While an early Nor’easter slammed the East Coast last weekend, kirtan stormed Vermont. “Vermantra” drew some of the brightest lights in the northeast kirtan world to the grand Chapel at Vermont’s College of Fine Arts for a day-long immersion in sacred sound, satsang and yoga, all to benefit Vermont flood victims.

Ironic, huh? The first big storm of the year threatens a fund-raiser for relief from the last big storm, Hurricane Irene?

Well, Nor’easter be damned. As Ishwari, one-half of SRI Kirtan (with Sruti Ram), pointed out deep into the night: “It’s snowing outside and we don’t even care!”

Call. Response.

Vermantra is the dream-child of Jennifer Canfield, a native Vermont bhakta and founder of the Call & Response Foundation. Jen has been working with Vermont’s only psychiatric hospital to bring kirtan to the patient/inmates (Dave Stringer, the Mayapuris, and the Hanumen have all been there!), but that program is on hold because Irene’s floodwaters washed right through the facility and rendered it unusable.  Along with Brooklyn-based kirtan artist Devadas Labrecque, Jen led the call for a 12-hour kirtan benefit, and kirtaniyas from New York, Boston and beyond responded. That included SRI Kirtan, Nina Rao, Jeremy & Lily, Anjula Prasad from New York; Adam Bauer, Dave Russell and Tom Lena from Massachusetts; Brenda McMorrow from Toronto…plus KC Solaris, Baba Kamal, Rasamrta Devi Dasi, Danny Solomon, Jerry Otenrocks and so many local kirtaniyas.

The day was loaded with memorable moments. Among my personal highlights were SRI Kirtan’s set, because they never fail to blow me away with their full-on heart-rockin’ bhakti, and a rollicking Jai Ma chant with local yogi Prem Prakash and a dozen or so musicians jamming out….Adam Bauer on HARMONIUM leading kirtan (soft and sooo sweet)…Nina Rao doing the Chalisa…the vocal nectar of Anjula Prasad and Lily Cushman that made everyone sit up and take notice…a kickin’ medley of Beatles + Hare Krishna from Tom Lena….every song by Brenda McMorrow…

Oh, just watch the videos. Brenda McMorrow just bubbles over with joy in this Lakshmi chant, with Satya Franche (vocals), KC Solaris (tabla), Nina Rao (mridanga), Adam Bauer (bass) and Jen Canfield on box drum (yeah, she can play too).

Here’s Nina Rao (best known as the gatekeeper to Krishna Das but a chantress in her own right) doing her signature “Nina Chalisa,” her version of the 40-verse prayer to Hanuman. She’s joined by Devadas, Jeremy Frindel, Lily Cushman, and Rasamrta Devi Dasi.

And last (for now) but definitely not least, this kirtan jam with Prem Prakash and the Kailash Jungle Band — which in this case included every bhakta in the room! So much fun!

Stay tuned to this space for more videos from Vermantra, including SRI Kirtan and Tom Lena…

It must have taken amazing grace to pull off what Krishna Das accomplished on Saturday night of Bhakti Fest.

Rained out of the main stage by a rare desert thunderstorm that began at exactly the moment he was sitting down at his harmonium, his set was reconvened in the Joshua Tree Retreat Center’s sanctuary hours later, near midnight. Everyone who had converged for the headline act of the weekend — a thousand? two thousand? — were now jammed inside a sweltering, airless room designed to hold 500.

It was hot. It was late. Some of us had been up for three days straight. Personal space was at a premium, even for KD and his band. Dozens of artists and Bhakti Fest bigwigs, who would normally have been seated back-stage, were huddled around and behind the stage. Deepak Ramapriyan and MC Yogi had the best seats in the house, tucked into alcoves above the alter on which Krishna Das played.

Their view must have looked something like this picture snapped by Kimo Estores, guitarist for Larisa Stow and Shakti Tribe (actually, five photos brilliantly stitched together in Photoshop):

Later in the set, when MC Yogi left to get ready for his own performance following KD, CC White climbed into the perch next to Deepak. The two together — she in her signature red turban and he in his signature shirtlessness — looked every bit like kirtan royalty gazing with adoration upon the kingdom’s most favored musician.

But I digress. The real king of this night was KD, who delivered what the people came to experience: classic Krishna Das, just like you hear from the CD in your car stereo. Except in this case there were a couple thousand bhaktas gyrating along. It was a pretty standard set (based on my experience having chanted with him 30 or so times), and was delivered in substandard conditions, but somehow the end result was very super-standard. He would begin each chant low and prayerful, just like always, slowly upping the tempo bit by bit with a nod to Arjun Bruggeman to kick those tablas up a notch. But this night he seemed to take every song a notch or two beyond usual, as if feeding on the energy of the swarm before him and sending it right back to them, times 108. A 30-minute-long Hare Krishna Maha Mantra went right over the top when Grammy-nominated David Nichtern laid into a guitar riff that whipped the crowd into an ecstatic frenzy. If you weren’t dancing by then, you might as well have been in bed. (Or maybe you were deep in Samadhi…)

Despite the hour, the lightning storm wash-out, the oppressive heat and the over-stuffed space, Krishna Das proved again that he can flow through just about anything with the grace of a guru.

Maybe that’s why, on Sunday afternoon, in a much less crowded, much cooler workshop in the same sanctuary space, KD broke out spontaneously into a verse of Amazing Grace toward the end of a sweet rolling Maha Mantra. Play this all the way through to hear it…

mmmm…how sweet the sound!

There was so much incredible kirtan at Omega’s Ecstatic Chant weekend that it’s hard to decide what to post first. We love this Jai Jai Ma from Jai Uttal’s first set Friday night.

Jai’s new CD, Queen of Hearts, dedicated to Radha, is now available. Have you heard it yet?

C.C. White has yet to release her first CD, but she was arguably the most popular performer at Bhakti Fest’s spring fling, and this video shows why.  Not your typical mantra chanting — this is “soul kirtan” like you won’t hear anywhere else.  C.C. pulls together a band of rockin’ musicians and then puts her heart and soul into every song.  Her CD is in the works, due out in July. I for one can’t wait to add that one!

If you’ve stumbled upon our new site, WELCOME to The Bhakti Beat!  We’re just getting started and are delighted that you’ve found us.  This will be the place to come for all the latest news, reviews and interviews about kirtan and bhakti yoga.  Oh, and lots of videos too! 

On April 12, we are off to Bhakti Fest Spring OMmersion in the California desert at Joshua Tree!!  We’ll be blogging and vlogging from Bhakti Fest all weekend, so please stay tuned for great videos, interviews and…well, who knows what else?  Bhakti Fest always has a surprise or two in store…

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Thanks for stopping by!

Be in the Bhav….

Brenda