We should be thankful for DJ Drez. He’s one of the LA underground music pioneers who helped expand what our notion of devotional music could be by embracing the stylistic grooves of hiphop, soul, jazz, and chill electronic beats. I remember when a friend lent me The Capture of Sound CD years ago, and what [...]
A commitment to meditation, education, and devotion delivered me to Rishikesh, India, the “City of the Divine” where I completed a 200-hour teacher training course. My activities in Northern India have revolved around yoga, wellness, holistic living, savory and sweet food around every turn, and chakra and ear cleanings offered on the winding paved road [...]
Canadian Brenda McMorrow is a devotional kirtan artist inspired by folk melodies, world beats, and sacred Indian devotional chants. She is one of the most recent artists on White Swan Records, a music label that brought us such delights as Deva Premal and specializes in cultivating spiritual, meditative, healing music for the yoga world and beyond. Kirtan [...]
The first album by singer/songwriter Kimberly Haynes is a richly produced, genre-crossing collection of uplifting poetry put to song. I was pleasantly surprised to find she avoids the cliché of syrupy sweet “life-is-but-a-dream” lyrics I too often find in New Thought music. Her offerings reveal an authentic wisdom and depth earned from the highs and [...]
Gurujas from White Sun photographed by Julia Yang IG: @julia_photographs Mantra Music Wins a Grammy Music so powerful that it wins a Grammy and the attention of UCLA researchers doesn’t just happen by chance. This is music created with intention and purpose. Yoga supergroup White Sun's second album broke through the Grammy mantra [...]
Russell Simmons at Tantris. Photographed by Jeff Skeirik/Rawtographer A Studio as a Home for Devotion Russell Simmons is a visionary on the move. Co-founder of Def Jam Records, early promoter and pioneer in the hip hop movement, famous philanthropist, prolific author, television and film producer, and entrepreneur with multiple businesses, Russell is also [...]
Counter-cultural icon, Daniel Pinchbeck, known for his controversial views on the shamanic and medicinal use of psychedelics, brings us what appears to be a personal messianic manifesto, his new book How Soon is Now. With a preface by living musical and philanthropic legend, Sting, and an introduction by actor and Transcendental Meditation poster boy, Russell Brand, [...]
Photo of Ebony Williams by Nikita Alba . Beyonce has, purely and simply, changed the entire game. From what it means to be a performer, an artist, a woman, a voice of and for our generation, this woman has written history with her lyricism, and watching Beyonce in motion is bearing witness to [...]
Photo of Jai Uttal by Jeffrey Newberry Always leading with musical majesty and soul-stirring passionate vocal delivery, Jai Uttal returns with Roots, Rock, Rama! proving once again that he has the ability to go where no one else in the genre can, radically furthering the experience of kirtan in the modern era. Jai Uttal’a new double album puts the ecstatic [...]
Buddhist Economics author Clair Brown Let’s face it. Most of us are still reeling from the 2016 election. Dazed and confused, we are floundering about posting furiously on our social feeds about all the craziness that is happening around us. Desperately hoping this is all just a bad dream we will soon wake [...]