

THE END

The Dwapara Yuga ended when Krishna returned to his eternal abode in Vaikuntha. Now 5,126 years into the Kali Yuga, with only 428, 287 years to go and Kalki, Vishnu’s final Avatar, is nowhere in sight, but Deva and Miten to bring the light and the essential heart of their guru and that’s more than a lot.

DPM have been holding the light, carrying it from here to there and then back again. Farther along on their path, deeper in the disciplic succession their chanting is more nuanced, more connected, more willing and available… or is it just us here in this American town?

Repeating the Om continually is the only true worship. It is not a word, it is God Himself
-Swami Vivekananda

Deva, Miten. Joby, Lady Phyl and the crew are in Europe by now leaving a trail of light in their wake. And though the city is under siege, Los Angeles knows how to come together, like they came together at the Wilshire Ebel. Deva Premal and Miten will be back.

Sam Slovick

Award-winning journalist, documentary director and long-term LA Yoga contributor Sam Slovick is the director, writer and producer of the Radicalized documentary, currently working on the Kirtan Road Dogs documentary.

samslovick.com

The post The Inevitable Blossoming of the Heart: Deva Premal and Miten light up L.A. appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Jai Uttal’s majestic musical setting for the ancient Hindu prayer, the Hanuman Chalisa, is a tour-de-force of devotional musical artistry. The 16-minute composition moves dynamically through myriad moods, bringing to vivid life the epic story of the shape-shifting Hindu monkey deity Hanuman—avatar of Shiva and embodiment of universal love (bhakti) and service (seva) to one’s fellow beings.

Hanuman Chalisa for World Peace

The Hanuman Chalisa text was composed by the 16th century Indian poet and saint Tulsidas. He adapted earlier Sanskrit sources to sing Hanuman’s praises in the vernacular Awadhi language—the language of his people and time period. The Hanuman Chalisa is a life-affirming prayer for all times and places.
“Now, in this time of global crisis,” says Jai, “I offer you my version, entitled Hanuman Chalisa for World Peace.”

Jai Uttal first learned the Chalisa at the feet of his gurus, Neem Karoli Baba and Sri Siddhi Ma in India, in the 1970s. It has been a part of his daily, personal spiritual practice ever since. He decided to share the Chalisa with a wider audience when theater director David Kersnar approached Jai about turning it into an opera for the stage. Early GarageBand demos—Couch Potato Productions as Jai calls them—soon blossomed into a gloriously rich studio recording with longtime Jai Uttal collaborators, the Pagan Love Orchestra and producer Ben Leinbach.

Exclusive Opportunity to Listen to the Hanuman Chalisa with Jai Uttal

Divine Love and Musical Storytelling in the Hanuman Chalisa

The result is a work of multi-hued, many-faceted splendor. A wistful doha, or invocation to the gurus, gives way to jubilantly melodic verses—40 in all—punctuated by resplendent recurrences of the root mantra “Jay Sita Ram, Jay Sita Ram, Jay Jay Hanuman.” The music moves with the story—through major and minor modes, deeply-rooted grooves and moments of floating timelessly in space. A stirring sense of pageantry informs Peter Apfelbaum’s triumphant horn arrangements. Backing vocalists Sandy and Natalie Cressman and Prajna Vieira evoke the feminine energy of Sita, the divine heroine of the saga. Their voices lend an angelic glow to the music.

And throughout, the voice of Jai Uttal—imbued with a lifetime of devotional chanting—guides us deep into the Hanuman Chalisa’s many subtle shades of Divine Love.

“I wanted to make a musical arrangement that expresses the dynamic and brilliantly shining personality of Hanuman,” says Jai, “and something that also reflects the many facets of my long musical, human and spiritual journey.”

With its joyful, uplifting artistry, the Hanuman Chalisa for World Peace is a balm for our troubled times.

Save and Share the Hanuman Chalisa for World Peace

https://ffm.to/hanuman-chalisa

Alan Di Perna

In a career that spans five decades, Alan di Perna has written for pretty much every magazine in the world with the word “guitar” in its title, as well as other prestigious outlets such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, Creem, Player, Classic Rock, Musician, Future Music, Keyboard, grammy.com and reverb.com. He is author of Guitar Masters: Intimate Portraits, Green Day: The Ultimate Unauthorized History and co-author of Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Sound Style and Revolution of the Electric Guitar. The latter became the inspiration for the Metropolitan Museum of Art/Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exhibition “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock and Roll.” As a professional guitarist/keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist, Alan has worked with recording artists Brianna Lea Pruett, Fawn Wood, Brenda McMorrow, Sat Kartar and Shox Lumania.

The post Jai Uttal Shares the Hanuman Chalisa appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

It was an unassuming Tuesday Night in December.

A 70-something at the will call window shrieks, “Oh darlin’ I had ta try, my girlfriends and I used ta see ‘em at the armory down the road for 50 cents.”

A hipster at the merch table loads up on holiday gifts. “Flight was delayed in Charlotte. Thought I’d have to drive down. Why? Because Duane Betts is an insane guitar and I wasn’t going to miss this.”

Wild And Precious Life Album Cover

And three generations in the VIP lounge exemplify Southern Hospitality. “Big Jim saw The Brothers open up for Three Dog Night in the 60s, Young Jim played in a band with Duane in high school, and this is little Jimmy’s first concert. Say hi to the nice lady Jimmy. We want him to know that this music, this is home. It will be here for him long after we’re gone.”

Duane Betts steps up to the mic with a mischievous smile and says, “It’s good to be back in my hometown of Sarasota, Florida. You may know this one.”

From the back of the theater someone screams, “We know them all….!”

He can’t help but laugh, as he starts to sing, “Walk along the river, sweet lullaby…”

Everyone in the audience sings along, “You’re my blue sky you’re my sunny day, Lord you know it makes me high when you turn your love my way. Turn yooour loooove myyyy waaaay…”

Back Where It All Begins

“When I was really young, like five, my dad had a little guitar and he put it in my hands,” Betts explains, “The shapes of the chords and the stretching of the fingers and all of that just seemed too difficult, and really like something I didn’t want to do.”

In elementary school Duane declared himself a drummer and had garage bands throughout junior high. During rehearsals he remembers, “I started picking up the guitar. I noticed things coming to me more easily. I was learning by ear, I recognized the intervals, I knew the chord changes. So, then it just kind of developed from there.”

Bless your Heart; Duane and Dickey Betts in the early 1980s

Betts was 11 when the Allman Brothers reunited for their 20th anniversary tour. Duane went out on the road for a few weeks with his dad, Allman Brothers founding member Dickey Betts. The now forty-something lights up, “I fell in love with it. I love the music. I love the travel. I love the new venues, I love the sound of the sound check, the smell of the grass and walking around the venue before anybody’s there.”

On a subsequent tour “the kid” became a paid crew member, working as an assistant guitar tech. “I was learning a lot from being around everyone, and just hearing that music every night.” Duane remarks, “Warren [Haynes] wrote out a list of a bunch of records to go buy. I made 500 bucks a week and I would spend all of it at Tower Records on CDs.”

The immersive musical education included classic albums like, Blues Power  by Albert King, Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane, BB King Live at The Regal and more. Duane remembers, “I got really into listening to records and playing along with them. Everything from those blues and jazz records to all the cool contemporary music coming out of Seattle like Nirvana.”

One Way Out

“Well, the kind of tradition is, I mean, they like to get you out on stage to put you into the fire as soon as possible” Duane explains, “I kind of resisted it, I was kind of freaked out about it, I kind of put it off. In fact, I forgot my guitar at the hotel on purpose the first time I was supposed to sit in.”

The band were on a highway outside of Denver, when Dickey asked Duane, “You brought your guitar, right? You’re going to play with us tonight, right?” Duane responded, “Oh man, I forgot my guitar.” Duane retells,  “And he goes ‘Oh well, that’s okay, we have plenty of guitars’ and I go, ‘Oh yes, that’s right’ [defeated]. ‘I was thinking maybe I’ll get out of it if I don’t bring my guitar.”

Sketches of American Music; Duane Betts Sits On Stage Allman Brothers Tour 1989

Betts’ reluctant debut was met with continued mentorship. He reflects, “Like anything, anytime you’re nervous, and you do it and you don’t completely f*ck up, it’s an amazing feeling. And then I played a few nights later and I broke a string, and I was like beside myself. But that was a little bump in the road, it was pretty smooth after that.”

A year later Duane was thrown into a bigger fire at Woodstock ’94. The sixteen-year-old was pulled on stage to play on “The Same Thing” and “Soulshine.” The mud-soaked audience in Saugerties, NY, and everyone watching on MTV knew they would be seeing more of the emerging artist.

Wheels Turning

By age 19, Duane Betts was a professional touring musician.  He had a successful run with LA bands WhiteStarr and BackBone69. They cut records for Atlantic, opened for Kid Rock, and were part of reality TV’s infancy. Betts played on Letterman, and at festivals including Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, and Coachella. For more than a decade he was musical director of Great Southern and later toured with the Indy rock band Dawes.

BackBone69 in The Bu Early Aughts – Public Domain

He got tangled up.

He got clean.

He made space for a vibrant new chapter of his life.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do

Lisa Hadley is a fashion designer who travels the world creating outerwear for mass brands, and bespoke pieces for private clientele. A friend bought her an astrology reading she put off for months, then one day on a whim she decided to book it.  The astrologer looked at Hadley’s birth chart and asserted, “You need to be with someone who is like a rockstar. A powerful guy who can handle your presence.”

The next day Lisa was picking up a few last-minute items for a dinner party she was hosting when, as Duane recalls, “We were grocery shopping. My friend started talking to her. He’s more out front, where I’m more shy. He asked for her number.” Lisa and her friend agreed to meet up with Duane and his friend. The two had a lot in common, hit it off and as Duane jokes, “Then I took her home one night and we watched Cops and that was it.”  She shakes her head smiling.

Lisa Hadley + Duane Betts Wedding via LH SM c. Kaelan Barowsky

On their most recent wedding anniversary Betts posted to Instagram, “I feel so blessed to have found you at just the right time.”  Lisa confirms lovingly, “He did.”

Her friends still joke, “We didn’t think the astrologer meant an aaaacctttuuuaaal rock star.”

Waiting On A Song

For 25 years New Yorkers marked the start of Spring by the Allman Brothers residency at the Beacon Theater. In this tradition a big party was thrown at Madison Square Garden to commemorate their 50th Anniversary (a year late). “The Brothers” played the hits. Their rendition of “No One to Run With” was said to be a religious experience for all who attended. A few days later stay-at-home orders swept the country. Duane, Lisa and their goldendoodle Willie settled into her adopted hometown.

For someone who has lived on tour busses for three decades it was a major change of pace. “Being in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, was a really great thing that summer.  There’s just so much open space, there’s not a lot of people” Betts explains. “I really never had time before to get up every morning and have my coffee at the coffee table and pick up an acoustic. During that time, I wrote a bunch of songs.”

Keep On Growing; L to R; Susan Tedeschi, Duane Betts, Derek Trucks

A long pandemic year later Duane and Lisa were at a birthday party in the Florida Keys when the tough-loving singer Susan Tedeschi urged, “Duane you need to do your own record. You should come do it in our studio.” Guitarist Derek Trucks jumped right in, “If you do that record, I’ll play on it.” Duane walked outside stunned, saying, “I don’t know what just happened.” His wise wife responded,” That’s a door that just opened for you.”

Tell Me What It Is You Plan To Do

In Tedeschi-Trucks’ Swamp Raga Recording Studio Duane Betts did some of his bravest work. His musical partner, guitarist Johnny Stachela states, “It was the perfect recording environment. We would roll in around 10am and just dive right into the creative process. We had so much fun. Every morning I would take a walk on the dock in the backyard to go check out a family of gators.”

They enlisted support from long-time collaborators and friends like bassist Berry Duane Oakley and keyboardist John Ginty. Stachela continues, “For the recording process we tracked the band live to capture the energy of the performance. Recording that way to analog tape is a lot like taking a photograph. It’s a snapshot in time.”

Swamp Raga Bhavana – Duane Betts’ Own Voice

Before the release Duane took a minute to talk about the experience, “You know it’s exciting. I mean I’ve made records with the Allman Betts Band, and had an EP, but I felt like it was time to do something in my own voice. On my own shoulders. I’m proud of what we did, and I hope people like it.”

Duane Betts’ debut record, Wild and Precious Life was nicely reviewed by judicious music critics and agro Redditors alike. Songwriters and sentimentalists took to tracks like “Waiting on A Song” and “Forrest Lane,” while rock fans revered the guitar riffs in “Stare at the Sun” (with Derek Trucks) and “Cold Dark World” (with Marcus King). Artist and underdogs trended towards the foreboding, “Saints to Sinners”, while the yogis and ex-pats dug, “Sacred Ground” and “Under The Bali Moon.”

Of course, Angelenos embraced “Evergreen,” an ode to Betts’ mother Paulette Howell, loved locally for lighting up LA with her radiant smile. Betts explains, “That’s an emotional one. She brings so much joy to everyone’s life including ours.”

Evergreen Early Days; Duane  Betts + Paulette circa 1976

Universally admired is “Colors Fade.” Johnny Stachela recalls, “We were staying at Dickey’s house and I picked up his old Gibson acoustic and wrote the guitar melody and chord structure. It happened so fast and I knew it was special. I brought the song to the guys with a few lyrics and Stoll [Vaughn] finished it. Duane wrote the bridge. It just has a timeless quality to it.”

Betts remarks, “We wanted to have a kind of Gram [Parsons] and Emmylou [Harris] kind of vibe on ‘Colors Fade’, so we asked my good friend Nicki Bluhm, who has an amazing voice, and is just a great talent and a great person. We were very happy that she obliged.”

Circles In The Stars

A month or so later, Duane experienced an initiation. On the iconic stage where Johnny Cash, met his wife June Carter, singer Maggie Rose spoke to the crowd, “I am very honored to get to sing on this stage often, but I don’t usually get to bring a friend of mine out, but this man has become a friend and a brother, music runs through his veins, please welcome Mr. Duane Betts.”

Betts sang new fan favorite, “Circles in the Stars.” He shares, “The idea is that when you’re with somebody, and it doesn’t really matter where you’re at or what you’re doing, you’re in the perfect place. It’s about being with somebody that you love and you love spending time with.”

It’s Better Than Gold; Duane + Johnny on The Opry Stage – Public Domain

He continues, “I wrote it for my wife, so it was really special for me to be able to play it for her on the Grand Old Opry Stage.”

Will The Circle Be Unbroken

“I mean, he’s family. We’re tied together by something much greater,” Betts states. “Through the music, through our fathers.”

Duane wasn’t the only kid on that 1990 Allman Brothers reunion tour. A teenage Devon Allman was on the road too. His dad Gregg Allman, was a founding member of the band known for singing the blues behind his Hammond b-3 organ.

Gregg joined the angels in 2017.  Devon admits, “After six months of grieving I realized I was denying myself of the power of healing through music and invited a bunch of friends to a comeback show.” When he found out the Fillmore West’s only available date was Gregg’s birthday, he knew it was meant to be.

People Can You Hear It, The Song Is In The Air; Devon Allman + Duane Betts

Allman asked Betts and his band to open the show. Devon reflects, “I think we were always intrigued to see if we would have organic chemistry together. Chemistry can’t be faked. Luckily we had it in spades with songwriting , singing together, etc …”

They did a couple of shows, and then they did a couple of tours, and soon the Allman Betts Band was born. Over time it evolved into an annual event called, The Allman Betts Family Revival. A Last-Waltz-esque offering inviting old friends, new family and raw talent to perform.

Winter at the Van Wezel

Now middle-age these bandleaders are throwing youngsters into their own fire. Devon smirks, “We are all on borrowed time. This isn’t our world. It’s our kids.  It is my responsibility to open the door for those that are next.  Rock and Roll needs it. It needs the young and the old, the male and female, the black and the white. Diversity and perpetuating the vibe is essential to its growth and longevity.”

On that unassuming Tuesday in December, everyone needed it.

Seven Turns On The Highway, Seven Rivers To Cross

It’s set break in Sarasota, Florida.

A regular at the White Buffalo holds the hand of her daughter who skips back from the bathroom lisping, “You’re my Blue Sky, you’re my sunny day.”

A tie-dyed troublemaker in the front row looks stage right and shouts, “We know you’re back there Dickey.” His cohort twirls a lammy yelping, “Happy 80th ‘Ole Boy, c’mon out.” They cackle like a couple of cartoon crows.

Yes, this is a hometown crowd for sure.

Seven Turns – Allman Betts Family Revival – 12.12.23 c. AVD

Duane Betts steps up to the mic and says, “This is a song of my father’s. It’s a Navajo legend, lesson kind of thing.” He closes his eyes, strums out a few chords and sings from the heart, “Seven turns on the highway, Seven rivers to cross, sometimes, you feel like you could fly away, sometimes, you get lost…”

The beloved ballad is a Navajo philosophy shared by Stewart Etsitty, a roadman of the Native American Church and Betts Family friend for some 30+ years. He taught that we have seven big turns in our lifetime. Seven major choices that define the quality of our incarnation, and how we get to the next.

Stewart joined the spirit side in 2000, but Wind River Indian Reservation Tribal Chairman Hon. Harvey Spoonmaker shares, “That’s our cycle of life. We’re always lookin’ seven generations ahead. We have ceremonies for the people who looked out for us, our grandparents, our parents, our aunts and uncles. They instilled in us our identity, who we are.”

All Our Relations; Duane’s Grandfather

He continues, “Through storytelling, through song, and through prayer we prepare the next generation for life. For their life. For what is expected of them as they get older. Because, they’ll also have their responsibilities. They’ll have to pass on some of these legacies too.”

Duane strums, “Seven turns on the highway, seven rivers to cross, sometimes we that we could fall away sometimes we get a lost…”

A millennial golf pro wearing a Patek Philippe puts his arms around a Publix Cashier who had to trade three shifts to be here this night. Her tired eyes sparkle as she sings, “Sometimes in the darkest night, you see the crossroads sign…”

A teenage couple in love and on too many mushrooms clutch each other, “Somebody’s calling your name, somebody’s waiting for you…”

Two out of the three Jims fight back tears, “Love is all that remains the same, that’s what it’s all comin to…”

A widower on a first date lets himself sob, “How in the world could you ever know, we’d ever meet again?”

Old college roommates savoring the rare night out sway, “Seven turns on the highway, seven rivers to cross, sometimes you feel like you could fly away, sometimes you get lost…”

“Happy Birthday To You…” Dickey Betts’ 80th. Allman Betts Family Revival – Van Wezel Theater – Sarasota, Florida 12.12.23 c. AVD

As the song comes to a close Dickey Betts walks onto the stage.

The Ramblin’ Man himself, Cameron Crowe’s muse for Almost Famous, in-part how Jimmy Carter got elected president.

Duane’s dad who met his mom at a Muddy Waters double-bill and named him after one of the greatest slide guitar players of all time.

Everyone in the Van Wezel Theater erupts into a round of “Happy Birthday to you.” Dickey Betts settles into a seat on the side of the stage — his wife Donna, daughter-in-law Lisa, daughters and family at his side.

The Road Goes On Forever

Duane, Devon, Johnny Stachela, John Ginty and the ensemble that makes up the Allman Betts Family Revival tear into a transcendent version of “Jessica.” The song for which thousands of babies, dogs, boats and bongs have been have been named.

The Allman Betts Family Revival play “Jessica” at the Van Wezel Theater in Sarasota Florida 12.12.23 c. AVD

Backstage there are cake and candles, hugs and high-fives. But the busses are packed and they gotta get going. Jacksonville tomorrow and Nashville two nights after that. The road goes on forever they say.

Out front the woman from the will call window squeezes my arm, “I told ya he would be here.”

The next morning the hipster with the merch texted,  “That’s why I would’ve driven down.”

A few weeks later an email comes in from Duane, “That was a magical night. Not only to celebrate dad’s 80th but to have him there on the sidelines was very, very special. I don’t think I will forget that night for the rest of my life.”

Neither will we.

Duane + Dickey Betts. White Buffalo Saloon 2017. c. Heather Nigra

“Love is all that remains the same,
that’s what it’s all coming’ to…”

Dickey Betts
(December 12, 1943-April 18, 2024)

To Learn more about Duane Betts check out Duane Betts.com
Buy Wild and Precious life on Vinyl at RoyalPotatoFamily.com
Stream on Spotify.
Learn more about Duane and Lisa Betts’ HorseshoeMusicFestival.com
IG at @DuaneBetts

Author’s Notes & Thanks 

Sincerest thanks to everyone who contributed to this piece including; Muffy Lavens and Nicole Hancock at the Van Wezel Theater, Lisa Hadley-Betts, Emily Ginsberg/Big Hassle Media, Devon Allman, Johnny Stachela, Chris Brush /Smoking Monkey Photo,  Kevin Calabro/ Royal Potato Family, Francine Bartlett, Hon. Harvey Spoonmaker,  Nick + Vernoy Paolini.

Cover photo by Heather Nigro /Moxxiiphoto,

Amy V Dewhurst

To Check Out Amy’s Work Go To; Sense + Color, You Can Reach Her At IG:  Amy_V_Dewhurst  + AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #PutYourGoodWhereItWillDoTheMost

www.senseandcolor.co

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Rhythmic drumbeats open and anchor “Through the Ages,” the first track on Opium Moon’s third album Where We Are Gathered. Lush, layered percussive elements combined with melodic strings rising and falling in rhythm showcase what this award-winning supergroup is known for creating. It feels fitting that we begin the musical journey of Opium Moon in “Through the Ages,” with a dance between rhythm and melody made up of sounds both ancient and contemporary; it shines with the timeless nature

The 10 tracks on Where We Are Gathered include powerful instrumentals, evocative lyrical compositions, and collaborations with other artists. We could call this world music, but that would only tell part of the story. This genre-defying music is the inspirational work of art we need right now….it allows not only our hearts but our souls to sing.

Timeless Global Music

Representing a truly global outlook in their background and artistry, Grammy Winning Opium Moon’s members all shine here. They feature: Iranian santoor master Hamid Saeidi, Israeli bassist Itai Disraeli, American percussionist M.B. Gordy, and Canadian-American violinist Lili Haydn. Their collaborations on We Are Gathered include Hengameh, Wouter Kellerman, Supreme Beings of Leisure, and Benjy Wertheimer.

This is an album that begs for us to savor it as accompaniment to the sacred journeys that are our lives. Its power allows for it to be the soundtrack to practice, to meditation, to prayer and contemplation, to the shamanic journey of the written word, to fill a home with the sacred. My first listen was with headphones on, immersed in the sonic stereo created by the layered recording. I listened alone, in a mood and space of recovery, and do not find it trivial to say that these songs are truly healing, hypnotic, and offer both hope and the possibility of whatever redemption we may be seeking.

“Metta Prayer Invocation” and “Metta Prayer” drop the listener into the spaces of the sacred, wherever the person listening may be. You don’t need to understand the words of the 2,600 year-old Buddhist prayer sung by Benjy Wertheimer in the ancient Indian language of Pali to feel the vibrations shared here.

There are moments in the flow of the album when to get up an dance feels like the perfect response, like in “The Mystery.” Supreme Beings of Leisure collaborate with Opium Moon on this track for a sensual journey. In “Love and Understanding,” we hear Lili Haydn’s vocalization of the central message, “There is no problem in the world that can’t be solved by more love and understanding.” We needed no proof before of her eclectic and multidimensional virtuosity, but we experience it here again.

Photo of Opium Moon by Dorit Theis

We Are Gathered

For many reasons, this album was recorded literally in layers. The artists describe how they began by layering the thematic percussive elements by Itai Disraeli and M.B. Gordy and then Lili Haydn and Hamid Saeidi improvised together upon this base. They evoked the thought that “where two of us are gathered,” they are still Opium Moon, giving the name for the album.

It is something we can all remember, wherever we are, however we are gathered, that through music, through song, through rhythm and harmonies, we are gathered. We are connected across time and space, across boundaries and barriers, across language and limitations. We can experience the sacred amidst the ordinary and we can feel the freedom within the song of our own heart.

This is an album that is meant to be owned, to be brought home, to be enjoyed as a sacred journey, to be listened to again and again.

Learn More About Opium Moon and We Are Gathered

Learn more about Opium Moon and buy the album on the band’s website. https://www.opiummoon.com 

Woman Life Freedom with Opium Moon and Hengameh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlNC57UbVQo

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

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Some years later from the back of his tour bus, Michael Franti explains, “My Lord is a song of letting go to whatever is going to come next. There’s so many times in my life where I’ve gripped onto plans that I felt were going to bring me joy, or get me to the next place, or thought were the answer…. And then when I let go, and it was like, ‘Wow, I’ve just learned something about myself and about the world that’s fulfilling me in ways that I had never imagined.’ So that song is about keeping your mind, your heart, your imagination open to things that might not be what you originally set out to do.”

Yes I Will

Michael Franti was attending the University of San Francisco on a basketball scholarship when a teacher encouraged him to pay attention to the world around him. He bought a pawn-shop bass, and penned thought-provoking poems. In the late 80’s Michael formed the Bay Area band, The Beatnigs. They threw parties in abandoned warehouses and banged on African drums. Franti became half of the hip-hop duo The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Their Gil Scott Heron-esque single, “Television the Drug of a Nation” was an acclaimed underground hit but in the 90’s radio still ruled.

There was a corporate machine in place, that largely mandated who could play what, when. No one knew how to categorize Michael Franti. Was he a rapper, a rocker, a reggae singer?  Was he against the system, for the people? An anarchist, a peacekeeper….? Couldn’t yet tell. Being an anomaly is part of Michael Franti’s karmic condition. He explains, “My mom had three kids of her own with my adopted father, and then they adopted myself and another African American son. I have one sister who’s a lesbian, and one brother who’s a police officer. And I grew up in this really mixed melting pot of a household.”

The Franti Family

Michael continues, “My mom always had a wisdom to her, that people should be their unique self. And she would always tell me, ‘Don’t try to be what other kids tell you to be, or to try to fit in, just be who you are, be your authentic self.’ And that’s something that I’ve really tried to carry in my music.”

Stay Human

Franti and some friends leaned into the musical lexicon that most influenced them. The result was Spearhead; a band so unique rock writers of the day had to come up with new words to describe them, “alternative hip hop”, “neo-soul,” “reggae fusion.” One of their debut songs was selected for MTV’s Buzz Bin and won a Clio Award.

Spearhead

A little like putting the medicine inside a spoonful of sugar, they wrapped socio-political messages inside sweet-sounding songs.  In the February, 1995, issue of URB Magazine, Michael clarified, “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to make statements anymore…. But when I was a kid, I got into the music first, and then later, after I’d listened to the songs for a while, I started hearing what the artists had to say. And that’s what I wanted to do.”

And I Sing, Power To The Peaceful

“I used to work in a hospital, and to make my shift, I’d have to leave at 4am,” Anita Akhavan states. “In the car I would blast a Spearhead song, the lyrics are, ‘We can bomb the world into pieces, but we can’t bomb it into peace.’ When I moved to San Francisco, Guerrilla Management was one of the first places I hit up to do volunteer work, because Michael has consistently been an artist who has used his platform to say something. He speaks to current issues, he does not shy away from them, but he also doesn’t shame people either. He facilitates dialogue.”

Anita became a member of Michael’s team and part of the production staff that put on the annual “911 Power To The Peaceful” Festival in San Francisco. The Franti-fronted gathering began in 1998 to bring awareness to the imprisonment of Mumia Abu Jamal. It was held on 9/11 each year to illuminate the death row inmate’s urgency. “September 11th, 2001 happened and everything changed” remembers Akhavan.

While many were directly impacted by the events of that day, millions more were relying on network news for information. Politicians and the reporters that covered them, repeated words like “terror,” and “mass destruction” subtly invoking Islamophobia, paranoia, and division. But in Dolores Park, people were coming together to talk about peace. “We already had it scheduled for that weekend” Akhavan explains.  “We opened it up to hundreds of social justice organizations from around the country to speak on issues that were taking place. And the intention of this was to be in community, sharing info, having conversations and learning.”

Revolution Never Comes With A Warning – Michael Franti Rocking PTTP c. PTTP FB

The potency of that inclusive act deeply affected those who were in attendance, as well as the 80,000 more who would join in the 11 years that followed. The festival moved to Golden Gate Park where no one was turned away for lack of funds. The largely volunteer staff coordinated yoga and movement, with social justice, environmental activists, and spiritual speakers, with an eclectic musical line-up that empowered a humanitarian movement.

Many years after the last PTTP Festival, Anita reflects, “Michael has always sang or spoken about what’s important I feel; and today I think his music reflects that we need to be kind to one another, we need to love one another, and be compassionate to one another, because we are all doing the best that we can with the tools that we have.”

Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong

“I went to Iraq in June of 2004, and it was 11 months after the war had started there,” Michael explains. “I played music on the street for Iraqi civilians in the daytime, and I played for U.S soldiers at night. And then after that, I went to Israel and Palestine, and I played for music for people on the street in both those places. I talked to soldiers, I talked to people who had lost family members in each of those conflicts.”

Franti continues, “I was passionately against war and I still am. But when I came back, I realized that I’m not on the side of Americans or Iraqis or Israelis or Palestinians; I’m on the side of the peacemakers. And I met people from all sides who were willing to go to incredible lengths to achieve peace, and to try to resolve conflict and bring about safety and understanding for as many people as possible.”

One of Michael’s first stops when he returned stateside was Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He visited with soldiers who were recovering from catastrophic combat injuries. The singer explains, “I was listening to their stories and understanding why they had made these decisions to go to Iraq. And I just developed this new understanding of it. And that’s when I started writing the song Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong.” The tune that many believe should be nominated for a Peace Prize invites the listener to let go of their fixed point of view, and recognize we’re all much more alike than not.

“One of the things that I learned on that trip was that there’s no one that you wouldn’t love if you knew their story. And to be able to understand people’s stories is what I feel is one of the most important things that is needed in the world right now. And the way that you have to do it is you have to step back from the judgment saying this person’s wrong, and I’m right and that’s what that song’s about.”

11:59

“Michael told me we were going to be doing this on a ship but I had no sense what that was going to be like until we actually showed up,” esteemed yoga teacher Seane Corn shares. “I remember walking out onto the main deck and there are massive canons attached to the boat pointing outward directly to where we would be playing and I would be teaching. The knowledge of where this boat has been, the impact it had on lives was visible to us. It was this real interesting juxtaposition between wanting to hold the space for unity, interdependence, and peace under the shadow of these weapons designed for the opposite.”

Worship Is Greater Then…

The USS North Carolina is the most decorated US Battleship of World War II. It participated in the Battles of Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and every major naval offense in the Pacific. It’s officially credited with 24 aircraft kills, the bombardment of nine Japanese strongholds, a merchantman vessel, and more. Some of its’ combat crew perished when it was struck by a torpedo. The Soulshine Tour held a sold-out yoga class with live music there. It was a first for all. As colorful yogis unrolled their mats onto the grey deck, a phrase entered Corn’s consciousness, “Worship is greater than Warship.” A mantra that powered her through the intense experience.

“It’s very easy for people to think about peace love truth and unity in the safety of their own yoga school.” Corn says. “They light the candles, they have the deities but it’s often devoid of the harsh realities of existence. So what the opportunity was that day was to hold both the shadow and light in peace there.” Between warrior poses, she asked the class, “When we say we want peace, what are willing to sacrifice?” Seane reflects, “It was complex for sure, but it was ultimately one of the most powerful yoga teaching experiences I ever had.”

Pray In Action Brett Mazurek / 3rdi

Seane pauses thoughtfully and continues, “Working with Michael, I always appreciate not just his artistry and his depth but his genuine commitment to raising awareness in a way that doesn’t alienate the myriad of beliefs that are out there. He is strong and he’s steady, he’s purposeful in his intention and masterful in capacity not just to hold space but to hold space for love. I have been blessed to bear witness to how skillfully he brings people together, in a way that is both provocative and uplifting and it’s a rare artist, I believe, who can do both and have everyone walking away feeling hopeful inspired and activated from within. And Michael is that kind of artist to me.”

Pray For Grace

“In the early 2000’s my brother was sent to Iraq as an infantryman to avoid a felony. I disagreed with that war so much.” Drew McManus, lead singer of Satsang, explains, “I absolutely loved Underground Hip Hop and message heavy punk rock, but I also exclusively played acoustic guitar. When I first heard Franti it kind of all clicked for me that I didn’t have to pick a genre.”

Drew escaped an abusive household, sold drugs to survive, and spent time in rehab. Soon after he had the opportunity to trek through Nepal where he received the message he was meant to dedicate himself to music. McManus pledged to help others who had experienced similar, but as anyone in the industry will tell you, the road to success can be a long, hard climb. Drew’s band Satsang played an open-air venue in Florida with an unusual set-up. The green rooms are on an upstairs balcony that overlook the stage.  There’s really no quiet, or privacy, but it can create some cosmic conditions.

A few months later the promoter for the venue asked if Satsang would like to open the upcoming Spearhead Show. Drew remembers, “I kinda freaked. I have been a Franti fan since about 2003. I thought, ‘We have to get to this show. Franti will watch our set and want to take us on the road.’ Drew did the math. Flights to Florida, plus gear, plus rental car would leave them $37 in profits divided by 3, but it was the chance of lifetime.

Michael did watch the Satsang set. Afterwards Drew said “If you want me to spit a verse on something I’m here for it” McManus remembers, The next day at sound check he had his engineer give me a mic. We did the collab the next 2 nights.”

Drew McManus and Michael Franti onstage c. Greyson Christian Plate

A few weeks later Drew got the call inviting Satsang to join Spearhead on the road for their summer dates. Drew reflects, “Seeing Michael’s rate of hustle, work, and output changed the way I approached my career for sure. I’m forever grateful to him for that boost and his council during that year. He continues to inspire me… the dude has been at it for decades and is still evolving as an artist and growing his audience. His stage presence and energy puts dudes half his age to shame! Him taking us on tour that year put so many eyes on us. There is absolutely no telling where we would be without his support. So grateful for Michael.”

Do It For The Love

“I first met Steve and Hope Dezember on Twitter” Michael mentions, “Hope started saying to me my husband has ALS and he’d really like to come to one of your shows as he may be dying soon.”

When Steve was first diagnosed he and Hope had only been dating for a few months. He told her, “I understand if you want to go away, but if you don’t will you marry me?” She immediately said yes. Not only did the loving couple endure, but Hope became Steve’s main caregiver.

Life Is Better with You Michael, Hope and Steve

Michael remembers, “The next day we met them and saw Steve in a wheelchair, he was almost completely paralyzed. He could barely speak in whispers but his positivity shined through so much. I invited them to watch the show from the side of the stage, and I introduced them as I was singing the song, ‘Life is better with you.’ And they both came on stage and at one point I look over and Steve whsipers to Hope, “I want to get up out of my chair.” And Hope lifted Steve up out of the chair and started to dance in front of 20,000 people and there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.”

Hope Dezember shares, “It was such a moving moment to have Michael care about us so much, and then to have so many people receive us and care about us so much and it literally changed our lives.”

Overwhelmed by the emotional experience, Franti and his girlfriend ER nurse Sara Agah had an idea. What if they facilitated similar experience for others in need of a reprieve…? They created “Do It For The Love” a non-profit, wish-granting foundation that brings people with life threatening illnesses to have one on one experience with their favorite musical artist at a live concert. This year they are celebrating their tenth anniversary, having granted 3,5000 music-related wishes to an estimated 12,000 recipients.

And I Know One Thing, That I Love You – Michael with the Craig Family in Cape Cod

One of them was The Craig Family in Cape Cod. Mom Rebecca emotes, “My son Sawyer’s Do It For The Love wish was to meet Michael Franti. He had Sawyer sing, “Say Hey” on stage, and included our other son Jackson too. At that point Sawyer was about a year into his treatment for acute lymphocytic leukemia. So many of our friends were there, who took video. It still brings me to tears every time I watch it. Michael gave me one of the best hugs I’ve ever received in my entire life. Our family believes that music heals and our evening with Michael filled us with love, hope, and positivity.”

Life Is Better With You

“You know how Michael introduces the song on stage?” Sara Agah Franti blushes, “He tells the story about how we had this amazing Valentine’s Day, on the beach, we went snorkeling at sunset, we had donuts on the boat, and it was so magical. And the next morning, we got into the biggest argument.”

The couple met at a music festival, became friends and after some years, it developed into something more. Much of their courtship was spent surrounded by the band and crew on tour buses. They took off to the other side of the world for some time alone, and Sara remembers, “We’re in Bali, and it’s supposed to be like the best day Valentine’s Day ever, and we’re sitting here processing for four hours,” She laughs, “We worked through it and he picked up his guitar and he started writing ‘Life is Better With You’, right there, it had come to him.”

Some Days Are Better Than Other Day  c. Angga Vandi

“Life is Better With You” became a commercial success. It’s in rotation on the radio, has been streamed more than 19 million times on Spotify, and was even in a Blue Cross Blue Shield commercial (internet forums abuzz asking “What is that song? I love it”). In the decade since it’s been released, hundreds have approached Michael and Sara sharing their stories, “It was our wedding song!” “He proposed to me by playing that on the guitar!” “Our family sings it in the car, even our two-year-old can sound out the words!” Sara jokes, “And this was before we were even engaged!”

Yes, Michael played it for Sara at their wedding, and the song continues to have deep meaning, not only to the couple but to the thousands who sing it as an anthem of sorts. Sara laughs, “Michael always gets this great pass, because if we have an argument on tour, then he’ll just go on stage and play the song to me and I’m like, ‘Aaaahhhh fiiiine, I forgive you’.”

Never Too Late

“The funniest thing is Taj will be playing with blocks, and he’ll start singing, Vibe check one two, one two Michael’s newest song,” Sara says.

In 2018 the Frantis added an addition to their family, Taj who is now almost five years old. Sara observes,” There was another time recently he was playing with dinosaurs and Legos and was singing “I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive.’ I’m like how do you even know the words of these songs? It’s the sweetest thing to see where his interests lie.”

Just To Say I Love You; Michael and Sara Agah Franti

Michael’s oldest son Cappy is now 36, his middle son Ade is 24. “Yesterday, I had lunch with my mom, “Michael says,” I was showing her a video of my four-year-old Taj, and he was being really rambunctious my mom was like [he imitates her shaking her head] yes, just like you.”

Michael lets that sink in, and says, “Being a dad, I guess the main thing is knowing which things are really serious and which things aren’t. What are the things that you should be very concerned about, and what are the things you need to just be more patient or flexible about. So, I feel more happy than ever today because of having that wisdom. It makes it a lot more enjoyable to be around a toddler who is as crazy as I was at that age.”

We’ve Got Room For Everybody

“People had been contacting me saying Kenny Chesney is using your song, “Say Hey (I Love You)” as the walkout song for his band on tour.” Michael remembers, “At first, I was like, “Who is Kenny Chesney?’ ”

The country music superstar Kenny Chesney is known for singing about topics like tractors, beer, and his hometown. His largely Southern and patriotic audience orients to America in a way that’s probably different than the social justice organizations in Golden Gate Park. But if you listen to Kenny’s lyrics closely, you may discover there is a message of unity just underneath. Michael explains, “I got to meet him at a festival that we both played at, and we just really hit it off. We became friends right away, and although his music is known as being in the country music genre. I consider him to be a musician of optimism, as I am.”

We All Friends Here; Michael Franti and Kenny Chesney

To me, optimism is actually one of the highest forms of courage.

Michael continues, “To me, optimism isn’t just like you wake up and go today is going to be a great day, no bad vibes and I got this. Optimism is when you can wake up and go ‘You know what, I know today is going to be challenging, and every day in fact might be. And there’s going to be things along the way that come up. And I have the wisdom, the tenacity, the love, the joy, the appreciation, the gratitude that will get me through these challenging moments’.  And to me, optimism is actually one of the highest forms of courage, and not just being naive about the world. And that’s what I love about his music.”

The two had been friends for about seven years when Michael got a call. He retells, “Kenny’s like, ‘Let’s go do this tour.’ And the first show is supposed to be at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, 90,000 tickets were sold. And then we get this call, the first 30 days of the tour are going to be postponed due to this little thing called COVID. And I remember thinking ‘A whole month, the tour is not going to happen for a whole month?’ And then three years later, here we are. So yes, so it didn’t happen, but so many other things have happened.”

The Sound Of Sunshine

“Michael is adopted. I’m a child of refugee parents, our parents had to fight and survive,” Agah Franti states. Like most everyone, the Frantis many activities halted during the pandemic. No concerts, no nonprofit wishes, no in-person public speaking, and no guests at their Soulshine Bali Eco-Resort and Retreat.

Sara remembers, “One morning, it was in August of 2020, Michael woke up and he looked at me, he’s like ‘We’re not just going to survive the pandemic, we’re going to thrive and we’re going to fight. And so we committed as a couple to build.”

Soulshine Bali c. Ary LeCir

Despite no bookings, the Frantis kept their staff on at the Soulshine Sound Retreat in Bali that they co-own. Agah Franti says, “ We just created this place where people can come and just be themselves, find the space to reconnect with themselves and  just have fun. We have an adult water slide, a jumping plank, three restaurants now, a spa. We put vinyl record players in the rooms.” The property features a walking path along the perimeter next to the river, and many native nooks for alone time. Vacationers and retreatants can enjoy cocktails and mocktails in the massive pool, practice yoga with some of their favorite teachers, and if desired, make new friends. Sara exclaims, “We love when people who don’t know each other can share experiences and make these connections.”

The Franti Family at Soulshine

Jennifer Carmel was recovering from her father’s passing, when she decided to do something different. She booked a SoulRocker Retreat lead by Gina Caputo to lift her spirits and try something new. “Soulshine is an absolutely magical spot. You can feel the energy immediately once you set foot inside the grounds” she states. The organic chef accredits the retreat with reconnecting her to her yoga practice, her breath, her body, her soul. We made friends for life on that trip.” Jenny exclaims, “We are all still connected, we have a group, and we plan trips and Michael Franti concerts together.”

Say Hey (I Love You)

“Michael Franti is one of the greatest performers on the planet!!” implores Native Wayne Jobson, lauded musicologist and DJ.  “His shows are transcendental. He is in the same league as Springsteen, Bono, Jagger, and Bob Marley. He becomes one with his audience who identify with him as a friend and brother rather than an untouchable celebrity. As a human, he is remains as humble as when I first met him 25 years ago.”

Over the last four decades Michael Franti and Spearhead have defied categorization. They have continued to evolve to meet the moment, inspiring millions of fans along the way In a film about his life Michael states, “The reason I started playing music is that I thought it could change the world…for decades I’ve traveled the world playing a mix of socially conscious, politically charged, rap, reggae and acoustic music I’ve played in night clubs and festivals and stadiums, and street corners. I’ve played for prisoners in Folsom and San Quentin, I’ve played in protests and in war zones. In 2004 I went to Iraq and played in the streets of Baghdad for US soldiers and for Iraqi civilians alike. I spent over 20 years on the road before I ever had a song in the top 20, and together with my band spearhead we’ve sold millions of records.”

Big Big Love; Spearhead Summer Tour

Michael Franti states, “The very best part of what I do is I get to meet tons of people every single day. Who are trying to survive in an incredibly challenging world. It’s hard, it’s really, really hard sometimes just to get by. And to hold onto your humanity, your dignity your pride, your heart, your soul and to feel like you have a sense of purpose in this world.”

Take Me To The Place I Need To Go

It’s a sold out show at the Hollywood Bowl, Spearhead is on stage rocking the place. A spotlight follows Michael Franti into the audience. Fans scream in excitement, snap selfies, and sing along. Two vets in the front row give him the peace sign, as a “Do It For The Love” family watches from the side of the stage.

Backstage a group of friends are gathered; music industry execs, radio DJs, TV stars, and such. In line to talk to the troubadour are bold environmentalists, publishing mavens, yoga stars, and striving musicians. There are social justice activists he has helped empower along the way. Michael walks in barefoot, guitar still strapped to his chest. He sings the acoustic, acapella version. ““My Lord, My Lord, My Lord, show me all the things I need to know” the group sings back in repsonse, “My Lord, My Lord, My Lord, take me to the place I need go….”

Michael keeps singing,

“We all get the time we’re given
Mine ain’t over so I’ll keep on livin’
We all get the life we’re livin’
Mine ain’t over so I’ll keep on givin’
‘Til the day I die,
My Lord, My Lord, My Lord,
Take me to the place I need to go…”

See Michael Franti at Bhakti Fest This Weekend

Joshua Tree Lake & Campground
Sept. 15-17, 2023
2780 Sunfair Road, Joshua Tree, CA 92252
More info here.

Join Bhakti Fest Presents Krishna Das, Nina Rao and friends for “Bhakti in Bali” at Soulshine

November 11-18, 2023.
More info here 

Amy V Dewhurst

To Check Out Amy’s Work Go To; Sense + Color, You Can Reach Her At IG:  Amy_V_Dewhurst  + AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #PutYourGoodWhereItWillDoTheMost

www.senseandcolor.co

The post Michael Franti; Take Me To The Place I Need To Go appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Sometimes life’s most challenging moments gift us insight into how our spiritual practices hold and heal us when we need them most. At a time when world-renowned, Grammy-nominated devotional singer, touring musician, and teacher Snatam Kaur is creatively flourishing, she is also helping to care for her father, Sat Santokh, as he copes with cancer. Snatam’s lifelong Kirtan practice — both private and publicly, at concerts and classes — has proven to be a poignant comfort to her in this difficult time.

A New Single, a New Album

August 18 marked the debut of “Bani Guru,” the first single from Soul Bird, the upcoming album release (mid-October on Be Why Music) Snatam recorded with her mother, Prabhu Nam Kaur, and her 14-year-old daughter, Jap Preet Kaur. This first single is dedicated to Sat Santokh.

“Bani Guru” positions the three generations’ sweetly stirring vocals front and center against a delicately streamlined harmonium, guitar, and percussion arrangement. While sharing a tonal resemblance to one another, each of the women contributes a distinct quality to the song. Together, they project something special — transcendent and authentically devotional. Beauty and purity shine within the track.

“Bani Guru” and Soul Bird grew from an ambitious passion project Snatam and Prabhu Nam Kaur are pursuing together — cataloging and recording their family legacy of nearly 200 songs and chants from the Sikh tradition. This album is a part of that project, and for it, Snatam suggested to her mother that they share something with special meaning and pick whatever intuitively comes. Prabhu Nam Kaur turned inward, and “Bani Guru,” a Shabad or sacred poem that is sung from the Sikh tradition, came up.

“The words of this Shabad, ‘Bani Guru Bani Hai Bani,’ mean, ‘The song of God is the Guru, and then the Guru — the teacher and the wisdom — is the song of God,’” said Snatam, on the eve of the single’s release while simultaneously helping care for her father and prepare for the U.S. portion of her Light of Sacred Chant Tour. “The mantra is about going to the song of God for that connection. It’s profound because that’s the practice my mom taught me—that if you want to access the wisdom, sing, and it will come.” The next line of ‘Bani Guru’ translates to, ‘One who serves this energy of the song of God, who serves this energy of wisdom, then that wisdom or Guru manifests on the earth plane and in our lives.’

“At this time, with my father dealing with cancer, ‘Bani Guru’ is just the medicine we need to keep chanting and connecting to — praying for that energy of Guru to come through in our lives in a very real physical way with community support and all the little miracles needed day by day when dealing with cancer,” she said. “I feel the Guru come to our aid through life itself, through our own hearts, our family, our friends, and even the challenges we face.”

The Wisdom of a Committed Kirtan Practice

Snatam’s music career is deeply rooted in the Kirtan practice she was taught by her mother. “Two of the things I learned from her,” she said, “is, first, to go to Kirtan in times of trouble and need. Lean on Kirtan to find the good energy and ideas and a sense of relief. The second is to find a way to really open my heart to the Kirtan practice so that it becomes something that is alive for me — awake, juicy, and passionate. It takes a lot of cultivation of a daily Kirtan practice to find that space. It takes a desire to find that internal passion or connection with the heart, but once you do, it’s totally worth it because you find the capacity within as you are singing to open like a flower in the Sun.

“So that’s what I look for in my Kirtan practice, in the songs we record and those we choose to play on tour. I try to find a way to be in my heart space and connect to the flow of God and Guru with passion, love, and joy. It’s not always easy, or even possible for me, but this is what I strive for and what I feel my mother has mastered.”

Light of Sacred Chant Tour / L.A. Concert September 17 with Special Guest Jahnavi Harrison

That loving, celebrative sense of juicy, passionate awake-ness is palpable in Snatam’s live performances. From September 10 to 29 (with a show in Los Angeles on September 17 at the Wilshire Ebell Theater), she’ll tour the U.S. for the final stint of her Light of Sacred Chant Tour. This will be Snatam’s first Los Angeles concert since 2019, and she invites people to gather and honor the profound changes everyone has experienced and to chant in community, cultivating a renewed sense of love and joy while healing divisiveness with one another and within ourselves.

Performing with Snatam are her band members Ram Dass (piano and vocals), Grecco Buratto (guitar and vocals), and Sukhmani Rayat (percussion, tabla, and vocals). For Snatam’s Los Angeles show, she will be joined by special guest and popular chant artist Jahnavi Harrison, who will be sharing one of her chants, along with another chant that she and Snatam are collaborating on for an upcoming recording.

Healing as We Chant Together

“We’ve toured Europe and Latin America this past year, and I’m looking forward to really connecting to the flow of what’s happening within the concerts at home in the States,” said Snatam. “I feel the chanting itself is healing medicine, and I believe we can heal ourselves through collective chanting—that there are a lot of miracles available to us. I know how much transformation this energy has brought into my life. I feel blessed and honored to be a part of these group experiences, especially after not being in North America and connecting with many of our sacred chant communities for so long. Connecting through chant is one of the most powerful ways to build community, and I’m really looking forward to sharing that opportunity again.”

The Light of Sacred Chant concerts begin in a very meditative, heart-opening way and move into a lot of celebration and joy. “We’ve incorporated some fun pieces into the set, and the audience participation has grown to a new level,” she said. “With many of our songs, we’re doing traditional chanting back and forth. But then, there are some really engaging vocal collaborations with the audience that create a beautiful, jubilant experience. As a band, we’ve come to a really strong place where together we can tune into the audience and serve through the music and chanting.”

Snatam and the band are also completing a new studio album scheduled for release in early 2024. “I’m really excited to share some of the new music my band and I have been working on for the album at the concerts. We’re coming to a new level of trust and love with each other musically, and it’s given us room for improvisation in our live show.”

Click for Light of Sacred Chant concert tickets, and listen to “Bani Guru” (released by Be Why Music) here. Explore classes with Snatam, her husband Sopurkh, and other teachers at Kirtan and Kundalini, their online sacred music and yoga school, dedicated to supporting the spiritual journey of as many practitioners as possible. Find these and other resources on Snatam’s Linktree.

Marina Muhlfriedel

Marina Muhlfriedel is a native Angeleno and self-described creative omnivore with extensive experience as a writer, film producer, and musician. She serves as Communications Administrator for the Tai Chi Foundation, teaches Mindfulness Meditation to at-risk populations, and is a senior teacher at Club Kundalini, having begun her spiritual journey in high school as a student of Yogi Bhajan.

The post Music and Mantra as Medicine – The Healing Joy of Snatam Kaur’s New Songs and U.S. Tour Dates appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

The Tradition of SongKeepers Around the World

Ceremony and Song

Understanding the Art of Alchemy

The Energy Exchange with the Earth

SongKeepers Around the World

SongKeepers come from many different cultures from around the world…

The role of a human being, then, is to be a conduit of creation itself.

Mantra As Self-Generated Sound Healing

Sound as Communication

We are all part of planetary consciousness.

Remembering the Songs of our Ancestors

This is the recipe for SongKeeping

You can be a SongKeeper too!

The Voices of the SongKeeper School

The Inner Worlds of The SongKeeper School

Reya Manna

Reya Manna, MSW, MDiv, CPC is a best-selling author, singer, sound healer and visionary working for the transformation of humanity and the planet. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, a Master’s degree of Social Work and a Master of Divinity. She is a Certified Professional Life Coach, Reiki Master, Naam Yoga Teacher, Harmonyum Practitioner, and mom. For over 20 years, she has been immersed in the multidisciplinary spiritual, self-help, and psychological fields – with emphasis on religious studies; native wisdom traditions; transpersonal psychology; yoga and sound healing. Through combining these varying modalities, she has formed a unique approach to working with individuals, families and groups to assist them in finding their voice, accessing their highest potential and doing the greatest good for the world.

In addition, Reya is the founder of The SongKeeper School – a program of sacred singing, earth honoring, and ritual. Reya is also the founder of the program “Sing the World Awake!” – a motivational music, movement and conversational experience to activate children’s highest potential through song and catalyze transformation in our relationship with ourselves, each other and our planet. She is currently located in the Los Angeles, California area.

www.singtheworldawake.org

The post SongKeepers are Guardians of the Earth and Vibration appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Meeting of the Spirits to Create Yoga Soundtracks

Singing yoga teacher and festival favorite Johanna Beekman first met Grammy-nominated producer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Leinbach a decade ago when they were introduced by fellow yogic musician Benjy Wertheimer. Each with a passion for integrating multicultural influences, the pair developed an artistic synergy that enriches their collaborations with a distinct, light-filled energy.

The seven tracks on their new album, Yoga Soundtracks Volume 2, released July 14, 2023, by Be Why Music, project a lavish aural landscape, ideal for yoga and meditation practitioners or whenever soul-nurturing calm is the intention.

The project is a follow-up to Ben’s 2015 Yoga Soundtracks Volume 1, which featured various Kirtan vocalists. Yoga Soundtracks Volume 2, however, is a true partnership with Johanna. The album gleans previously produced tracks from her catalog— some of which they worked on together and others that Johanna produced independently—and reimagines them. Lush mixes enhanced with additional instrumental and vocals tracks imbue the recordings with new breadth.

Most notably, while Ben and Johanna have each released a lot of inspiring devotional music in sacred languages like Sanskrit, the language of yoga, this project replaces Sanskrit mantras from several original recordings with layers of soulful English lyrics and rich vocal beds that utilize Johanna’s voice as an instrument within the arrangements of global instrumentation. Ben has long been drawn to creating fusions of world music and elegantly intertwines its diverse tones and rhythms here. Matched with Johanna’s meld of gospel, Kirtan, and soft pop, the result is a unique yet familiar take on yoga music—soothing, deeply aspirational, and prayerful.

Exploring Lyrical Familiarity

“I really wanted to universalize the language,” Johanna recently told us while on the road in Portland, Oregon. “My goal was to create a yoga soundtrack for an intentional, mindful practice, where we could weave the poetry of Rumi into the lyrics at times. Ben and I decided to use these existing luscious soundscapes as a basis for something that could reach a larger audience, serve people’s practices, and help them access a different part of the brain and nervous system.”

They also created “mash-ups” of multiple songs of Johanna’s. The first track, “Love Lives,” a dreamy, soulful welcome to the album, combines three of her originals. “We completely changed the lyrical content on that one,” Johanna said. “It starts with an intro from one song, changes keys into another, and finally opens up into this epic torch song. Together, they feel fully merged.”

Elaborating on the project’s genesis from his recording studio in San Anselmo, California, Ben added, “Hans Christian, a very talented multi-instrumentalist and producer based in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, who has worked with Johanna, was listening to some tracks she and I produced through the years and said, ‘You know, you’ve got a lot of great music here, a lot of great instrumental tracks backing the vocals. Why don’t you put together an instrumental album out of them?’ Johanna and I thought that was an interesting idea.”

From Instrumental to Incorporating Vocals

“Yoga Soundtracks Volume 2 started as an instrumental project, which was succeeding,” said Ben, “but Johanna’s such a great singer, we soon came around to wanting to feature her vocals. The idea was to create music that you could do yoga to, that was chill and relaxing, had cool hypnotic grooves, and little tidbits of English mantra. Words of spiritual wisdom are thrown in with reminders about compassion and love that can move you back into your heart space. We wanted to see if we could incorporate English into this type of album without it distracting or taking the focus away from practicing yoga or the general listening experience.”

It was a fruitful effort, with “Rise,” the album’s second track, for instance, built on the foundations of the Buddhist mantra Om Tare on Johanna’s Beyond Love album. “Rise” tunes into the energy of the Green Tara, Mother to all Buddhas and endless compassion, with English lyrics tenderly invoking that compassion. “In compassion, we arise, into magnificence…” The track features Indian-American singer and flutist Sheela Bringi.

Similarly, “May the Whole World Know” originally appeared on Johanna’s Heart Beats One album as Om Shanti. With added instruments, including Benjy Wertheimer on esraj and tabla, and Johanna’s English lyrics, the original transforms into a floating yearning prayer — “May the whole world know peace.”

Johanna’s Journey

Johanna was born into a spiritually engaged family, with music and yoga central to her upbringing. Her parents, George and Susan Grace Beekman came from the Midwest Bible Belt and moved to Oregon with the intention of raising their children to believe what they choose to believe. They still practice yoga daily, and Johanna’s father worked with Krishna Das and Ram Dass. Auspiciously, Ram Dass blessed her while she was still in her mother’s womb.

Says Johanna, “I landed pretty close to the tree and found it’s my dharma to lead a deep, spiritual, prayerful life where I weave all of the elements that have been really powerful to me.

“I’ve been singing since I could speak and writing songs about love since I was eight or nine. My first song was called ‘Just a Little More Love.’ It was about love being what the world needs to heal. I grew up singing interfaith gospel, and that’s also really one of my dharmas, to bring the gospel of the East to meet the gospel of the West,” she said.

Since then, Johanna has released seven albums of her own. She is a 500 RYT yoga instructor and brings her gospel-inspired Kirtan to festivals and workshops along with her signature Lullaby Yoga™, a restorative class accompanied by her soothing, heart-opening music.

Ben’s Journey

Ben didn’t fall far from the tree either. His parents were both musical. His father played piano and flute, and his mother dabbled in drums. “She was also a pretty good dancer and had good rhythm. I think that’s where most of my rhythm thing came from,” he said.

“Early on, I found that hearing music allowed me to feel at a deeper level. That really drew me in.” After taking drum lessons, playing in rock bands in high school, and exploring jazz, Ben attended Berklee College of Music before finishing up at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

He moved to the Bay Area, performed in jazz and rock ‘n’ roll clubs, and soon got a job at Spark, a (now defunct) recording studio in Oakland, where he moved into recording engineering. Honing his studio skills, working on everything from hip-hop and rap to jazz, Latin jazz, and rock, Ben eventually started recording and producing other artists and his own music.  One day, in the early 90s, Grammy-nominated sacred music artist, Jai Uttal, showed up at the studio to record his classic “Beggars and Saints” album. The project opened the door for Ben to work in East meets West yogic music, and Ben and Jai developed a long-term partnership. This also led Ben to record and produce Kirtan projects with Johanna, Deva Premal and Miten, Snatam Kaur, Donna De Lory, Jaya Lakshmi, David Newman, Mike Cohen, Brenda McMorrow, Katie Wise, Rob and Melissa, and others.

Weighing the intersection of music and yoga, Ben said, “I think music can be a direct path to the transcendence, the spiritual or the emotional realm —so direct that it doesn’t even need language to get there. Music seems to fit right in with anyone on a spiritual path trying to deepen their experience.

“And that’s not just the good stuff. That’s feeling the joy, the bliss, and the excitement, but also the melancholy, the suffering, sadness, and despair. You need to be able to tap into the experience and the full spectrum to have a rich life. That’s an important part of the spiritual path. These are the common elements that all human beings experience. I like to create music that allows everyone—or whoever hears it — to feel the commonality we all share, the same emotional experience. Hopefully, that leads to more love and more peace in the world.

“To me, that’s part of the spiritual and yoga path—to find more peace, love, and compassion—feeling you’re part of this life experience and connected to it.” Check out Yoga Soundtracks Volume 2 . For information on Be Why Music, please visit https://bewhymusic.com/.

Marina Muhlfriedel

Marina Muhlfriedel is a native Angeleno and self-described creative omnivore with extensive experience as a writer, film producer, and musician. She serves as Communications Administrator for the Tai Chi Foundation, teaches Mindfulness Meditation to at-risk populations, and is a senior teacher at Club Kundalini, having begun her spiritual journey in high school as a student of Yogi Bhajan.

The post Yoga Soundtracks Volume 2, a Lushly Uplifting New Album from Johanna Beekman and Ben Leinbach appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

John Densmore stands at the edge of the ocean. As the sky changes color, blue to yellow to crimson gold, he rhythmically taps a hand drum, and recites his own spoken word poetry, “And the Sun God Ra….!”

The cold waves rage closer towards his feet until he’s finally forced to move. He keeps the beat, as he treads backwards, casually mentioning, “Ya know this is where we wrote Moonlight Drive” He half-hums, half-sings the tune, “Let’s swim to the moon, let’s climb thru the tide…” The seagulls interpret this as a cue to take flight. A single feather floats down past his face. He lifts one eyebrow, giving a  “Hm…what do you think that means?” look.

In the weeks prior Densmore inducted friends, The Jefferson Airplane, into the Hollywood Walk of Fame and played with Ringo Starr at Olivia Harrison’s LA book launch. But you wouldn’t hear it from him. No, he’s effortlessly weaving in and out of Harry Belafonte lyrics, political theory, environmental ethics, indigenous prayers and polite conversation, beating his drum all the while.

I ask if it’s true his childhood home was paved over to build part of the 405 highway. He laughs, “Yea, that’s good Amy, and I think [The Beach Boys’] Brian Wilson’s did too. Now wait a minute, let’s get metaphoric. My roots are a freeway on-ramp. That’s very LA, wouldn’t you say?” I nod in agreement.

God This Is The Stuff

In the Los Angeles suburb of Westwood, there’s a sign that says “San Diego Freeway North,” where the Densmore home once stood. A few blocks away is a still thriving Catholic parish. John’s mother would drag him and his sister to St. Timothy’s Church every Sunday morning. The septuagenarian recalls, “I went up to the balcony because I didn’t like the smell of frankincense. The mass was in Latin, so it was like, ‘What is this mumbling?’ and the drunken Irish organ player is just slamming away on the thing. I’m sitting alone up there, 10 benches, nobody but me, but the bench is rattling, it’s vibrating, it’s so loud. And for an eight-year-old, that was like acid. It was like heaven. It was like, ‘Wow, vibration!’ and it’s shaking my psyche and it plants music in my head. I’m like, ‘God, this is the stuff.’ So, all my young life, I was completely in love with music.”

Cool In Training  Source; John Densmore

At around eight-and-a-half John’s parents rented him an upright piano. His pet parakeet Bill would practice with him, sitting or strutting on the keys, sometimes even singing along. Mrs. Densmore made sure John worked on what was assigned, and not just he and Bill’s arpeggio interpretations. He reflects “Even as a kid I knew that what made the difference between a great musician and an ok one was what was between the notes. Ya know, the feeling you give the silences and the sounds.”

The Densmores’ orthodontist advised against the clarinet, so the junior high band director suggested drums. Learning the nine rudiments on a rubber pad was borderline torture, but John loved the powerful feeling of sitting behind a kit. In the high school marching band the teen made his way through the bass, the cymbal and finally the snare. “It was so far back that being in a band wasn’t cool yet” he grimaces, “Being a jock was cool.”

Chasin’ The Trane

The marching band drummer gigged at local Catholic school dances, but bars and frat parties paid more. To appear of age, Densmore and his friend scored fake IDs in Tijuana. They used them to sneak into jazz clubs like the Lighthouse and Shelley’s Manne Hole. Densmore states proudly, “Kerouac and Cassidy saw Charlie Parker. We saw John Coltrane.”

Jazz Machine Elvin Jones Source Getty Jones

The iconic jazz saxophonist John Coltrane was known for bringing listeners on a journey, transcending planes of consciousness, and seemingly changing the atomic structure of the air. John and Grant sat transfixed during a 30 minute rendition of “Chasin’ the Trane” in which Coltrane, and his drummer Elvin Jones were in telepathic conversation, making musical alchemy.

After one such set the underagers slinked backstage. John smirks, “We heard Coltrane say ‘Hotel’ to Elvin, and for the next few days all we could say to each other was ‘Hotel, hotel.”

Waiting For The Sun

The jazz freak attended Santa Monica City College and Cal State Northridge (then San Fernando Valley State College). “I loved music but never thought I could make a living at it.” He remarks, “I was a music major, got A’s, but then I changed to business because I wanted to make money. But I got D’s in business. That was trying to tell me something there.”

To keep up with the cats they jammed with, John and Grant tried LSD. Grant got caught in a Charles Mingus album cover while Densmore watched an Acacia Tree breathe. “Yea and acid was legal then,” he remarks, “Before I smoked any pot, I took acid. I had terror for the first five minutes. I was in the void or whatever, and then I saw God in every leaf for eight hours straight. Afterward nothing had changed and yet everything had.”

A few weeks later the duo reconnected with a buddy from high school days. Robby Krieger had been kicked out of private school and was living up in the Pacific Palisades at his parents’ place. He was a guitar player influenced by Robert [Crossroads] Johnson, and Jimmy Reed. Krieger turned them on to Dylan. They turned him on to LSD. Soon they all formed a band called “The Psychedelic Rangers” who dosed far more than they gigged.

Let My Love Open The Door

“The acid was shattering to the nervous system,” John recalls, “The silent guru, the one Peter Townsend likes, Meher Baba once wrote on his chalkboard ‘If drugs open the door, and leads disciples to me, that’s fine. They should close it after that.’ The meditation, the chanting, it’s a lower-slung longer journey, but it’s a sustainable one.”

Robby had heard of a Transcendental Meditation class being taught at the old Masonic Temple, off Santa Monica Boulevard in West LA. The group received their preliminary instruction from a TM teacher before being initiated by its founder the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. John recalls, “This is a year or so before The Beatles discovered him. So we go to this little room, 40 people, and, oh my God, the love vibe is palpable. There’s this little guy in white with the beard and robes, and it was the antithesis of the vibe I got from a priest at Catholic school, with black outfits and the tight collar, and [he wags his finger] ‘You’re a sinner’ and oh, it just blew my mind. So, we started meditating.”

Maharishi Was Our Booking Agent

One day a self-assured UCLA grad student named Ray Manzarek and his girlfriend Dorothy attended the program. John retells, “And Ray kept saying, ‘No bliss, no bliss,’ because he was comparing it to acid, which is like, bam. And meditation, like chanting, it’s a long discipline. Ray comes up to me, “I hear you’re a drummer, you want to come down to my parents’ garage and jam?”

John was already in a few other bands but made his way to the Manzarek’s Manhattan Beach pad. He retells, “And Jim’s there and he’s so shy, it’s ridiculous. I think to myself, ‘This is not the next Mick Jagger,’ but then I get these words handed to me on a piece of paper, ‘Day destroys the night, night divides the day.’ Whoa, break on through to the other side, it was like hearing drum beats when I read them. And so that was the beginning.”

Ray’s brothers quit the band, and John brought Robby to a rehearsal. The two made a pact to let go of all their other projects and commit to this one. Densmore jokes, “I don’t think Maharishi knew it, but he was our booking agent. He put the band together.”

Stoned Immaculate

Jim Morrison was a UCLA film student, living on a Venice Beach rooftop, taking LSD and writing lyrics for a rock concert he saw in his head. Morrison wasn’t a musician. He was an introverted artist finding his voice literally and figuratively. The only band of the era to opt out of a bass player created a safe space for the singer to explore his sound. John remembers, “He would bring in these crumpled pieces of papers, coffee-stained napkins, and notebooks with incredible lyrics. He was talking about a connection to the void, the words were trying to tell us that there is something else.”

A couple miles East in the Densmore house, John placed a picture of the Hindu God Krishna, a candle, and a copy of Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi on his bedside table.  His new friends came over for a spaghetti dinner. To John’s relief, they were on their best behavior when Mr. Densmore asked if the boys had a name for their band.

The Doors From Venice (L to R Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger) c. Henry Diltz

Ray, John and Jim cruised South on the 405. Morrison shoeless in the passenger seat lit a joint and asked, “What do you think of the name ‘The Doors’?” Ray explained that Jim had gotten it from the Aldous Huxley book The Doors of Perception and Jim explained that Huxley got it from a William Blake poem that read, “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” Mr. Densmore responded, “The Doors’ is the worst name I ever heard for a band,” John boasted, “I told him that his reaction meant we were on the right track!” Soon after a marquee on the sunset strip changed its letters to read, ‘The Doors – The Band From Venice.”

I Guess I Like It Fine, So Far…

The Doors played the London Fog Club five hours a night, four nights a week. With about 30 songs developing including drafts and covers they had to find a way to fill the time. John thought to the unhurried improvisations of Coltrane and Jones. Ray thought to a Ravi Shankar album, of which his friend had designed the cover. Densmore exclaims, “Oh my God, it’s just so mystical long ragas. Which gave us the idea to break the three-minute [radio play] barrier, to do “Light My Fire” for seven minutes, “The End” for 10 minutes, and “When The Music’s Over” 11 minutes. So that came from ragas.” Years later John and Robby attended the Kinnara School of Music where they learned from the maestro, “Ravi was telling us, not literally, ‘You guys in America want to orgasm too quick. Take a long foreplay and you’ll have a bigger payoff.”

Best Seat In The Chateau Marmot Source; Unknown

The payoff came just hours before The Doors got fired from The Fog, when booker Ronnie Haran saw their set. She convinced her boss to make The Doors the house band at The Whiskey-A-Go-Go where they opened for popular acts including The Animals, The Rascals, The Turtles, Buffalo Springfield, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention and even the Van Morrison fronted, Them.

Elektra offered The Doors a deal. Company president Jac Holzman bought a billboard on the Sunset Strip to announce their first album’s release, and by July of 1967 The Doors’ “Light My Fire” was #1 in the nation. John Densmore reflects, “Yea, I hoped to pay the rent for a decade. And as you can see, my hair is white and I’m still talking about it 50 years later. It was some kind of blessing. Something came through bigger than the four of us, and we needed this sort of, stable mattress of me and Ray and Robby to be the foundation for Jim to be on top of psychically and sonically.”

We Got The Numbers

Between 1966 and 1971, The Doors played more than 350 shows in the US, Canada, Mexico and Europe. This included iconic venues such as Ondine’s Discoteque, The Fillmore East and West, The Avalon and Winterland Ballrooms, The Hollywood Bowl, Madison Square Garden, and the Isle Wight Festival in East Afton Farm, England. Six Consecutive albums; The Doors, Strange Days, Waiting for the Sun, The Soft Parade, and Morrison Hotel went certified platinum (and sometimes multi-platinum) in the United States and platinum, gold and silver internationally.

The Doors’ massive popularity was likened to a Dionysian Feast. The once-cautious lead-singer’s anti-authoritarian, freedom-at-all-costs ethos were fully expressed when he didn’t change lyrics for a network television censor, and when he became the first rock performer to be arrested on stage. Charges required multiple venues to cancel already scheduled shows. Frenzied fans protested.  The band braced for impact. The self-proclaimed “Lizard King” questioned the honor of the American judicial system and the sanctity of the first amendment.

Riders On The Storm In Europe Source; Unknown

John admits, “So yeah. It was hard. Jim was not easy, let me tell you. I lobbied for a year to stop playing live, because it was so great, and then it got not great due to his self-destruction. We knew there was a big elephant in the room, we didn’t know he had a disease, alcoholism.”

Everything Would Appear To Man As It Is, Infinite

As a birthday gift a friend bought Morrison  time at the Village Recorder. A studio built in the old Masonic Temple off Santa Monica Boulevard, where John and Robby first met Ray at the TM training. Jim recorded his spoken-word poems, from An American Prayer. He reads, “We live, we die and death not ends it…”

Eight months later a report came in from Paris that Morrison had slipped off into the infinite. Forever 27.

John reflects, “So yeah, I was on a rocket ship. It was exciting. I’m proud of it, but I’m glad that meditation and yoga, Robert Bly men’s work and whatever other stuff helped the rocket ship landing not be so bumpy. Because at the downside of that peak, some folks died. Well, many.”

The Other Side

On the Santa Monica sands, the winter winds whip. The 78-year-old continues to tap his hand drum while he extolls, “Carl Jung said that the first half of your life you’re out there doing a lot of stuff and the second half of your life you’re analyzing what the hell did it all that mean?”

I ask if he’s talking about the Jung quote, “The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it.” He grins, still drumming and says, “Yea, that’s the one.”

Bloody Red Sun Of Fantastic LA  c. Amy V. Dewhurst

John’s ability to translate deep teachings and dark meanings is in-part what has always made his artistic expressions so captivating. His first post-Doors memoir Riders on the Storm was a New York Times Bestseller and source material for the Oliver Stone cult-classic film, The Doors. His second work The Doors Unhinged has become required reading for music business majors in universities across the country.

The Seekers

John Densmore’s latest offering, The Seekers, is a special kind of book. A trojan horse of spirituality in which he layers ancient wisdom, lessons learned and thought-provoking prose inside entertaining rockstar stories. Inspired by Gurdjieff’s 1927 classic Meetings with Remarkable Men and insisted upon by friends and family, the easy-read is nothing short of magnificent.

Within it John thanks teachers like Robert Bly, Peggy Feury, Fred Katz and even his junior high band leader, Mr. Armour. He pays homage to great instrumentalists like Ravi Shankar and Emil Richards. He tells legendary Laurel Canyon tales like Van Morrison working out the words to his seminal album, Astral Weeks. He talks about the time he got kicked out of a Jamaican recording studio by a then-unknown Jimmy Cliff and weeping when he read Laurie Anderson’s good-bye letter to her husband Lou Reed. Densmore somehow segues from jazz drummer Elvin Jones to beloved Pushti Marg scholar Shyamdas in the same sentence. And oh yeah, there was that time he smoked a joint with Willie Nelson. Naturally.

‘Til The Stars Fall From The Sky… c. Amy V. Dewhurst

Fan favorite passages include musician Tom Petty’s reflection on Jim Morrison’s well-lived life; “Tom said, ‘Some artists, the very very great ones, come along with the flame turned all the way up. And the flame is all the way up and you use a lot of fuel fast. And you’ve just got to get the heat that comes off of it.”.

John’s appreciation for the godmother of punk, Patti Smith giving it all up to raise her family, “[Patti] became a mother and a housewife. What? The woman who wrote ‘Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine,’ had settled down in the Midwest?! At first it seemed unthinkable, but it was a heroic move.”

And the last moments with his mother on the Earth plane, “They had obviously told her I was on my way because she was lying in her bed, all decked out with turquoise earring, a turquoise necklace, and slightly smeared lipstick. A ninety-four-year-old woman still wanting to look good for her son is an image that will stay with me forever.”

Amongst the Hafiz quotes, Gita passages, Ram Dass moments, and Neil De Grassi Tyson data Densmore assures the reader,“I have had the opportunity to meet and interact with some extraordinary people. To be a member of The Doors and have the unusual access I have been afforded is one of the greatest blessings of my life. But what I’ve learned is that anyone can access magical moments these gifted artists live in.”

Back on the beach in Santa Monica he shares, “I play hand drums and read poetry at small events, and some nights it’s so powerful because the audience and I are so connected. It’s as exciting as Madison Square Garden.”

What You Seek Is Seeking You

The sun takes its time syncing into the Pacific.

John Densmore pauses for a moment, breathes in the crisp cool air. He rat-a-tat-tats out a few final beats, turns to me and says, “Ya know Joseph Campbell said, ‘The goal in life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe.’”

I think to myself, “Seems like you have that one figured out…”

As though he heard the thought he shrugs.
I smile.

At the same time we both start humming “Let’s swim to the moon, let’s climb thru the tide…”

Heartbeat of the Universe,  John Densmore  c. Amy V. Dewhurst

Join John Densmore at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena

The Seekers Book Reading  + Signing
Friday December 16, 2022
7pm
For tickets click here

The Seekers is now available where all books are sold

Click here to purchase.
Click here to learn more at Hachette Books.

To keep up with John Densmore

Check out his website, JohnDensmore.Com
Follow John on Social; Facebook , Instagram.

Amy V Dewhurst

To Check Out Amy’s Work Go To; Sense + Color, You Can Reach Her At IG:  Amy_V_Dewhurst  + AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #PutYourGoodWhereItWillDoTheMost

www.senseandcolor.co

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Deep Dive Offers Meditations for the Flow of Life with Shiva Rea and Rara Avis

Created by Shiva Rea, world-renowned yoga/movement facilitator and creator of Prana Vinyasa Flow and Rara Avis, CEO/Co-Founder of YogiTunes, Deep Dive is a multi-faceted experiential movement mediation offered in the spirit of Sahaja, the natural, spontaneous flow of life force that exists within us all. Rather than asking us to create, to perform or to “do” something with our breath, Deep Dive invites us to take a step back and for the breath, itself, to breathe us. In doing so, we are invited into a Sahajic state of bliss, one which arrives from within, through a re-awakening of the spontaneous rhythm and flow of breath.

Deep Dive offers two formats of experience. One incudes five separate shorter journeys, each with its distinct elemental pattern, as well as a holistic, unified experience of 30 minutes of breath-centered, gentle movement instrumental meditation, akin to the typical length of a Yoga Nidra session.

LA Yoga Magazine caught up with Shiva Rea while she was on an airplane, heading to Diwali for the Festival of Lights. We laughed and shared a lovely interview while Shiva was strapped into her airline seat. In many ways, the context of the interview itself parallels Shiva’s ability and willingness to dive into the flow of each moment. No moment is “perfect” if viewed through an external lens, and yet, every moment is perfect when we exist within the present, one breath at a time.

Deep Dive – the Collaboration

Rara Avis and Shiva Rea have collaborated for nearly twenty years, offering yoga-movement-meditation experiences. Their partnership began back in the early 2000s, when Shiva taught at Sacred Movement in Venice Beach.

Shiva was one of the first yoga teachers to offer a fusion of yoga and dance movement meditation. Her classes were often filled with live accompaniment – drums, sitar, vocals and DJs. The music served as a gentle pulse during the yoga portion of class, and expanded into more encompassing rhythms during the free-flowing, tribal dance portion of class. The experiences were brand new for us at the time, a fusion of the Sahajic state that yoga brings along with the ecstatic state of dance, resulting in a blissful movement meditation. Rara was a frequent collaborator in these organic rhythmic offerings.

By the time it came to collaborating on Deep Dive, “We had a very natural foundation,” remarks Shiva. “Rara had just taken our teacher training in Costa Rica, and though we’d prefer to be in the same space, he’s in Canada, and when I did the voice over, I was in the English countryside while in quarantine last summer, surrounded by sheep.”

“Rara’s music is a testament to the power and the epic experience of the breath as a journey. Rara’s rhythms give people an opportunity to move with the breath, wherever they are, which is a powerful Sadahana.”

Deep Dive as an offering reminds us that “ breath is the the first mantra. Our heartbeat,” explains Shiva. Our pathway to feel what we are living lies in each breath.

Rara Avis adds to the conversation, “A conscious, connected breath practice is perhaps one of the most understated, powerful tools we have at our disposal. It links our autonomic nervous system to our conscious waking minds and helps us tap into the limitless potential we have as human beings to build resilience, strength, compassion and awareness.”

Deep Dive – the Experience

begins with an invitation to enter that sacred space of Self. Shiva’s voice prompts us to root into the earth, to feel that wave of the breath in us, to allow our pelvis to rock back and forth. She prompts us to look into the field of our body and release tension by exhaling from the crown of our head, descending out of our body like a sacred waterfall.

Deep Dive offers a primal experience of movement meditation. It is incredibly basic in its beauty and simplicity, inviting us to experience nature as within us all, a realization often glossed over in our quick-paced, hyper-focused life. The act of unwinding oneself in this first meditative offering aligns us with a fluid, watery presence within. Shiva’s voice is soft and nurturing. Rara’s accompaniment is in perfect sync and harmony. The collaboration itself is one of unity and deeply-held connectedness.

In the introduction, Shiva’s voice prompts us to use our arms, if we so desire, and sweep them overhead, gathering energy in a natural way, to open our inner ear and listen, and to connect with our heart in gratitude and refuge.

The first guided breath cycle is a Solar cycle, one in which we inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth with the solar mantra of the sun: “HA.” This cycle is good for cleansing and releasing.

The second guided breath cycle is a Lunar breath, a softer inhaling, drawing in golden light and pausing on the exhale, diving it into three parts. This cycle dramatically calms and eases the nervous system, inviting a spaciousness within.

The third guided cycle is akin to the practice of Nadhi Shodhana, an invitation into a unified Solar-Lunar breath. Shiva invites us to breathe into the right side of our body (with or without the use of physical, hands-on breath retention) and complete one half of this breath cycle by exhaling out of the left side of our body: in doing so, we offer the sun to the moon. The breath pattern balances itself as we breathe into the left side of our body and exhale out the right side of our body, offering the moon back to the sun.

Shiva’s voice completes the experience by reminding us that we have 21,600 breaths a day every day. Can we experience a sense of awareness in just 100 of those breaths, perhaps? Can we remember our sense of purpose in just a fraction of our daily breath cycle? We are invited to remain in this space of ease for as long as we wish.

Shiva Rea Shares Meditations on Deep Dive

Deep Dive as an Energetic Offering of Sahaja

When asked to comment on the energetic tone of the piece, Shiva explains, “Every breath we take travels through our bloodstream into every cell of our body. It touches all of us, like a droplet of water in an immersive sea.”

Most breathwork is integrated into asana, remarks Shiva, “and doesn’t give people permission to feel that sea of breath.” Whereas most yogic breath forms are rooted in classic rules, which may appear to feel rigid and constrictive to some, the state of Sahaja is the opposite: a space of flow, diving into the natural movements of life, a rising and pulsing of energy. Sahaja is anything but rigid or controlled.

Whether Deep Dive is experienced as separate practices or as one complete offering, it accomplishes this invitation to awaken into Sahaja, and in our post-pandemic world, this invitation is truly one of sacred medicine. Deep Dive offers invites us to reunite with our inner Truth through a journey into the depths of the unknown, the sublime and the sacred within us all.

When asked about how Deep Dive is a healing practice, one to soften the edges of the rigidness and deeply held fear state that many were forced into during the last few years, Shiva acknowledges that Fear is useful in a primal sense. But too much of it leads to contraction. It restricts our movement. “Sometimes, we feel ashamed when we begin a pranayama practice. It’s so hard to breathe! we might think. That’s the exit of cortisol, or fear in our nervous system. We are overstimulated,”

Shiva continues,”If we lovingly ask the breath to help us and to take refuge in it, even just for a short while, we experience each breath as life. And if we just love our breath, invite the breath to meet us, to love us, to move us, and to inspire us, we can transform the mental and emotional stress we are in.”

This invitation to experience each breath as innate intelligence, unfolding slowly and without judgment, draws us deeper into ourselves. Breath by breath, wave by wave: through this process, we release the rigidity of fear embodied within.

Rara Avis shares meditation music on Deep Dive

Bhavana and Sahaja

As with many artistic offerings rooted in the spirit of Divine Expansion, words don’t do Deep Dive justice because Bhavana– the meditative experience itself– is necessary to cultivate the feeling of Sahaja, expansion or bliss.

Deep Dive draws us in with its rawness, an indescribable truth and honesty, deeply felt on a visceral level, and within the very essence of our being. On one hand, Deep Dive is an invitation to trust the Breath as the source of intelligence, to allow the breath to breathe us as opposed to feeling that we have to control and create a specific breath pattern to achieve a prescribed result. On the other hand, Deep Dive is an invitation to expand into the unknown, a space of creation and possibility that unites us all in Love.

Listen to Deep Dive

Deep Dive is released on Six Degrees Records and currently available on streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.

Aria Morgan

Aria Morgan is a yoga teacher, doula and music lover who finds inspiration in nature: ariamorgan.com.

www.ariamorgan.com

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Jahnavi Harrison Shares Bhakti Yoga through Sacred Music

Sacred music artist Jahnavi Harrison is currently touring the US for her Into the Forest Tour, named for her most recent sacred music album. Join her on Thursday, November 3, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, at 7:00 PM.

Jahnavi evokes the environmentalist John Muir saying, “Into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul.” which gave inspiration for name of both the album Into the Forest and the tour. Whether we are in nature or a theatre, in the city, or in the forest, we can connect to the art of devotion to find our souls.

She’s sharing her clarity of voice, purity of purpose, and a direct line to the essence of bhakti. Bhakti is the Sanskrit word for devotion. This refers to the practice that allows us to experience our connection to the divine within us as well as the divine aspects of the world around us. It is more than chant, music, or song.

Bhakti Yoga is the path that allows us to open our hearts. It is available to each and every one of us. There are so many methods we can use to connect into this path of practice. Those of us who live in Los Angeles are fortunate to be able to have the experience to not only sit and experience sacred musician Jahnavi’s devotion, but to sing with her and to sing in community with each other on Thursday, November 3, 2022. (Use the discount code SINGVIP50 for a limited time offer of 50% off tickets.

A Path of Practice

Each and every time Jahnavi shares her approach to Bhakti Yoga, she draws upon the legacy of her upbringing. She grew up at Bhaktivedanta Manor in England, a spiritual sanctuary famously donated by late Beatle George Harrison as part of his own practice of Bhakti Yoga.

Her immersion in sacred song includes a number of album releases, including the album, Like a River to the Sea.

Jahnavi has garnered a long list of supporters who share their love of her work. Willow Smith has recorded music with Jahnavi and calls her, “One of my favorite artists of all time.” Famous chant artist Krishna Das says, “When Jahnavi sings and plays one feels that one is eavesdropping on the music of the Gods. One only has to have ears to hear her and know immediately that we are in the presence of grace.”

She has appeared on Russell Brand’s podcast. He says the following about her, “This woman is amazing. I’ve seen her perform, it’s holy and sacred.”

Sing with Jahnavi Harrison in Los Angeles

Thursday, November 3 at 7:00 PM. A Night of Mantra Music with Jahnavi Harrison.  Wilshire Ebell Theatre, 4401 West 8th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90005 For 50% off tickets, use the discount code:  SINGVIP50  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jahnavi-harrison-an-evening-of-mantra-music-meditation-tickets-391173950817

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

The post Into the Forest: Sing with Sacred Music Artist Jahnavi Harrison appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Her name is Kali – She is the Hindu Goddess of Liberation, of change and transition, of endings before beginnings. She is beloved by billions of devotees worldwide, and though you may not know Her by name, you’ve probably seen Her image “hiding in plain sight.” For She inspired  Rock ‘n Roll’s most infamous logo.

In 1970 the Royal College of Art in London got a call from the rock n’ roll band, the Rolling Stones’ office. They inquired about students proficient in poster design for their upcoming European tour. An artist who had showed promise in that format was selected and sent to meet the band’s lead singer, Mick Jagger.

John Pasche was 25 at the time and pursuing a Master of Art degree. He remembers, “My design for the tour poster went down well and later in the year Mick invited me to his home to talk about a logo design that he had in mind to use on the Stones own record label.”

John’s First Commission with The Stones – Europe 70 Tour Poster

Paint It Black

John continues, “During the meeting, Mick explained that he wanted a logo design which would stand alone as an image without including the Rolling Stones name. A bit like the Shell logo for the petroleum company. He also showed me a picture of the Hindu Goddess Kali which he had seen in his local corner shop and asked to borrow it. He just said he liked the image without specifically explaining why. I was conscious that there was a lot of interest in Indian culture and religion at the time.”

Kali Mata

The two talked through some concepts pulling inspiration from Kali. Pasche explains, “For me it was the tongue sticking out of her mouth that was the spark of the concept of using a disembodied mouth and tongue as the logo. It seemed to symbolize anti-establishment and rebellion which was seen as the bands image at the time”

The art student worked for a few weeks, and presented some preliminary sketches. John retells, “ At the next meeting with Mick, we both agreed on one of the sketches which is very much as the logo is now. He needed to show the rest of the band who were happy for me to proceed to finished artwork.”

The Original Rolling Stones Logo Sketch By John Pasche

Tongue + Lips

John Pasche’s “Tongue and Lips” logo first appeared on the back cover, inside cover and label of the 1971 Rolling Stones’ album Sticky Fingers. A record that frequently ranks on “best of” lists. It contains Stones classics like, “Brown Sugar,” Wild Horses,” “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,” “Moonlight Mile” and “Dead Flowers.”

Artists Andy Warhol and Craig Braun designed the album cover that contained an actual zipper. They were nominated for a Grammy Award for best recording package in 1972 and are sometimes erroneously credited with having designed the infamous logo.

Stones Travel In Style

Over the last 50+ years the logo has appeared on t-shirts and stickers, stadium stages and private jets, baby clothes and bottles of alcohol, it’s one of the most requested tattoos of all time, and the shape was even built AS a stage at the 2006 Superbowl half time show. It’s regarded as the most recognizable logo in the history of the rock ‘n roll industry.

Of the “Tongue and Lips” phenomena Pasche, now 77 reflects, “I had no idea at the time that my logo design would be used for over 50 years but I put that down to the fact that the band have been making music and touring all that time without wanting to change their logo. I am obviously happy that the logo seems to be liked by young and old. The interest in retro design and fashion has certainly helped.”

She Who Is The Mother Of Time

For being a conduit to one of Kali’s most infamous forms of the modern era, Pasche says, “At the time I didn’t know much about the Goddess Kali but discovered that in Hinduism, she was the goddess of time, doomsday, and death, or the black goddess. Also that she evolved to a full-fledged symbol of Mother Nature in her creative, nurturing and devouring aspects. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mick knew a lot more about this than I did and that is why he chose her image to show to me.”

John Pasche with his iconic Rolling Stones Design

Pasche  has enjoyed a rich career designing art with music legends like The Who, David Bowie, United Artists Records, Chrysalis Records and more, is a recipient of multiple industry-renown Design and Advertising awards, Music Week awards and Communications Arts awards.

He concludes, “From the day I created the logo I have always felt that it was the perfect image for the Stones and am flattered that a lot of other people like it too.”

Jai Kali Ma!

John Pasche Design

To View John Pasche’s Work Go To JohnPascheDesign.com

To Get Your Own Hand-Signed Rolling Stone’s Logo Art Check Out RollingStonesLogo.com

Amy V Dewhurst

To Check Out Amy’s Work Go To; Sense + Color, You Can Reach Her At IG:  Amy_V_Dewhurst  + AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #PutYourGoodWhereItWillDoTheMost

www.senseandcolor.co

The post How Hindu Goddess Kali Inspired Rock ‘n Roll’s Most Infamous Icon appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

From his studio in Northern California, Mickey Hart states, “It’s about transcendence, and that’s what certain kinds of music does. It takes you from this, your normal waking state, to another virtual space outside of that, and that’s one of the powers of music that I’ve enjoyed over the years, to be able to enhance consciousness and do many things that you can never do without it. So yes, I am in the business of transportation. I don’t have trucks, but I do have music.” A dharmic assignment that some say he signed up for before birth.

The Cosmic Background

“My parents happened to be rhythmically astute. Both of them were drummers, so it kind of runs in the family” Mickey remarks. The couple won the mixed doubles competition in rudimentary drumming at the 1939 World’s Fair. “In the womb, the bass is the heart” he explains, “My mother’s heartbeat was beating a tattoo of about 140 decibels, very loud. So I was imprinted, just like everyone is imprinted, with a rhythmic signature even before you come out into the light.” Mickey’s family hid a drum pad and snakewood drumsticks in hard-to-reach corners of his grandparents’ apartment, but the four-year-old always found them. He notes, “That set my whole life on course, and it never ever veered off of that.”

Mickey Hart -Early days back East source; MH FB

Mickey and his mom moved to the attic of an old Cape Cod house on Long Island. The Italian truck driver who lived below had five kids, and a longing for quiet. “He took exception to my drumming skills,” Hart recounts, “At about 5:30 [pm] just when he came home from work, he would come up the stairs and bang on the door, and my mom would be there with a broom and she said, ‘over my dead body.’ [he laughs]. And so, my mom helped a lot, defended my right to play, because remember, druuums are loooud.”

Meeting The Mentor

When Mickey walked into the Lawrence High School band room, he crossed a threshold. “There was magic in that room because there was a magician in it,” he once wrote. The teen bought a stack of hall passes off a friend with a printing press so he could hang around band teacher, “Jonesy” and the array of drums that he harbored. This earned him a rap-sheet with the principal. In his senior year, he quit school and enlisted in the Air Force. He was ready for his initiation.

“Druuums are loooud” source; Music Archive

Hart dropped his tray down onto the mess hall table of the Strategic Air Command outside of Madrid, Spain. Someone slipped him a note, “Be prepared to defend your belt at four o’clock tomorrow. Or else you’re a dead man.” He apprehensively entered the dojo with Pogo, the base judo instructor. Instead of destroying the young braggart, Pogo developed him into a European armed forces judo champion. Every available moment was spent training, lifting, learning how to harness inner energy, and hone mental focus (even in his sleep). “He became my first teacher in the higher sense,” Mickey acknowledges. After 18 months he was totally transformed and Pogo reassigned. They never saw each other again.

Akiwowo Oloko Ile! source; Music Archive

Mickey served as a drummer in the Airmen of Note, an elite big band unit that traveled through Europe playing American military classics. He moved off base and in with a metropolitan playboy he had met while buying a used Alfa Romeo. At one of his roommate’s parties, the percussionist put on Babatunde Olatunji’s Drums of Passion and the jetsetters went wild.

Mickey explains, “Baba had all these drummers playing, but he combined the brass of New York City, Nigerian percussion and the street. It was a giant underground hit; sold millions of records. When I heard that music, and I heard the talking drum on it, it changed my life. I never was the same after that. And that sound resonates even to this day in my mind. So he started back then to influence who I was to become.”

Knockin’ On The Golden Door

Out of the Air Force and into the musicians’ union, Mickey milled around the basement of the Roseland Ballroom hoping for a weekend gig. A letter came from his dad out in California who had just opened a music store. The twenty-something spent the next two years intimately learning the workings (and the things that don’t always work), on a variety of drums. Count Basie’s percussionist Sonny Payne invited Mickey to their show at San Francisco’s Fillmore West theater. That night a nameless, faceless, never-again-seen stranger, introduced Mickey Hart to a guy named Bill Kreutzmann.

About a month later, “Bill the drummer” banged away with his newly named band before jumping off stage at the Straight Theater, saying something like, “Sit in for the second set.” By the time the two borrowed drums from a friend’s house, got them in a truck, and up onto the stage the next set began. Mickey hadn’t yet met these people, nor heard their songs, but the musical conversation that occurred was extra-sensory, soul recognition, sorta stuff. He affirmed, “We knew it right away. Bill knew it, I knew it, the band knew it, Jerry [Garcia] knew it. Jerry said, ‘So that’s Grateful Dead music! We could take this around the world!’”

Drums And Space

In 1665, the Dutch Physicist Christian Huygen proved the “Law of Entrainment”–  that two objects vibrating at different speeds in close proximity will sync with one another. It happens as frequently with mechanical items like clocks as with coworkers’ menstruation cycles. This can happen at an accelerated pace when both beings are committed to it. “We practiced every day, all day,” Mickey recalls, merging into what he and Bill called a rhythm machine, a tractor beam.

Rhythm Devils In Flight! Mickey Hart + Bill Kreutzmann on plane, 1968 ©  Rosie McGee

“He would take the right stick, and I would take a left stick and I’d hold him behind, he’d hold me behind, and we were able to play as one. And we lived together too!” Mickey says laughing. “So you really get to know somebody. Every waking moment was spent practicing, playing. There were thousands and thousands of hours put into being able to play like one drummer or eight hands. That wasn’t by accident, we knew we were meant for each other. It’s kind of like getting married, you have that relationship that is very close and you feel each other’s mind, body, everything, the whole sensibilities about a person, it draws you close to them, and we have that for each other. And we focused on drums, drums being the connecting fiber in our relationship.”

Now Is The Time Past Believing

Bill, rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, and bassist Phil Lesh lived in a second band house at 24 Belvedere Street in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district. Because all the bedrooms were already taken Mickey took up residence in a closet-kinda room, half under the stairs. There was a knock on the door, Mickey retells, “Phil Lesh gave me a record, Drums of North and South India, that Alla Rakha was on.” The newest group member grabbed his Indian drum, the tabla, and was primed to play along. He came out confused, asking Phil to confirm the credits which said there was just one, not five or six drummers. The Eastern polyrhythmic time signature blew his ever-expanding mind. “It felt at first unattainable.” Mickey admits.

Ustad Alla Rakha Qureshi + Pandit Ravi Shankar source; Music Archive

A few weeks later, Hart was invited to attend a performance of virtuosos Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha. Back in high school he worked as a soda jerk at a jazz club to watch Latin legends like Tito Puente’s sticks travel the kit. Now he was mesmerized by Alla Rakha’s fingertips dancing atop the tabla. The Hindustani classical musician from a village outside of Kashmir taught the marching band drummer from Brooklyn “rhythm games.”

Mickey reveals, “I had to really focus a little bit more than I would in the normal four- fours and threes and sixes, which are the rhythmic signatures of the western music. They play in what we would call odd time signatures, five and seven at nine and all these time signatures that were outside of the rhythmic lexicon. When I found this, it just totally intrigued me.”

American Beauty; Mickey Hart + the Grateful Dead on a trail ride near Mickey’s Novato ranch, 1969 © Rosie McGee

Nestled into a new ranch home in the Novato Mountains, Mickey and the band gave themselves over to these rhythm games for months. It soon led to songs like “The Eleven.” In time, the intricate layering of beats opened infinite possibilities within each song, each set, each concert. Hart offers, “And that changed my life, and the Grateful Dead’s life as well…”

While The Music Plays The Band

The rise of the Dead has been meticulously chronicled in books, films, magazines, the cassette tape trade, and early days of the internet. Mickey jokes, “I know what I did every day of my life — any time I’ve ever played.” There are warehouses of their recordings, and an official archive at UC Santa Cruz. There are places of pilgrimage, and historic dates revered, because as the great impresario Bill Graham once said, “They’re not the best at what they do, they’re the only ones who do what they do.”

“They’re A Band Beyond Description” – GD © Roger Ressmeyer via Getty Image

The Grateful Dead never played the same show twice, and they did it more than 2,000 times, over 30 years. Warner Brothers Music president Joe Smith called it, “One of the great phenomenons of the entertainment world.” A group reluctant to take a publicity photo became what many millions consider the greatest rock ‘n roll band of all time. The top grossing tour act, who gave their music away to tapers, officially sold more than 35 million albums. They were inducted into the Rock n’ Roll hall of fame, received a Grammy for lifetime achievement, and even won an award for packing a record number of people into New Jersey’s Meadowlands. Hallowed ground.

“When I Paint My Masterpiece” – Vegas ’93 © Jay Blakesberg

54 years, 10 months, and 3 days after materializing into the band Mickey states, “We didn’t even have a set list. We just went out there and started a song, and then someone offered another, and then we went there, and then the same thing happened. So, we played for hours without a chart, without a map. We were all going on that adventure together, and we knew it. We were out there in the zone, and we wanted to take people with us. And we’ve been able to raise consciousness for millions of people.”

Mickey, Jerry Garcia + Joseph Campbell © Jay Blakesberg

The allure, the magic, the mystery, the ritual, the rite can perhaps best be described by pioneering anthropologist Joseph Campbell, who gave a lecture at UC Berkeley declaring, “I go to this building with EIGHT thousand people in it, and they’re all standing for FIVE hours in a rapture. And I had suspected that there might be something interesting to observe because of the name, the Grateful Dead. That is a phrase that comes from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and it refers to those dead, which is what we are when we are un-awakened…”

Deadheads in Rapture © Jay Blakesberg

Campbell continues, “And what I felt there was something that seemed to me, to be a true religious experience. Namely, these people were all one; the heart is burst open and one loses oneself in a spiritual experience of compassion, of suffering and living and joying with others who, in the same mode, are having this experience. And so, it seemed to me there, that we had an awakening of the kind that the great religions first intended. And that it somehow involved everybody. There were kids there, there were old people there, and in other parts of the building you could see there were people there just dancing and dancing…. It seemed to me, and I’m meaning this very seriously, a prime religious experience that transcended all the bondage and definition of ‘who’ and ‘what’ [which] are the curse of the world today. And so, this I would say, is the answer to the atom bomb.”

Let Our Chant Fill The Void, That Others May Know

There was a popular bumper sticker selling in stadium parking lots that read, “There’s nothing like a Grateful Dead Show.” And while each assembly illuminated a new hue of ascendance some were notoriously surreal. One of them was Egypt ’78. By all differing accounts an undeniably mystical odyssey into otherworldly antiquity.

“Yes, that was a beauty,” Mickey reflects amorously.

Hamza El Din source; Music Archive

As the Aswan Dam was being built across the Nile River, local villagers knew they would forever be displaced. A Nubian Oud player named Hamza El Din traveled by donkey to collect the stories and songs of his people. He made his way to Marin County, California where Mickey met him.

Hart reminisces, “Hamza, very soft, Hamza was the quiet side, which I had never found before. I mean, he was silence; he was quiet, he was calm, he was centered. He wasn’t loud, everybody around me was loud. This was the other side. When I found Hamza, it all snapped in, and it was like the romancing of the air, as opposed to the auditory driving, which is the loud side. It brought people in, it wasn’t the music that went out, it was like you went into the music, and you had to listen very carefully.” Hamza introduced Mickey to the Tar –a hypnotic frame drum from North Africa that has a recalibrating, calming, cooling effect.

Sometime later, a long-held dream of the Grateful Dead and extended collective started to take shape. Donning rarely-worn business suits, Phil Lesh, GD publishing’s Alan Trist, and GD manager Richard Loren convinced multiple government agencies in several countries to allow for a big adventure. The Grateful Dead family of 50+ arrived in Egypt during the last night of Ramadan. The celebratory mood helped ease logistical endeavors, like importing The Who’s sound equipment in from England, and mic-ing the 5,000-year-old tomb of Pharaoh Cheops (of which Jerry Garcia reportedly remarked, “This should be weird enough.”).

Tar School Orchestra, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Jerry Garcia Egypt ’78  © Adrian Boot/Urban Image

At the right paw of the Great Sphinx in Giza’s Sound and Light Theater, the show began. Mickey orates, “Hamza had a school of tars in a place called Abu Simbal and there were 40, 50 drummers from the school up on stage playing this beautiful 12-beat pattern, which was my favorite. And then Jerry came out, and Bobby came out, the band just joined in.”

Hamza and his orchestra patted out the sacred wedding song” Ollin Arageed”. The native tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap cycled into the familiar clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap of “Not Fade Away.”

The 178 Deadheads who had chartered a 747 from the states did not miss a beat. The sound traveled past the monuments in the Valley of the Dead and all the way into metropolitan Cairo where First Lady Jehan Sadat had allowed the special permit for this unusual event.

Mickey smirks, “Another funny thing was they had a fire on the side of the stage where they would heat the drums and pass them out one by one, and they kept rotating the drums, with the humidity, the drums would sink in tone. And the fire was blazing, the drums were being heated up over the fire, they were being passed around and there we were in Egypt! There was Bill Walton, there was Bill Graham. Ken Kesey was there, all kinds of people came. It was wild.”

Egypt ’78 Full Moon Lunar Eclipse © Adrian Boot/ Urban Image

As the sun set each evening silhouettes watched from the distance. Were they adversaries, onlookers, Isis, Osiris, Anubis? On the third night a Full Moon Lunar Eclipse at 23 degrees in Pisces shadowed the Sahara Sky. The nomadic Arab tribe, the Bedouins, emerged forth into the light. They tied their camels and secured their caravans to dance with the Deadheads to “Fire on a Mountain.” This audible, astrological, intercultural confluence is believed to have opened another dimension.

In a film about his life, Bob Weir avowed, “Time went away. Future past, all of it was right here…when the pyramid was lined up with the Sphinx, I would hear echoes in a sound that seemed to go far beyond this place and time. At dusk the mosquitos come out and I looked at my arm and it was covered with mosquitos. And I’m thinking ‘Ok welcome to hell.’ And then something flies by my face.It was a bat. I look across the stage, and the stage is swarmed with bats and they’re taking out the mosquitos. They’re saving our asses! There’s a rock n roll band on a thousands of year old stage, at the foot of the great pyramid, surrounded by a cloud of bats and I think to myself, ‘Take me now Lord, I want to remember it just like this.”

Late into the dark desert night, the entourage traveled by camel and horseback to an oasis, where there was talk of Israeli and Egyptian leaders at the US’s Camp David reaching a Mid-East peace agreement. The compass always points.

Mickey + Bill Graham Riding On The Edge In Giza source; S+C

In the month that followed, Mickey traveled by ship down the Nile River recording maritime songs with his new Nagra. A sojourn that would impact the preservation of indigenous music on a mass scale. He reflects, “So yes, so that’s what happened with Hamza. We were friends until the end, and he taught me a lot. I loved him. He was one of my guides, one of my doors, one of the doors that I went through my rhythm door.”

Drum Circles

In San Francisco in the mid-80s, Mickey opened a newspaper to see Babatunde Olatunji was playing nearby. The one whose album had awakened something within the young airmen in Madrid, so many roads ago. Hart recollects “He came to town at a club, and I went down there and I just got into a conga drum line or something. We were all playing and afterward I asked him, ‘Hey, I’d like you to open for my band, at the Oakland Coliseum on New Year’s Eve. And he didn’t know who I was, and he never heard of the Grateful Dead. So he just kind of blew me off. And then I guess somebody told him afterward, and he called me and he said ‘Yes, I’ll be there.’ And of course, he called all of his people from all over the world, and he opened for the Grateful Dead. Magnificent performance.”

Baba © Jay Blakesberg

The Nigerian drum master’s tribal beat amplified out through KFOG San Francisco Public Radio and a National TV broadcast. Mickey smiles, “And so he came into our world, and he became like Baba, like Dad, like father to all of these deadheads who wanted to learn about drum circles and about using the drum for healing, using the drum for meditation.”

The primordial, familiar feel of drum circles quickly caught on. From Dead Show surroundings, they migrated onto college campuses and summer camps, corporate retreats and city squares. Varun Soni Ph.D. Dean of Religious life at the University of Southern California confirms, “Whenever the Grateful Dead performed with other musicians, Deadheads would do deep dives into their respective catalogues in order to learn about different genres and approaches.”

Mickey + Baba source; MH FB

Dr. Soni continues, “Through Mickey Hart’s personal relationships and professional collaborations with other virtuoso percussionists like Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain, Babatunde Olatunji and others, Deadheads were introduced to rhythmic sounds and styles from all over the world. As a result, they started their own drum circles and communities, and became part of an ancient and global percussion lineage of trance and transcendence.”

That lineage reached critical mass in 2004 when Mickey’s organization Rhythm for Life and Remo Belli distributed several thousand instruments to nearly 5,000 percussionists. Breaking the Guinness Book of World Records for largest drum ensemble. Mickey deduces, “So that’s how it was, you felt powerful after a rhythm meditation.”

Rhythm For Life Drum Circle © Susana Millman

A Call To All Nations

“Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh….” The Dzintars Latvian Women’s Choir reached a crescendo. Jerry Garcia leaned over Mickey’s shoulder, “We got it.” Mickey, sitting behind the soundboard at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch lit up, “Yea that one was really powerful.”

From the rainforests of Papa New Guinea to his son’s heartbeat in utero, Mickey and his team have recorded, preserved and produced music and soundscapes from around the world. They created the “Endangered Music Project,” a collaboration with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, which presents recordings from musical traditions at risk. Their captures and curation have become “The Mickey Hart Collection” with the Smithsonian Institution. Mickey has produced albums of Hamza, Babatunde, Ustad Sultan Khan, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim, Native Americans, Indigenous Balinese, Haitian Vodou and many more. He has released 17 solo albums with consistent collaborators and introduced “World Music” to the masses.

Produced By Mickey Hart © Patty Healy c/o Blakesberg Retro Photo Archive

In a pre-internet era, Hart and comrades like Frederic Lieberman, Elizabeth Cohen, and many others voraciously collected drums and information about drumming from all ends of the Earth. This resulted in a peg-board style organization system in his barn, lovingly referred to as the “Anaconda.” Its molten skin became authored books Drumming at the Edge of Magic, Planet Drum, Spirit of Sound, and Songcatchers.

In 1996, 3.5 billion people watched the opening ceremony of the Centennial Olympics. Mickey, Zakir Hussain, Giovanni Hidalgo and Philip Glass’s composition “Call to All Nations” was performed by more than a hundred local percussionists and singers from around the world. Boxing heavyweight Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic flame and fireworks flew up into the sky.  Somewhere out there, Jonesy was looking on saying, “You did it, man.”

May All Beings

Local poet laureate, lyricist Robert Hunter handed Mickey an unmarked cassette tape of something he quick-recorded off of public radio. Mickey pressed play, rewind, pause, play for many years before discovering it was the only known recording of the Gyuto Monks of Tibet; an exiled people whose spiritual practice included multi-phonic vocalizing. That is, chanting three chord mantras from deep within their throat. The fervent collector was on a quest to meet and record them.

Some 15 years later, His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama declared that the dharma should be experienced by everyone, and thus for the first time in history, allowed these powerful prayers to be recited outside of the monastic environments. Beloved Buddhist Scholar Tenzin Robert Thurman arranged for this sangha to come to Amherst, Massachusetts.

Mic-ed Up For Mantras © Susana Millman

Author and Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally shares fondly, “Mickey’s curiosity about the world, combined with the events of Tibet and them being in India, and so forth, morphed into something in front of our eyes. On an off day of the tour, Mickey, [sound engineer] Dan Healy with myself tagging along, went to Amherst College and recorded the monks. Over the course of the day Mickey was chatting with the abbot and said, ‘Oh Well, doing shows is what we do. We’ll do a show for you’. And he turns to me and says, ‘Sell it out Denny’. With various people we did put on a show at Berkeley Community Theater. It was not only sold out, at intermission there were still five people hoping against hope sitting on the steps of the theater.” This collaboration evolved into an album and West Coast Tour.

Mickey + The Gyuto Monks of Tibet! © Susana Millman

While traveling from Marin County to San Francisco’s East Bay the monks intuited, “We sense a lot of pain over there.” At their request, GD manager Danny Rifkin pulled over the passenger van so the Tibetan monks could do a side-of-the-road purification puja for the inmates of the San Quentin Prison.

Rifkin reached out to campus chaplain Earl Smith asking, “What’s the single best thing we can do?” Smith responded, “Some kind of program for children of these prisoners would do more for their spirits and their hearts than anyone could imagine.” McNally continues, “In the course of all this, Danny finds out, and shares with Mickey, about the choir, and the chapel, and Mickey who never met a sound he didn’t need to record said, ‘I have to record them.’ So bit by bit the arrangements were made to have this recording session in the chapel.”

Mickey and the team produced, He’s All I Need, an album of the San Quentin Mass Choir. Chaplain Smith has said, “We had a mix of staff and inmates doing what had never been done before. We had female staff members join the choir, and correctional officers playing the organ and drums.” In those moments they weren’t prisoners, and guards, (“who” and “what”) but Christians coming together to sing the gospel.

Mickey with San Quentin Mass Choir
© John Storey / Getty Images

This unifying record was funded by the Grateful Dead’s charitable arm, The Rex Foundation, and proceeds were returned to the prison ministry to enhance their programming. Danny Rifkin and Chaplain Smith co-founded Project Avary to assist children of incarcerated parents. Of their time together, traveling with and recording the Gyuto Monks, Tenzin Bob Thurman says, “The Grateful Dead, and the Gyuto monks being in the same business of transportation with people is correct. And of course, the transportation is to move them out of their habitual rigid identity, into some sort of higher vision, feeling connected to other beings and the universe in a positive way, seeing the possibility of love and compassion dominating over hatred and violence and horrible things in the world.”

“He’s All I Need” San Quentin Mass Choir © John Story / Getty Images

Basic Human Needs

Mickey and his equipment manager Ramrod backed a truck up to his barn. They loaded it with djembes, and cow bells, bullroarers and slit gongs, hoop drums and shakers, tambourines and gourds. Anything that made a noise. They drove it up to Woodstock MC, and humanitarian, Wavy Gravy’s Camp Winnarainbow. This getaway for underserved youth had some pretty tough characters ages 7-14. Mickey wondered how he could help them break through to the “spirit side.”

The disparate group played a variety of beats in the camp barn, and creek bed, until the campers clicked in together. One day Hart handed out copies of the The Ojibwa Dance Drum and declared they would be making their own power drum, his very first.

Camp Winnarainbow source; CW

In Wavy’s own words, “Mickey Hart brought rhythm to Camp Winnarainbow with a large and awesome drum he built from scratch with the camp children. The children participated in creating the drum fully, starting with obtaining a piece of cowhide and scraping it to prepare the drum skin and decorating the final product. Many of the children then repeated the process by creating their own treasured personal small drums to add to the ensemble which continued to accompany camp evening programs and fire circles year after year. After several years the big drum was loaned to the San Francisco Airport where it went on exhibit. How cool is that?”

Returning With The Elixir

Mickey’s grandmother had Alzheimer’s and hadn’t spoken in almost a year. As they rode in a car together he characteristically beat a small drum. She smiled and said, “Mickey!” He recounts, “And I said, ‘Grandma you spoke!’ The drum had triggered that response in her.”

Over the past 30 years, Mickey has been devoted to exploring the healing power of rhythm on damaged, diseased, or dysregulated systems in the body. He declares, “Shamans traditionally used drums and rattles to heal. So music and rhythm therapy isn’t something we’re inventing. But through scientific investigation we’re greatly expanding our knowledge.”

Neural Networks! Mickey + Adam Gazzaley, M.D., Ph.D. © Susana Millman

Hart addressed the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging about the healing effects of music, and is a board member of the nonprofit organization the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function. Mickey has been working with Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD at the University of California San Francisco Sandler Neurosciences Center. Dr. Gazzaley warmly expresses, “Mickey and I have spent many years exploring rhythm and the brain to assess the benefits of a rhythm training experience on cognition. The results are very exciting and show a positive influence on memory in older adults. Planet Drum had a huge influence on me in the early 90s, as I set off on my path as a neuroscientist. Working with Mickey has been an incredible experience. He is always in rhythm and his mind never stops beating. I am incredibly grateful for his friendship and the influence he has had on my science.”

To Go Up The River

Director Francis Ford Coppola was struggling to find the soundtrack to his film. He saw the “Drums” section of a Dead Show and sensed the solution was near. Mickey, Bill K, and their crew mic-ed every indigenous instrument they had, but none of it sounded like an airstrike. They knew they needed to build something special for the Apocalypse Now Sessions. The Beast and the Beam were born.

Drum Jungle – Apocalypse Now Sessions © John Werner

The Beast is a large piece of circular steel that Mickey’s collection of percussive instruments hang from for easy action while in the zone. The Beam is based on Pythagoras’s monochord. It is a piece of wood or metal with piano strings stretched across several feet and tuned to reach unbelievably low pitches.

Mickey explains, “These instruments take you on a slipstream, it’s sort of like a superhighway of the senses if you will. Doing it in concert, I’m able to go down very low, down to 15 cycles, which is extremely low. It’s almost where hearing drops out and you only have feeling. And I put that down every night, so people can go to these spaces, maybe called yogic spaces, where you feel something, you’ve never felt before, and it’s calming, and they’re centered, and it’s spiritually rewarding, and it changes you.”

Mickey + Bill Walton Backstage with the Beam! © Jay Blakesberg

While Coppola, concert goers, doctors, scientists, healers and even an astrophysicist love these sounds, perhaps no one more so than the basketball and broadcast legend Bill Walton who generously shares, “When I first came across the low-end of The Beam in the early 1970s, I knew immediately that I had found something so powerful, stimulating, personal, important, and critical to my overall well-being, that I had to have more…so I relentlessly badgered Mickey, until he had no choice but to get me my own. My first Beam, was the original one, from the first days of the Rhythm Devils and Apocalypse Now.” Bill used it for many years, until he needed to return it to Mickey.

The NBA and UCLA player continues, “One New Year’s Eve, at the Bill Graham Civic, where I was practicing counting backward to fulfill my sacred duties as Father Time, Mickey appeared, without a warning, and softly proclaimed, ‘I have something for you.’ Right then and there, Mickey presented me with my own personalized, brand new, and improved Beam, big, long, glistening, spectacular, gleaming in the golden light, with a beautiful engraved message, ‘To Bill Walton, if it’s worth playing, it’s worth playing loud! Mickey Hart’

“I still play all the time, and loud too, sometimes the neighbors down the street call to ask if everything is OK, generally though, not until their houses start shaking…and when I’m privileged enough to witness Mickey play his Beams, I never hesitate to ask him to turn it up, so he can take us down, to the bottom, to the foundation, to the core, of life itself.”

Mickey yells playfully, “Thank you Pythagoras, wherever you are!”

Planet Drum + In The Groove

Zakir Hussain is considered the pre-eminent tabla player of our time. He is a chief architect of the World Music movement who has received two of India’s highest honors. Back in 1970, he was a 19-year-old new to NorCal. Zakir relives, “I visited Mickey at the barn in Novato, he handed me a strange looking hand drum and said, ‘play this.’ I looked at him and wondered why I am not asked to play tabla and proceeded to find my way with that drum. Suddenly all inhibitions about stepping out of my ancient tradition and creating a groove on an out of the box drum melted away and I found myself in a wonderous place. The beginning had commenced.”

Pump Song – Mickey, Zakir Hussain + Friends at Novata Ranch, 70s © Patty Healy c/o JB Retro Photo Archive

Zakir was teaching at the Ali Akbar School of Music in Berkeley, CA. Through his father Alla Rakha’s arrangement, the young man joined the tribe who had taken residence in Hart’s ranch. Mickey remarks, “And that was it, living as close as you could be as rhythm brothers since the 70s!”

Around this time, Hart was recording his first solo album. Zakir remembers, “Mickey sent me on a small Cessna plane to Reno to pick up Chief Rolling Thunder, we returned with the Chief and joined in on a prayer chant to bless the beginning of the recording process. It felt at that moment that we were collectively standing on a way different plateau of awareness; it was pristine and simple and felt blessed. That is when I knew that Mickey and I are tied together for the long groove run.”

Mickey + Zakir source; MH Facebook

In the early ‘90s, Hart and Hussain assembled some of the greatest drummers alive to create a percussive ensemble and album. Planet Drum won the first-ever World Music Grammy. It spent an unprecedented 26 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Charts. Those lucky enough to get their hands on a copy would rip the cellophane off, crack the plastic case open, and get transported to another world.

It would still be a few years before the internet went public, so this was the first time the populace heard the sounds and rhythms of undisturbed Earth. There were Udu chants from Africa and hoop drums from the Artcic. Berimbaus, balafons, bamboo, bird chirps, windchimes and ocean waves. The language in the liner notes was like a treasure map to far-off lands.Who are the Yoruban? What are temple caves? How can you make a song by banging your hands against your chest?

Planet Drum In The Redwoods © Susana Millman

Nigerian talking drum lineage holder, Sikiru Adepoju explains, “Planet Drum is not just a group of drummers. We are peacemakers and musical ambassadors. We are all drummers from different cultures. We don’t speak the same language, but we have one common language: the language of the drum. We are always learning from each other. I never know what the music will sound like until it’s finished. We compose the music instantly— not writing down notes, just listening and playing. Our music reaches a broader audience because it includes so many cultures. At our shows, Deadheads, Indian fans, Spanish fans, African fans, all jump up and down to the beat. Our rhythms bring people together in community.”

Planet Drum Ensemble © Susana Millman

Sikiru continues, “ A lot of people don’t know what “World Music” means, but it includes everything: Jazz, Blues, Rock, Reggae, Calypso, Afro-Beat, and Traditional Music, different languages, and different musical styles. We combine this all together in one, and create a new style known as “World Music.” Musicologists regard Planet Drum as one of the most important records of the 20th century. In 2009, the ensemble won their second Grammy award for their album Global Drum Project.

Grooving with Global Drum Project © John Werner

Like almost everyone spinning on this sphere, these touring musicians’ schedules reconfigured over the last two years. Of this liminal time Mickey ensures, “Once you see everything in rhythmic terms, you say well, war is bad rhythm, peace is good rhythm, love is good rhythm, hate bad rhythm. The world is out of rhythm, the world’s out of time. How do you put it back together? Well, the only way I know, I don’t go shoot them up, what I do is I use vibration and pull people into that slipstream and allow them to raise their consciousness. Vibration is everything in music and in life. If you have a misunderstanding with your partner, it’s rhythmic, and you say okay, how can I put myself back in rhythm? Okay, this is out of rhythm, this is a rhythmic event. Oh, we got to find the groove again.”

Mickey, Zakir, Sikiru, and Giovanni Hidalgo, a master of Latin rhythms of the conga, bongo and timbale joined together again to help mass consciousness get back in the groove. In early Spring, the Planet Drum Ensemble debuted elements of their new album to a sold-out crowd at Stanford University’s Frost Theater.

Concert-goers were desperate to get out of their houses, hear music and hang out with friends, but were still a little uneasy about the precarious state of the world. Mickey implores, “That’s why we made In The Groove a dance band record. I wanted people to dance, to move. You’ve got to change it up, you can’t stay in your old groove. So the idea is to get your life in rhythm, and be able to enjoy it.”

Four seconds into “King Clave,” at the Frost and there was a notable shift. Sikuru states, “This song is special because it features Baba Olatunji’s voice at the beginning. Baba passed away in 2003. His voice on the track keeps his memory alive and keeps his energy present. When we perform “King Clave”, it feels like Baba is still right there standing with us.”

The song’s music video was co created with B-Corp, Playing for Change. It features more than fifty dance and percussive players from around the world including Zakir’s brothers and Giovanni’s father. It played within the United Nations’ General Assembly to remind delegates of the universal heartbeat of humanity.

In The Groove! © Jay Blakesberg

In The Groove was released on August 5th Planet Drum devotees remain amazed that these musicians keep achieving new potency of percussive medicine. Zakir adds, “In The Groove is the next step up on the ladder of rhythm cycle awareness on a more intimately collective level amongst us than ever before. We have been together for these 30 years, it felt like a blink of an eye but the deeper understanding of each other not just as friends but as keepers of our respective traditions is magnified a thousand-fold and that respect and reverence is on display here.”

Giovanni notes, “I praise the Lord that he give me this great opportunity because it’s not only a team, that’s my family, a lot of loyalty, a lot of love and a great understanding. We can help heal the people with our rhythm. I’ve seen it happen.”

Mickey closes, “I hope everybody who listens, really gets what we put into it, out of it.”

Don’t Tell Me This Town Ain’t Got No Heart

“Bwwwwoooiiiaaaaainngggghhhhhh”
“Bwwwwoooiiiaaaannnggggghhhhhh”

Two downbeats of the song “Shakedown Street” and 70,000 people jump to their feet. It was Saturday night of the “Fare Thee Well” concerts. A reunion deemed by press as “the last show.” Little did they know. It had been 20 years since The Grateful Dead played Chicago’s Soldier Field Stadium. Jerry Garcia’s transition out of the Earth Plane, left many to miss him in a “longtime way.” Now here it was two decades gone by and the soul of the music, and the spirit of the community as alive as ever.

The Chicago PD estimated that almost 300,000 deadheads descended on the city, with cover bands playing in airports across America. Planes were filled with new-old-friends, trading road trip tales spanning half a century. Folks shared photos of their grown kids named after Dead lyrics, and grandchildren born to these tunes. Former college housemates got hall passes from their wives for the weekend and a new generation who never saw Jerry, ran up railings and jumped over walls to catch a glimpse of the living legends up on the stage. Gasps, shrieks, and rose-handed hugs enveloped kith and kin; reigniting relations shrouded in time.

“I Love You More Than Words Can Tell” © Jay Blakesberg

Mickey wrapped out the teary-eyed moments of the final bow by saying, “The feeling we have here — remember it, take it home and do some good with it.” An undeniable imprint was left on all who attended, and the 175,000 who watched from home. By New Years Eve, a new incarnation of the Grateful Dead wheel had turned.

Dead and Company has been touring as steadily as possible for the past seven years. Mickey marvels, “We’re all quite taken back by how its flipped generations. Its like a flip card and all of a sudden here you are from the 1960s, we’re out here in the 2000s, and they’re grooving on it, they’re dancing to it, they know the lyrics, it’s a spiritual thing.” Just like mantras remembered from lifetimes ago, fans effortlessly sing along to every song. Of the 400+ originals in the Grateful Dead catalogue, historians note that “Drums” has been played the most. This second-set staple is a time when Mickey and Billy draw concertgoers into the percussive groove of the world beat. Join the slipstream. Ride the horse.

In the cyclical motif from which the Grateful Dead pulled their name, so too, the band has invited others to join them on this voyage. Dead and Co bassist Oteil Burbridge has recently accompanied the duo for the “Drums and Space” part of the show.

Oteil emotes, “I’m really honored to have officially been made a Rhythm Devil. Drums were actually my first instrument so getting to play drums and space every night makes me feel that same magic I felt as a kid. That sense of wonder never goes away. It’s amazing to think how long he’s been doing it and that he still hits so friggin hard! He’s done and is still doing so much for drums and music in general on this planet. Mickey’s spirit is irrepressible. Truly. It’s really something to behold.”

Rhythm Devils © Jay Blakesberg

Dead and Co’s tours sell out in seconds, and entire internet forums are dedicated to trading tickets. The subculture that has surrounded this band continues to course across the country (and to Mexico!).

Mickey muses, “I look out there and I’m the only one that ages. They’re still 20, 30, 40 years old. This music seems to be built to last, I guess. With Dead and Co. we were playing stadiums, sometimes two nights in a row. It’s enormous, the amount of Deadheads that are coming out. It seems as though the Dead music and the Dead culture have been passed down through generations like father to son, father to daughter, mother to sister and all that stuff until finally it’s flipped its way into this century, this decade. So how, why? It’s probably because of the trance, because of the zone that we play in, because of the kind of music we play…so yes, it came full circle, and I’m just amazed, powerful spiritual material, that’s the only way you can explain this.”

“So The Kids They Dance And Shake Their Bones” – Dead + Co at Met’s Citifield July ’22 ©BobMinkinPhotography

Hart pauses thoughtfully and continues, “It’s also a community, many bands don’t have communities, they have audiences, they come and go. So I guess it’s completely different, the universe, psychologically, physiologically, it’s people getting together that are like-minded, that are calm and peaceful, love each other. They take what they have felt at the concert and do some good with it out in the world. And that’s the best payoff you can get. I always think ‘don’t leave it here kids, this feeling, take it home, do some good with it’, and that’s really what’s behind all this. Besides having a great time, laughing and playing music and making a living, and so forth, it’s knowing that it makes for a better world.”

“Moving With A Pinch Of Grace” – Photo by Brande Jackson source; Dead and Co IG

Mickey continues, “So it’s been an incredible ride and it’s not over yet.”

God Is Sound

God Is Sound © Jay Blakesberg

There are few people on the planet who have surrendered themselves to sound vibration as fiercely as Mickey Hart. Talking about a life of trance and transcendence, rhythm and rock n roll, producing, preservation, and music as medicine,  the transportation captain, Mickey Hart simply states, 

“Basically, I use this as my meditation, as my yoga. I stretch, and I do my yoga poses every day. I’m constantly on my mat. But music takes you there, it really takes you there.”

Nada Brahma. God Is Sound.

Get In The Groove

The Dolby Atmos mix of In The Groove is now available here. This revolutionary technology allows for an immersive percussive experience, with drum beats and vibrations enveloping the listener above, below and around them.

Stream In The Groove here.

To learn more about the Planet Drum ensemble check out: PlanetDrum.com

To keep up with Mickey Hart, visit his website and social media channels; MickeyHart.Net, FB,  IG.

#ForeverGrateful

Author’s Note; Infinite thanks to all who contributed to this offering in words, images and energy including; Rachel Anne, Susana Millman, Dennis McNally, Jay Blakesberg, Bob Minkin, Rosie McGee, Adrian Boot, Zakir Hussain, Sikiru Adepoju, Giovanni Hidalgo, Oteil Burbridge, Bill Walton, Wavy Gravy, Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, Tenzin Bob Thurman, Varun Soni, Ph.D., Chaplain Earl Smith, John Werner, John Storey, Jahanara Romney, Jen Fountain, Karen Wiessen, Rose, Ben Baruch, Felicia Tomasko, Anna Rychlik, SI, NB, NK, MZ, AA, BG, The GD, PDE and of course…Mickey Hart. #NFA

For source citations, copyright info, collaborations please email; AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co

Amy V Dewhurst

To Check Out Amy’s Work Go To; Sense + Color, You Can Reach Her At IG:  Amy_V_Dewhurst  + AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #PutYourGoodWhereItWillDoTheMost

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The post Mickey Hart: God Is Sound appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

It was the late 90’s, before Spotify and iTunes, Napster and MP3s. Albums didn’t drop onto streaming services and immediately upload onto our phones. Corporate-run radio stations dictated who heard what, when. Rebellious youth tried to fight the system. Grunge bands sued the conglomerate Ticketmaster for their concert-tour monopoly. Women in babydoll dresses and Doc Marten boots kicked and elbowed their way to the top of the charts by singing about something other than love, marriage, and men. But it was still a pretty-patriarchal game. That is, until a feisty singer-songwriter arrived on the scene.

Out Of Habit

Today we celebrate 25 years of Ani DiFranco’s Living in Clip. An album that not only empowered millions of women, but rewrote the record industry playbook.

The story starts in the 1970’s in Buffalo, New York – a once bustling steel city, famous for the Erie Canal. There, a nine-year-old Ani DiFranco got her first acoustic guitar. She met a guy named Mike, who she describes as, “a local songwriter, troubadour, gigging, barfly kind of poetry and philosophy reading, sort of an intellectual, but also an alcoholic, and real character. Like the unofficial mayor of Buffalo. Everybody knew him. He took me under his wing, and he started bringing me to his shows. And I was playing with him when I was a little kid in bars.”

At 18 Ani moved to New York City for a stretch. “I was walking down 12th Street; I saw this sign that said, ‘The New School for Social Research,’ and I was like, ‘What’s that’? I signed up for Feminism 101 right away, and I encountered all of these amazing thinkers who taught me to question all my presumptions, and things that I was accepting, to really start honing in on, ‘Why do I feel bad all the time?’, disconnected, not sure if I even exist in many ways. It’s because all of my ways of thinking are coming from outside of me, and even the language that I use to process is a patriarchal design. So really starting to unpack all of that, by reading these second-wave feminists Audre Lorde and bell hooks, Carol Gilligan and Alice Walker, the list goes on and on…”

The unpacking happened out loud, over a guitar, on bar and club stages. DiFranco openly examined where all the rules came from; who they benefitted, who they oppressed and how they informed her direct experience. Ani recounts, “I made a record like a two-track recording, voice and guitar, straight to two-track tape, just DAT tapes. I did it in a couple hours and there’s my first album, and the second one was like that. But right in the beginning, I wrote ‘Righteous Records.’ Just as a sort of, it was a joke with myself, [She makes a funny voice] ‘Like yes, I got a record company, you’re talking to the CEO.’ I put an address on that cassette and letters started coming in. You remember those days, right? Talk about pre-internet. Letters would come into that P.O. Box and say, ‘Can Ani come play? We have $150 from the women’s center at whatever college, and can she come play the take back the night parade?’ My answer was ‘f*ck yes,’ every time. It was organically through that first cassette really that I started touring.”

Over the next decade DiFranco would evolve into a fixture of college towns, folk festivals, feminist marches, reproductive rights rallies, as well as environmental and political cause events. She and band members Andy Stochansky and Sara Lee traveled by a beat-up van, and then eventually a bus. They felt like real pros when they could finally afford a front-of-house soundman. An essential member of any touring act.

Sounds Like A Whole New Show

The group recorded their performances throughout 1995-1996. They strung them together onto a two CD set, complete with tour photos, liner notes and lyrics; an immersive experience in the days when you could hold art in your hands. Living in Clip – the seemingly autobiographical album (affectionately named for the road amps that were always about to blow) ushered in a new era of folk rock. Ani’s bare-it-all honesty transported listeners out of their suburban bedrooms and college dorms into a new paradigm where “business as usual” was no longer welcome. She offered differing lenses from which to view social politics, the emotional aftermath of the sexual revolution, the collateral damage of casual relationships, the perception of strong women, vulnerable women and the stigma they had to be one of the other. She was one of the first to openly sing about bisexuality, abortions, one-night stands, and the like. Each song was (and is) an anthem, giving voice to a new generation desperately seeking an updated vocabulary.

The Living in Clip groundswell began in independent record stores in the North-East. Soon Indys and the big chains across the country sought the double-disc. The words the [she said in the funny voice]) CEO had scribbled on an old cassette evolved into an independent record label, “Righteous Babes Records.” “I didn’t have a grand plan, nor did anyone I hired. We were garbage picking our furniture in the office, this little one room in downtown Buffalo… All I knew was what I didn’t want to do. I got interest from record labels and I had lunches and dinners and meetings, and I just felt like ‘eww’ every time. Not that they’re bad people, but it’s like these are not my people, these are not my revolutionary people. So I knew I didn’t want to go there, because I felt like that would change everything.”

Press from major magazines wanted a glimpse of the musical-activist who remembers, “They would hardly say anything, but they would come to take my picture, that’s how it starts. And every photo shoot, I felt like a soulless corpse afterwards. It would take one photo shoot in that world for me to question my existence.” Although she stayed true to herself, and her audience, the “machine” did continue to come calling, the track “Shy” was nominated Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and Rolling Stone magazine called Living in Clip “One of the most important recordings of the ‘90s.”

And It Helps Her Through Her Day

Over the last 25 years, thousands of women have shared anecdotes with Ani of how the album changed their life, “The stories that have come back over the years are just all really specific and beautiful. Some of them are more like, ‘You saved me. I didn’t kill myself, because I had your music to know that I existed.’ Certainly saving somebody from annihilation, from doom, is a great feeling. But I think some of my favorite letters and reflections are,‘I started off somewhat okay, I got your music and then I f*cking x, y, z I slayed. I came into my own power, I started doing my own thing, which is this, and here’s what I’ve been doing.’ Which so many inspirational people doing cool ass shit….”

When a now-40-something fan recently gushed about how much this album changed her teenage life, Ani simply stated, “Well they (second-wave feminists) did that for me, I did that for you, you’ll do that for somebody, and that’s how women become themselves I think…”

Living in Clip

To join the many thousands who have been changed by this album, see Ani on tour this summer; AniDiFranco.com 

Living In Clip Vinyl 25th anniversary re-Issue is now available at Righteous Babe Records here.

Listen to the album on iTunes here or Spotify here.

Amy V Dewhurst

To Check Out Amy’s Work Go To; Sense + Color, You Can Reach Her At IG:  Amy_V_Dewhurst  + AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #PutYourGoodWhereItWillDoTheMost

www.senseandcolor.co

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Joss Jaffe’s Breezy, Uplifting Sacred Pop Music

Joss Jaffe has released his fifth album: Sun Mountain Sea. It invokes the bright, breezy light and resonance of his native Southern California. The 10 tracks overflow with warmth and humanity. They are a balm for these trying times. This latest project on Be Why Music is at once introspective and inspiring. Joss is well-known for his uplifting vocal skills, as an electronic and acoustic multi-instrumentalist, music production, and as a yoga conference and transformational festival luminary. His soothing hug of a voice, matched with stirring rhythmic undercurrents, and the aspirational wisdom of his lyrics, make Sun Mountain Sea his poppiest and most personal effort to date.

In contrast to his last album, Meditation Music, an aurally spacious and calming instrumental collection, words and story are key elements of Sun Mountain Sea. Themes of nature, love, yearning, and striving permeate the songs with an empowered sense of self-discovery. Joss’s outstanding electronic music chops create a foundation of continuity between the releases.

Featured Guests Dave Stringer and DJ Taz Rashid

While the album overall radiates Southern California, Joss wrote the affirming, almost prayerful lyrics of the opening cut, “Sun to Shine” in India in 2008. They remain deeply relevant, maybe more than ever. The track is about overcoming adversity and features Grammy-nominated artist Dave Stringer, who provides backup vocals on more than half the album and produced Joss’s vocal sessions for the project. Joss and Dave have worked together extensively over the last 20 years, and their voices blend here like bright watercolors.

Yoga festival superstar, DJ, and producer DJ Taz Rashid also guests on Sun Mountain Sea and is featured on “Inner Way,” lending a distinct lightness and joy to the track. Joss first worked with DJ Taz in 2018 when he appeared on his debut album, Dub Mantra, and continues to collaborate with him. “Inner Way” lovingly invites listeners to tune into their core compass, find the flow, and follow their unique inner way.

Checking In with Joss Jaffe

Lyrically, Sun Mountain Sea’s tunes effortlessly move from the boppy sci-fi, metaphysical love song “Energy Field” to the contemplative reflections of “Reverie,” and we welcomed an opportunity to hear from Joss about the overall concept.

“The tracks are all love songs, of one kind or another, and the fact that they’re sung in English makes this album very different for me. Three of my albums focus on my interpretations of mantras,” said Joss. “A number of the songs on Sun Mountain Sea have a retrospective aspect to them; one is even called “Reminisce.” It’s an album about looking back but also looking forward, taking the good with the bad. It’s very personal to me.

“The album takes elements from different parts and different times in my life and puts them together in a new way. I think that may be similar to what so many people are going through right now. We’ve all been stuck at home the last few years with a lot of time to think and ruminate on things — over time, the separate pieces blend together.

“There’s a sense of dark and light merged in many of the songs,” he said. “It’s not purely happy and sunny— it’s a mix, a journey through the yin and yang of life. There is a lot of optimism throughout though. I think those who look for it will recognize the sun in it, like a musical mood pill to brighten things up.”

Joss was born in Santa Barbara and grew up in Southern California. He started playing guitar, writing songs, and producing music while still in elementary school, which, set against the backdrop of his mother teaching yoga, established fertile groundwork for his career to grow. He wrote the lovely track “Between the Mountains and the Sea” during his high school years as an ode to the wonder of Santa Barbara’s natural setting.

Drawn to Indian music, particularly tabla, sarode, and raga vocal music, Joss studied for ten years with Indian musical masters Ali Akbar Khan, Swapan Chaudhuri, and Zakir Hussain. In addition to the new release, Joss has numerous upcoming concert dates and maintains a full schedule of teaching workshops, classes, and retreats. Learn more about Joss Jaffe. Purchase Sun Mountain Sea.

Marina Muhlfriedel

Marina Muhlfriedel is a native Angeleno and self-described creative omnivore with extensive experience as a writer, film producer, and musician. She serves as Communications Administrator for the Tai Chi Foundation, teaches Mindfulness Meditation to at-risk populations, and is a senior teacher at Club Kundalini, having begun her spiritual journey in high school as a student of Yogi Bhajan.

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Since the 2001 release of her first solo album, Prem, Grammy-nominated devotional singer Snatam Kaur has inspired countless people with the stirring silken quality of her voice, the gentle wisdom of her writing and teaching, and her uniquely radiant presence.

Healing Mantras on Nirankaar

Her 16th major album, Nirankaar, comes out May 13 on Be Why Music and features opulently orchestrated mantras that are especially pertinent and healing for these times.

Traveling Around the World for the Into the Light Tour

May also marks Snatam’s return to the concert stage with the commencement of her Into the Light tour of Europe, Israel, and the UK. The same group of accomplished musicians she collaborated with on Nirankaar will appear with her. They include her producer, Ram Dass, on piano and vocals, Grecco Buratto, guitar and vocals, and Sukhmani, on tabla, percussion, and vocals. Together, their sound invokes the blissful, ecstatic experience chanting can bring.

Sharing Prayers of Peace

The Into the Light tour was originally planned as a post-pandemic way to gather jubilantly, acknowledge the change and growth we’ve all been through, and find peace together. However, since the invasion of Ukraine, the tour’s focus has become even more profound. While lightness and celebration still underscore the shows, the war has personally devastated Snatam. Each concert will include chants for peace in Ukraine and the world and send out shared prayers of peace. A portion of the tour’s proceeds will be donated to Direct Aid for Ukrainian Refugees and each venue will provide opportunities to donate directly.

When Snatam was a teenager, she traveled to Russia and Ukraine with a peace group called the Giraffe Project to forge positive connections between American teens and their Ukrainian and Russian counterparts. “I really connected with both countries and with the young people we encountered,” said Snatam while preparing for the tour. “So, this war has just shattered my heart. I’ve felt deeply overwhelmed by it.”

“When the invasion began, I joined a 40-day global peace meditation and started meditating for peace as a part of my personal practice, inviting others to join me through various platforms. Now we’ll be able to do so in community at the shows.”

Teen-aged Snatam Kaur with youth in the Ukraine

Snatam fondly recalls walking with a group of Ukrainian teenagers along Kyiv’s empty cobblestone streets, playing guitar and singing Beatles songs in the middle of the night. She holds the experience and connection close to her heart.

Snatam Kaur and her Lifelong Practice of Healing Music

Snatam was born in Trinidad, Colorado, and raised in the Sikh and Kundalini Yoga tradition, immersed in a household filled with traditional Sikh Dharma, music, and chanting. Her mother, Prabhu Nam Kaur, is a Gurbani Kirtan singer. Growing up, chanting, singing, and practicing Kundalini Yoga provided a deep source of strength to Snatam. Following her mother’s path, she felt drawn to singing and performing and often traveled with her parents to India to study with Sikh musicians.

Today, Snatam’s mantra recordings are among the most popular in the world. Their renown has spread far beyond the Kirtan, Kundalini Yoga, and Sikh communities, conveying her spiritual warmth and deep humanity into an increasingly harsh world. Her relationship with Oprah Winfrey and a 2019 Grammy Award Show performance of “Darashan Maago” from the album Beloved helped introduce her to a vast audience that continues to expand.

Mantra Beyond Tradition: Snatam Kaur Shares Healing Music to a Universal Audience

Snatam’s appeal is universal. The purity of her voice and her spirit of love and devotion transcend the boundaries of individual traditions. As a touring musician, teacher, author, peace and environmental activist, and co-founder of Kirtan and Kundalini, an online sacred music and yoga school, Snatam has become a beacon to people worldwide attuned to in living in spiritual lightness.

Imparting the knowledge she’s gained in her life to others is an integral part of Snatam’s work. Even in her early touring years, she felt motivated to teach. “I met people along the way, in different places, who would have a powerful feel-good experience at a show or festival and want more,” she said. “I thought that if I could help them learn to chant and develop a spiritual practice, they could continue independently.”

She began teaching workshops along with her concerts, culminating in the 2016 release of her book Original Light. “I wrote the book to help people create meaningful daily practices modeled on the Aquarian Sadhana — the spiritual morning practice I grew up with, including recitation, yoga, and sacred chanting.”

Over time, that same impetus led to the idea of establishing a school. “For quite a while, my husband Sopurkh Singh, who teaches Kundalini Yoga, and I dreamed of having a school,” said Snatam. “Initially, we envisioned it as an in-person place to learn, but when the pandemic hit, that, like everything else, changed. We co-founded Kirtan and Kundalini in June 2020 to support the spiritual journey of as many people as possible, wherever they were, especially with so many people experiencing isolation. The fact that the school is online has allowed us to offer mantra, tabla, harmonium, yoga, and meditation classes to students everywhere and build a beautiful community. It’s a dream come true for us.”

Mantra and Meditation

Snatam is hosting special in-person Mantra and Meditation workshops during the Into the Light tour. These five-hour events are based on the mantras Akaal, Ongkaar Nirankaar, Ang Sang Waaheguru, and Ardaas Bha-ee, all of which appear on Nirankaar. In addition to chanting, each workshop includes yoga, breathwork, and meditation instruction.

Exquisite, simplified recordings of the four mantras were recently released in conjunction with the album as a new Mantra and Meditation series. Snatam created the tracks so anyone could chant along to enhance their practice. She is teaching online workshops for each mantra through Kirtan and Kundalini, then rebroadcasting them on her YouTube channel. Support Snatam and download Nirankaar on the Be Why Music store , or stream it on Spotify and other DSPs around the globe.

Marina Muhlfriedel

Marina Muhlfriedel is a native Angeleno and self-described creative omnivore with extensive experience as a writer, film producer, and musician. She serves as Communications Administrator for the Tai Chi Foundation, teaches Mindfulness Meditation to at-risk populations, and is a senior teacher at Club Kundalini, having begun her spiritual journey in high school as a student of Yogi Bhajan.

The post Snatam Kaur Shares Healing Music on Nirankaar appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Snatam Kaur debuts “Akaal” —an exquisite first single from her new album Nirankaar

Celebrated devotional singer Snatam Kaur’s latest release, “Akaal,” comes out March 4 and is the first single from her long-awaited new album, Nirankaar. The track is a heart-expanding rendition of the sacred Sikh mantra sung with all the radiant light Snatam, a Grammy-nominated vocalist, touring musician, teacher, and author, is renowned for.  Listening to Snatam’s “Akaal” is a profoundly uplifting experience. Her love of the mantra shines through her luminous voice and the compelling build of the music. Presales of Nirankaar also begin on March 4, with the album scheduled for release in May. A video of “Akaal” also debuts on March 4.

The Meaning of Akaal

The word Akaal means “Beyond or without death” and is usually chanted to support loved ones who have left their bodies as they connect with the Infinite. It is similarly chanted for those left behind, helping them tune into the deathlessness of the soul’s vibration.

Speaking with Snatam Kaur about Akaal

We recently had an opportunity to speak with Snatam Kaur from her home in rural New Hampshire to learn about her latest recordings, an upcoming tour, and her deep appreciation for the Akaal mantra.

“This mantra has been so important and so beautiful to me personally,” said Snatam. “We’re releasing this track about connecting beyond death with the energy of the soul nature first because it plays an important role in our capacity to really connect with God, connect with our lives, and to be present for all of the challenges we face in this day and age.

“Akaal is a mantra that comes from the Sikh tradition, but the word Akaal is pervasive throughout Sikh scripture,” she said. I’ve come to understand that Akaal is not only for the time of death or for a loved one to chant, but for each of us to truly connect with that nature and deathlessness of the soul. Each of us is able to access that point beyond death.

“This connection with the soul is incredibly important. If we exist solely within the chatter of the thoughts and forget to be present to our loved ones, our lives, and the nature of the soul, life can be quite lonely. The moment I return to this nature of the soul within my own practice, there’s so much love and peace. There’s much more capacity to be present with my loved ones. That space of loneliness, of that mind chatter, is just melted and dissolved.

Snatam Kaur Chanting Akaal

“I’ve been chanting Akaal my whole life and didn’t really tune into the intellectual meaning of it until quite late,” said Snatam. “When people chant the open ahh sound in Akaal, I think they open their heart space, which has a really powerful effect. You don’t need to intellectually understand any of this to experience it, and sometimes we’d probably be better off just going to the feeling we have when chanting as opposed to anything else.”

Participate in Chanting Akaal

Released by Be Why Music, “Akaal” is one of eight tracks on Nirankaar and is a collaboration with producer Ram Dass on piano and vocals, Grecco Buratto on guitar and vocals, and Sukhmani on percussion and vocals. In addition to singing, Snatam also plays harmonium on the track. On March 11, an extended and streamlined remix of “Akaal” will be released as the first track from Snatam’s new Mantra and Meditation Series. The series is specifically for practitioners to chant with and experience the sublime power of mantra for themselves. On March 16, Snatam will provide an “Akaal” workshop through Kirtan and Kundalini, her online school of sacred music and yoga. The workshop will be rebroadcasted on Snatam Kaur’s YouTube channel.

In addition to the new album, Snatam and her band will commence their Into the Light Tour on May 15, with summer concert and workshop dates across Europe, the UK, and Israel. Watch the video of “Akaal”: Pre-order the album Nirankaar.

Marina Muhlfriedel

Marina Muhlfriedel is a native Angeleno and self-described creative omnivore with extensive experience as a writer, film producer, and musician. She serves as Communications Administrator for the Tai Chi Foundation, teaches Mindfulness Meditation to at-risk populations, and is a senior teacher at Club Kundalini, having begun her spiritual journey in high school as a student of Yogi Bhajan.

The post Love of Mantra Shines through in Snatam Kaur’s Akaal appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Jai Anand photo by Kelly Fogel

Jai Anand Explores the Healing Power of Ra Ma Da Sa

Hearing the Healing Mantras

A Journey through Mantra

Ra Ma Da Sa as a Daily Healing Prayer

Healing through Mantra

The Journey of Be Why Music

How to Listen to Ra Ma Da Sa

Marina Muhlfriedel

Marina Muhlfriedel is a native Angeleno and self-described creative omnivore with extensive experience as a writer, film producer, and musician. She serves as Communications Administrator for the Tai Chi Foundation, teaches Mindfulness Meditation to at-risk populations, and is a senior teacher at Club Kundalini, having begun her spiritual journey in high school as a student of Yogi Bhajan.

The post Experiencing the Healing of Ra Ma Da Sa with Yogi-Musician Jai Anand appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Divine Bliss is a Soothing Balm of Healing Music

Healing music is the soundtrack that we need in our lives today. Part of the environment we create for ourselves is through sound and mantra.

Spiritual singer/vocalist Sandy Khanzode understands this and offers vibrations for uplifting all of the parts of ourselves. Her second album, “Divine Bliss” is produced in collaboration with acclaimed and prolific New Age musicians Thomas Barquee and GuruGanesha. In her own words, this music is created to “Uplift people and provide them, and provide you with peace and calm and relaxation and to feel uplifted and happy. We’re living in a crazy time right now, and in response to that craziness, I wrote “Divine Bliss” to provide people with some hope and healing.”

This energetically potent music arises from Sandy’s own healing journey. She created her first album “Spiritual Healing” after successfully completing treatment for breast cancer. As a survivor, she is living out the mission to share music for healing and recovery. This mission is part of her lifelong journey that includes singing and performing in multiple languages since her childhood.

Divine Bliss: Sandy Kaur with GuruGanesha

In “Divine Bliss,” the clarity and purity of her voice reminds us that “Divine bliss is our birthright” and to “Never forget the one whose name takes away our pain.” Sandy intersperses messages in English that serve as positive affirmations for wellness and healing with powerful mantras and messages.

In addition to the title track “Divine Bliss,” the album also includes powerful mantra music “Divine Embrace”, “Divine Love”, and “Ek Ong Kar.”

Her music is available on a variety of platforms including AppleMusic, Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes, and 40 other digital stores. To accompany meditation, spiritual practice, yoga, or doing the dishes, gift yourself some “Divine Bliss.”

Where to find the Healing Music Divine Bliss

itunes

http://itunes.apple.com/album/id1548928092?ls=1&app=itunes

Apple Music

http://itunes.apple.com/album/id/1548928092

Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/album/5hVYeanHiMktU1G0H3SYh4

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

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Art by Rajesh Nagulakonda

Song Divine Shares The Bhagavad Gita for the Modern World

When we look back at the origins of Yoga, Meditation, and Ayurveda, we inevitably come across one of the greatest spiritual texts of all times, The Bhagavad Gita.

The Bhagavad Gita is an ancient book for all times, places and cultures. It doesn’t belong to one person, nor does it address any one group of people. It is a scripture for all the world and everyone in it, wherever they are in their spiritual quest. It’s no wonder that the Bhagavad Gita, originally written in Sanskrit more than 5,000 years ago, is the second-most translated book, and the second best-selling book in the world after the Bible.

Art by Rajesh Nagulakonda

So, how does this ancient scripture apply to our lives today?

In many ways, the Bhagavad Gita is exactly what we need right here and now.

The Bhagavad Gita story takes place on a battlefield in Kurukshetra, located just north of Delhi in India. The battle is between two sets of cousins, the Pandavas, to which the warrior Arjuna belongs and is to fight, and the Kauravas. The Kauravas have taken over the Pandavas’ kingdom. After all attempts at reconciliation have failed, the Pandavas are forced to fight back.

Introduction to the Song Divine: The Story of the Bhagavad Gita

Before the battle is set to begin, Arjuna, the hero of the story, asks Krishna, his mentor and charioteer, to drive between the two armies so he can get some perspective on what they’re facing. Seeing the faces of his family, friends, teachers, and neighbors on the opposing side, Arjuna is overcome with confusion and despair. He cannot imagine any positive outcome from this war. He struggles with questions about the battle, and his own role in it. In this time of mental crisis, he desperately turns to Krishna for answers. Krishna, seeing that Arjuna is sincere, open, and ready for this knowledge, patiently explains to his friend everything he needs to know.

Although the story takes place on a battlefield, it is really about the battles we are faced with in our own lives every day. Arjuna represents the common man, the working man, and every one of us. We are constantly presented with choices that we don’t want to make. We are torn between what we think is good, and what is actually good for us. We are influenced by our desires and ambitions. The head fights with the heart, the intellect fights with the mind and senses.

Throughout the Gita, as Krishna advises Arjuna, we come across many verses that resonate, that can help us to overcome our own struggles, and make our own decisions. Here are just a few.

From Chapter 2

Never was there a time
When there was not a “we”
Never will there come a time
When any of us cease to be.
Do you know who you are?

From Chapter 6

Meditate on the Self
Just sit there and be quiet.
This is yoga, union with
The Divine, that’s the Highest.

From Chapter 13

The Knower shines through the body
Doing what work must be done.
With no desire or aversion,
It plays out through everyone.

From Chapter 18

We each are given a purpose
A duty of our own
Be devoted to this dharma
And your true Self will be known.

The Bhagavad Gita is a book that had been calling to me for many years, and I always tried to read it and understand it, without much luck. Then I met Swami Sarvadevananda from the Vedanta Society in Hollywood, California. I became a student in his Bhagavad Gita class, where he patiently and methodically went over each verse of the Gita and its translation, meaning and applicability in our lives. I was fascinated, and hooked! When Swami asked us to memorize verses to keep them close to our hearts, it was a daunting task, and I felt I had to come up with a solution.

“Bhagavad Gita” translates from Sanskrit to mean “Divine Song.”

It was written in verse, with rhythm and rhyme, so that it could be memorized and recited, or sung, and passed down through the generations. However, that “beat” is lost when the words are translated into other languages, including English.

With this in mind, I called upon my experience as a songwriter and set out to re-translate the Gita into English, rhyming verse. I dove in whole-heartedly, and my book Song Divine: A New Lyrical Rendition of the Bhagavad Gita, came out in 2017, with Swami Sarvadevananda’s blessings, and foreword.

While I was writing the verses, I could hear music playing, I could see the Gita being played out in my mind as a kind of Broadway show! When the book was complete, I knew that this was just the first step.

I went to my long-time friend, Vito Gregoli, a renowned producer and composer in the New Age music arena, and approached him with the idea of making Song Divine into an album. Luckily, or by divine grace, Vito was all in with me on this massive undertaking! We were inspired by ground-breaking shows like Jesus Christ Superstar, and Hamilton, and set out to create something that has never been done before – a Rock Opera version of the Bhagavad Gita for today’s audience.

It took a lot of effort, and a lot of determination and devotion, as well as a lot of team work during a crazy three years in the making of this collection of songs, one for each chapter of the Gita. We were blessed with amazing vocals by Indian megastar Sonu Nigam singing the role of Krishna on “Know Who You Are.”

I was able to fly to Mumbai to record with him in November of 2019, before the pandemic hit.

Visvambhar Sheth, Vito, Lissa and Venu Bhanot – Vish sang all the Sanskrit verses, Venu did the narration for the introduction, and Vish and Venu sand the bonus track: Maha Mantra.

Deepak Ramapriyan, and Alexander Perez performed the roles of Krishna and Arjuna on the rest of the album, and Vito brought in world-class musicians and artists to contribute as well.

So, here we are, three years later, and Song Divine: The Bhagavad Gita ROCK OPERA is available, streaming everywhere, worldwide. We can listen to Krishna’s wisdom set to amazing melodies, a unique blend of east and west, ancient and modern.

Now, probably more than ever, what we are all searching for is peace of mind. It is my wish that Song Divine, the Bhagavad Gita, with Krishna’s wise and beautiful words, helps you to know who you are. There’s nothing more important than that. Know who you are, and the peace of mind that you have been seeking is yours.

Lissa Coffey and David Vito Gregoli have just released their new double album: Song Divine: The Bhagavad Gita ROCK OPERA. More information and to order your copy, visit: www.SongDivine.com

Lissa Coffey

Bestselling author Lissa Coffey is the founder of CoffeyTalk.com. Her new project: Song Divine: The Bhagavad Gita ROCK OPERA (SongDivine.com) is now available streaming everywhere. Deepak Chopra says: “Your heart will thank you for Lissa’s helpful and heartfelt vision.”

www.coffeytalk.com/songdivine/

The post Song Divine: A Modern, Musical Guide to Fighting Life’s Daily Battles appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Recording the Healing Power of Cat Purr

Outside of Santa Barbara, musician and healer Sudama Mark Kennedy lived in Rattlesnake Canyon with his mystical cat Nunu. Nunu had a thunderous purr. Master sarod player Montino Bourbon said to Sudama “we need to record that purr.” Montino returned with his hi-tech recorder and Nunu responded to the enthusiasm with six minutes of mighty purr.

Montino Bourbon

Eleven years later, Sudama and I (producer and musician Joss Jaffe) brought the recording into the studio with the intention of making the Cat Purr composition. Remarkably, Nunu purred perfectly in B flat. Not a whisker out of tune.

Nunu: the cat who purrs in B flat.

The Power of the Purr

It turns out that the purring of the cat is a healing phenomenon. Lions, tigers, panthers, cheetahs and little cats too all purr in the range of 20-150 Hz. This remarkable resonance can heal bones, reduce stress, and assist in a healthier life for the cat.

Because a cat can be such an unpredictable creature, it has evolved a steady state vibration that keeps its entire body in optimum condition. For a cat, purring is an evolutionary “default setting” that allows healing rest between sudden bursts of activities such as pouncing on a mouse, leaping over a wall or climbing a tree. In contrast to these activities, the cat will sleep for hours and then eat. This range of cat behavior finds its balance in the vibratory field of purring!

Scientists recently discovered how a cat purrs. A sound wave is created between the cat’s free-floating hyoid bone (suspended below the skull like ours), its vocal cords, and its diaphragm. This sound wave arises naturally as it purrs. This is not only healing for the cat, but for others as well. As a result of purring, cats rarely have joint issues. Listening to cat purr can heal our joints as well. The purr has a healing effect on many of our conditions.

Good Vibes: The Healing Power of Cat Purr

A purring cat creates a meditative standing wave. The vibrating frequencies affect our body and mind. This calming sound relaxes us like the ringing of a Tibetan bowl or the ambient strings of a tamboura. Having a purring cat in your lap mysteriously opens your heart and brings you into a cozy loving resonance.

Healing Power of Cat Purr Graphic Designed by Gemma Busquets

Healing Sounds of a Cat Purr

Petting a purring cat calms your nerves. The various frequencies affect us in different ways. The healing power of cat purr is seen in a variety of metabolic markers. Cat purr is beneficial for lowering your blood pressure, reducing your risk of heart attack (by as much as 40%), promoting the healing of infections and swelling, and is helpful for the repair of soft tissue in the case of ligament, tendons and muscle injuries. Even if you are allergic to cats, the recording of a cat purr can still offer these benefits.

Cat Music

Cat purr is musical. Currently there is a huge interest in medicinal music. In recent years, the rates of people looking for ambient, meditative and calming music has skyrocketed. The vibrations contained in a cat’s purring are a perfect addition to this widely popular art form.

How would one include cat purr in music? We asked ourselves that question and created a cat raga.  With the cat purr acting as a drone, we tuned and performed along with Nunu’s frequency. In this case, Nunu the cat purred in B flat. The 44-minute version of the song can be heard here in this video released by Sudama and Joss’ record label Be Why Music. The instrumentation involved in Purrfection 44, including electric sarode (the ‘trode), flute, and tablas sounds mischievously like a cat.

Speaking of musical cats, the cheetah is remarkable in that it only purrs at specific frequencies: 25Hz, 50Hz, 100Hz, 125Hz & 150Hz. Amazingly this is a Major Chord. This is one cool kitty.

The Musical Purr of the Cheetah

Frequency & Musical Interval

25 Hz Fundamental (tonic)

50 Hz Octave

100 Hz Octave

125 Hz Major 3rd (just intonation)

150 Hz Major 5th (just intonation)

The Magical Cat

In ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped for their meditative awesomeness. They were believed to be spiritual creatures, thought of as protectors and able to heal illness. They show up in the hieroglyphics as a mystical being in ancient Egyptian life. The deity Mut was also depicted as a cat and in the company of a cat. Throughout time and around the world, cats have been linked to magic. They are still linked to magic even today such as when a black cat crosses your path. Cats have long been symbols of independence, creativity, courage, self-confidence, relaxation and peace. This cat magic is available for you as well.

“A cat can make you feel well rested when you’re tired or turn a rage into a calm just by sitting on your lap. His very nearness is a healing song.” – Shannon Hale

“The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat.”  – Jules Renard

“Holding this soft, small living creature in my lap this way, though, and seeing how it slept with complete trust in me, I felt a warm rush in my chest. I put my hand on the cat’s chest and felt his heart beating. The pulse was faint and fast, but his heart, like mine, was ticking off the time allotted to his small body with all the restless earnestness of my own.” – Haruki Murakami

Sudama Mark Kennedy

About Sudama Mark Kennedy

Sudama Mark Kennedy, whose father was once a hostage in Iran, grew up in many cultures as a diplomat’s son. A creative writing/poetry major at Princeton, Sudama discovered that his electromagnetic signature had a documentable effect on machines and living beings. As a result, he has helped thousands of people heal themselves in highly creative ways. A world music pioneer in the 90s, multi-instrumentalist Sudama transmits his celestial frequencies through “living word,”sound, heart songs, and kirtan.

Joss Jaffe

Joss Jaffe is a Vocalist, Tabla player, multi-instrumentalist, composer and record producer. He has 4 albums of original music. His most recent album “Meditation Music” debuted at #3 on the Billboard New Age Chart on October 4th 2019. He has collaborated with Grammy Nominated Artists Jai Uttal, Silvia Nakkach and Dave Stringer as well as Grammy Award winning Reggae artist Mykal Rose of Black Uhuru.

www.jossjaffe.com

The post Healing Power of Cat Purr from the Cat That Purred in B Flat appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

At 81, the icon reflects, “Each of us is born, I believe, with a unique mission, a purpose in life that only we can fulfill. We are linked by a shared responsibility: to help our human family grow kinder and happier.” This is an outlook gleaned from the four decades of “Changing Poison into Medicine.” It is a Buddhist practice that many say Tina has mastered this lifetime.

Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, 1939. Her father was a sharecropper in the still racist and stifled south. A local civil rights leader was lynched not far from the home they inhabited on the Poindexter Families’ farm. The singer recalls, “I was the child my mother never wanted; that was a heavy burden for a little girl to bear.”

The Bullocks would abandon their daughters for years at a time. They awaited the phone call, the letter, the explanation that would never come. Tina recalls, “Fantasies about the silver screen often got me through difficult times. When I was working in the fields, picking cotton and strawberries in oppressive heat, I would imagine a far-off paradise where I could live like the elegant movie stars did. I had no idea where this magical ‘Hollywood’ was, but I knew, deep down inside, that I wasn’t destined to stay in the farmlands. Even then I did not believe that my circumstances would limit my possibilities. I knew that someday I’d find my way out into the world.”

When Anna Mae was 16, her grandmother died. Out of other options, the girls moved in with their reluctant mother, in St. Louis, Missouri. They snuck off to the Club Manhattan to see Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm Band. Tina remembers, “He picked up his guitar and hit one note and it was just like ‘Jesus listen to this guy play.’ I almost went into a trance when I saw him.”

Years prior , in 1951, Ike Turner wrote and recorded what many consider the first rock n’ roll record of all time; “Rocket 88.” However, when the album came out it was credited to his saxophone player (Jackie Brenston) – a plot point that would shape his every thought and action thereafter.

Anna Mae idolized Ike. Week after week asked if she could sit in for a song. One Sunday night, the Rhythm Kings drummer put a mic down on the club floor. The frail teen wailed B.B. King’s, “You Know I love You.” Hours later she was asked to join the band. The soulful singers’ stage presence was unparalleled. Ike wasn’t going to let anyone else’s success evade him, so unbeknownst to her, Ike legally changed Anna Mae’s name to Tina. They later wed in a civil ceremony.

Ike and Tina Turner’s debut album, “A Fool in Love,” topped the R&B Charts, and quickly crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100. They did grueling one-night gigs across the country, ascending to national television spots on the late night shows. They attracted the attention of mega-producer Phil Spector, who paid Ike to stay out of the studio while he recorded Tina’s vocals over a string section on the single, “River Deep, Mountain High.” It was a new sound that secured the couple as the opening act on The Rolling Stones Fall ’66 tour. It is even said she taught Stones frontman Mick Jagger how to dance.

Although all of Ike’s tightly-held dreams were coming true, the success inflamed his deepest insecurities. The bigger they became, the more he tried to control everything and everyone around him. He built a recording studio with automatic locks, and cameras in every room, had extramarital affairs with other women named Ann and indulged in a thousand dollar per week cocaine habit that burned a hole through his nose.

Tina Turner and her children (1967). Photograph courtesy of Rhonda Graam/HBO

Tina and her housekeeper were raising four children; two from Ike’s previous marriage, Ike Jr. and Michael; Craig from a prior relationship of Tina’s, and Ronnie, whom they shared. When she was pregnant with Ronnie, Ike brutalized the young mother. Tina remembers, “He beat me with a shoe stretcher, and after that he made me go to bed and he had sex with me, and I was all swollen and that was the beginning of the torture. That was the beginning of how it was.”

For seventeen years, Tina arrived at rehearsals and shows with black eyes and bruised lips, dislocated joints and broken bones. She was scalded with hot coffee, and had her jaw cracked. People in their inner and outer circles would extend the heavily subtexted, “Are you ok Tina..?” “Are you taking care of yourself..?” These are coded questions customary to victims of domestic violence. She made a futile escape attempt, but was found before she could even get on the bus. Despondent and unable to see another way out, the 29-year-old took 50 sleeping pills. The emergency room doctors pumped her stomach and tried to get a pulse. When Ike came in the room and shouted “M*therfucker!” her heart started again. In a 2019 interview she says, “that’s how afraid of him I was…”

The Power of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

Almost immediately after this incident, a sound engineer said to Tina, “You should try chanting, it will help change your life.” A few months later, her son Ronnie came home carrying what appeared to be a wooden rosary. He exclaimed, “Mother, these are Buddhist chanting beads. If you chant ‘Nam Myoho Renge Kyo’ you can have anything you want.” She thought, “What? How could I ever have anything I want? I didn’t even know how to process that statement.” He asked her to attend a chanting meeting up the street, but she was imprisoned in her own home. Not allowed by Ike to leave.

A few weeks later Ike brought over a woman named Valerie Bishop. Tina remembers, “Out of nowhere, she started talking about chanting. She was a Buddhist. Apparently, the universe was trying very hard to send me an important message. This time, I was ready to listen…Three people who didn’t know one another, and were of different ages, genders, and ethnicities, had each offered the same advice about changing my life for the better.”

Tina read a Buddhism book by Daisaku Ikeda about a 13th century Japanese Philosopher named Nichiren, who distilled the revered Lotus Sutra into just one phrase, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. Directly translated it means, “Devotion to the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra.” However to the many millions of Buddhists worldwide who are part of the Sokka Gakkai community, it also means “Changing Poison into Medicine.”

Changing Poison into Medicine

Tina thought of all the poison she had swallowed in her life, All the abandonment, indignities, bruises, and brutality. She remembered reciting prayers back at the Baptist Churches, and created a ritual of saying the “Lord’s Prayer” followed by “Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo.” She would steal away for a few minutes out of Ike’s watchful eye. That turned into ten or fifteen. Soon chanting filled her days.

Tina recalls, “The more I chanted, the more I felt my true self, my inherent Buddha nature, awakening. My life condition kept rising, and I developed a newfound feeling of detachment around my husband. I became so strong inside that eventually our conflicts began to feel like a game, like some sort of karmic test. In the midst of chaos, I felt as if I had been reborn. The brighter my inner light shined, the more my environment improved.”

Tina was cast in The Who’s Rock Opera Tommy fulfilling her childhood vision of being a movie star, while far away on a film set, getting a short respite from the overwhelm of abuse. At a concert around the same time she enrolled the audience in the call-and-response style singing she learned in the church choir. Someone in the crowd yelled out, “Tina you are finally receiving…” She felt the deeper meaning of that message, and was ready to make a change.

The famous couple were on tour in Dallas, Texas, when Ike backhanded Tina in the backseat of a limo. She pointed her finger in his face and said, “I’m not going to take your licks anymore.” He responded by screaming, “M*therf*cker never talked to me like this before” and pounded on her.

When they arrived at their hotel her white pantsuit was covered in blood. The crew didn’t know if they should set up for the evening’s show. Ike laid across the bed, and Tina massaged him to sleep. As soon as he started to snore, she left the room, ran across the highway, through on-coming traffic, and into a Ramada Inn. She asked for the manager, asserting, “ All I have is the Mobile card and thirty-six cents, but I promise, if you give me a room tonight I’ll send you your money.” A lawyer-friend arranged for a flight back to LA. It was Fourth of July weekend,1976, her own personal independence day.

Buddhist sangha members, Ana and Wayne Shorter, invited Tina to take shelter in their home. Ana told her, “When we became friends in New York [years prior], I sensed a deep sadness in you and felt you were hiding something about your situation. Since we first met, I’ve had your name in my prayer book and have been chanting for your true happiness.”

Although her hosts protested, Tina scrubbed floors, cleaned dishes, did the laundry, chanting “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo’ all the while. She could picture herself singing to sold-out stadiums, extending the blessings of the Buddha to everyone in attendance. Tina recalls, “While I was facing the hardest challenges of my life, I was also dreaming the biggest dreams I ever imagined, and I was chanting several hours a day to achieve them.”

Some of the members of the Sokka Gakkai chanting groups were older Japanese women, who had lived through World War II and the atomic bomb. They moved to the US with their military husbands. After chanting one evening, the women asked Tina to talk a little more about her situation.

She was usually hesitant to share, but felt an unfamiliar deep comfort in their company, and started to spill, “Divorcing Ike proved to be more complicated than I had ever imagined. I was facing an army of lawyers filing lawsuits against me for walking out on concerts and recording contracts I was supposed to do with Ike. Meanwhile, I was also being harassed by thugs Ike sent to intimidate me, whose tactics included setting fire to one of my friends’ cars and firing bullets through my windows. On top of that, I was in debt, I had no savings, no income, no place of my own to live (my sons and I were staying with Ana and Wayne Shorter). I was a Black woman in my forties trying to restart my career as a solo n’ roll artist in an industry that prizes young white males above all else. Plus I was in need of new management. Oh, and I had health challenges, too.”

The women responded by clapping, “Congratulations Tina! You are so fortunate!” She thought they hadn’t understood what she had said, but the women responded with Buddhist wisdom. Through chanting “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo” one could transform their many poisons into medicine, meaning the more misfortune endured, the greater opportunity for blessings.

At the divorce proceedings, the judge called Ike and Tina into his chamber. Surely the paperwork was filed incorrectly. It looked like Tina didn’t want any of it. The homes, the cars, the royalties, and recordings. At the last minute she changed her mind, saying, “I do want one thing. My name, I’ve worked too damn hard for it.”And with that she started rebuilding.

Confidante Rhonda Graam booked the newly single singer anywhere they would take her. Cabaret clubs, Vegas, The Hollywood Squares. She met music manager Roger Davies on the set of an Olivia Newton John TV Special and asked him to check out her lounge act. Davies was bored by the dinner slot, but blown away by her late night set. He tried to get the chart-topping songstress a record deal, but everyone asked “Where’s Ike…?”

In the December 7, 1981 edition of People magazine she answered that question once and for all. There was a collective gasp when international audiences read writer Carl Arrington’s article about Tina’s abuse in unfiltered detail. Capital Records A&R exec John Carter took a chance, saying “Once a star, always a threat” – but when new upper management came in they tried to kill the deal. John pleaded on his knees to allow Tina to make just one record.

Feeling the pressure, and having a knack for what’s needed, Davies brought Tina to meet songwriters in Europe. As a courtesy she hopped in the recording booth with Terry Britten to work on a tune she didn’t care for. But as she got the rhythm, she realized, this didn’t sound like an Ike and Tina Song, or a cover song, but a TINA TURNER SONG.

Tina Turner performs live on stage at Wembley Stadium in London (1990). Photograph by Dave Hogan/Courtesy of Getty/HBO

What’s Love Got To Do With It

That ballad was “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” The tune would become a soul-bearing sensation selling 1.5 millions copies worldwide. At 44, she became the oldest solo female artist on the hot 100 chart. That year she received three Grammys for the single including “Record of the Year”, “Song of the Year’ and “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.”

The single’s album, Private Dancer, was promoted throughout 1985 in a 177-date worldwide tour. It received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and went 5x platinum in the United States. In 1988 Tina played a Pepsi and HBO sponsored concert in Rio, Brazil for a crowd of 180,000 people. Before each of these performances she chanted backstage for at least an hour, “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo,” praying that everyone in the audience was able to change their poison into medicine. That they would each come to know their true essence. Her long held vision finally came true.

Tina’s spirit of survival empowered people everywhere, and MTV VJ Kurt Loder suggested the heroine write a memoir. Together, Loder and Tina penned I, Tina, an international best-seller that was later adapted into the major motion picture, What’s Love Got To Do With It. When a guest on the Oprah Winfrey talk show, the production team received more than 50,000 letters from domestic violence survivors and a sisterhood of fans who were strengthened by Tina’s Story. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

The Best

In the decades to come, Tina secured her spot as one of the most prolific and revered performers of the modern age. She starred in the cult classic, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and was bestowed an impressive collection of Grammys, platinum, gold and silver records. The Broadway play Tina; The Musical, shares her story with a broader and younger audience. In her 2020 book Happiness Becomes You (Astria) she opens up about her devotion to Nichiren Buddhism, and finally, her HBO documentary TINA is her way of saying goodbye to her fans.

Her warm, nurturing, and supportive partner of many decades, music exec Erwin Bach remarked, “She said, ‘I’m going to America to say goodbye to my American fans and I’ll wrap it up.’ And I think this documentary and the play, this is it — it’s a closure.”The two intend to spend the rest of their days in their idyllic home in Zurich, Switzerland. Their rich and rewarding life is filled with old friends, close family, and their Buddhist Sangha. There is a soothing compatibility between them that reverberates with respect, understanding and lasting love. The poison has been changed into medicine. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

Celebrating TINA

TINA, An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Singer Tina Turner, was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Documentary Special in 2021. The film by Academy Award winning directors Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, celebrates her extraordinary life.

Tina Turner left this planet on May, 24, 2023. We honor her life and legacy. 

Amy V Dewhurst

To Check Out Amy’s Work Go To; Sense + Color, You Can Reach Her At IG:  Amy_V_Dewhurst  + AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #PutYourGoodWhereItWillDoTheMost

www.senseandcolor.co

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