Release Party Concert at Golden Bridge May 3rd
In my role of running the record label, Spirit Voyage Records, I spend a lot of time on the business of making music. Every now and then, I get the sweet delight of attending concerts. Last Saturday, I flew to Los Angeles to join the audience at Golden Bridge Yoga to celebrate the release of GuruGanesha and Snatam Kaur’s new album, Joy is Now. What a treat!! Over the last few years, the musicians that they tour with have changed a few times, and I have to say that Saturday’s concert was the best I have ever seen them.
On this West Coast tour, they have Mirabai Ceiba opening for them. Mirabai Ceiba is a couple, Markus and Angelika, whose music is an incredible mix of Gurmukhi mantra, Spanish songs and amazing English translations of both are woven together in the sweetest duets you’ve ever heard. Angelika plays the harp while she sings on stage, and she is really a sight to behold. She floats onto the stage, a Spanish godess and sits in front of her harp which is such a heavenly looking instrument that you can’t take your eyes off of it the whole night. Markus plays acoustic guitar with a wonderful Spanish style, and in his voice you hear the gentlest of tones. The two of them weave in and out of their songs with such ease, it is a real union on stage. At this concert, Girish joined them for the song, Aportua, from their album Flores, and the sound was absolutely amazing. They also sang the song Ocean from their release Ocean, which comes out at the end of this month, and the audience was completely enthralled.
After their set was over, Snatam Kaur, GuruGanesha Singh and Girish got up on stage to start their set. Because they were in LA, they had the rare pleasure of having Thomas Barquee join them on stage - he played bass at this show - and the sound of the four of them was fantastic. Snatam’s music live is like seeing the sun rise - no matter how many times you experience it, it’s beauty has a new radiance every time. They opened with Snatam Kaur’s Ong Namo, which the audience seemed to immediately just open up as soon as they heard it. It was truly a perfect sunrise!
From the new album they played Sat Narayan which is a rich call-response kirtan style song that really gets everyone chanting from the first note. Snatam and GuruGanesha alternated leading the call - just like they do on the album. It’s a very warm, comforting tune that you sort of melt into.
The other track they played from the new album, and the hit of the evening, was Hari Om. Angelika (from Mirabai Ceiba) joined them on stage for this track. Here’s a little video clip of it that I took with my camera (not great quality - but you can see the energy of it!)
Girish switched from percussion to harmonium and played the song Ma from his album Reveal. Snatam sang beautiful backup vocals on the song and it was really beautiful. Girish has this amazing old Bruce Springsteen quality to his voice - it’s got depth and grit and just pulls you right in.
Before the traditional closing with Long Time Sun, GuruGanesha asked Snatam and Angelika to sing Guru Ram Das Raakho Saranae-ee from the album Anand. Hearing them sing that song together was so beautiful, it brought tears to my eyes. When I first heard this song recorded, I felt like I could feel Snatam’s heart open right up and pour out through her voice. I never imagined that I would hear it improved upon, but the two of them harmonizing on this song was absolutely magical - an experience not to be missed!
It was such a pleasure to be able to fly out for this concert. Here are a few pictures from my weekend:
Here’s the band on stage:
After the concert, my son, Prakash and Snatam: (he’s 10 and very proud to be almost as tall as Snatam!)
The next day, I had lunch with Angelika, Markus and Satsimran at this amazing new restaurant Akasha - everything is organic - all the furniture is reclaimed wood or made from recycled material - the menu is not huge, but every single thing we ordered was absolutely delicious (they even had mung beans and rice presented in a very posh way!)- here is a picture of me with Angelika and Satsimran:
