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White Sun II wins Grammy thebhaktibeat.comMark this day in bhakti history.  White Sun, the Los Angeles-based Sikh-tradition mantra-music band, has won The Grammy for Best New Age Album. This is the first Grammy for any artist in the sacred chant/kirtan/bhakti/mantra-music genres of music.

The band’s second album, “White Sun II,” was announced as the winner of the one and only award in the New Age category on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 12, during the pre-broadcast awards ceremony in Los Angeles.  The album comprises a line-up of powerful mantras popular in the Kundalini yoga tradition of Yogi Bhajan, delivered with the stunning, ethereal vocals of the band’s lead singer, Gurujas, whose voice has a haunting, otherworldly quality that cuts straight to the soul.  She is backed by Harijiwan, Grammy-winning kora player Mamadou Diabate, the Punch Brothers’ violinist Gabe Witcher, tabla player Abhiman Kaushal, and Adam Berry, who provide the richly layered foundation for her vocal magic.  The band was founded by Berry, a two-time Emmy winner best known as the music director for the animated television series, “South Park.”

Gurujas, Harijiwan and Berry accepted the award jointly during the webcast of the Grammy winners.  Speaking at the podium with deep emotion, Gurujas said: “We just want our music to make something better for somebody somewhere.  It’s our dream to see this world a more beautiful place.  Anyone who shares that dream: thank you, we love you, and let’s do better.”

“White Sun II” has been highly acclaimed since its release in August 2016, and rose to the No. 1 position on Billboard, iTunes, and Amazon music charts.  The band announced recently that the album had been streamed one million times on Spotify.  The album won despite competition from a very competitive field of New Age stalwarts that included four-time Grammy winner Enya, Greek composer Vangelis, and 12-time Grammy Nominee Peter Kater.

With the Grammy win, White Sun has accomplished what no other kirtan artist has been able to.  Krishna Das famously nabbed the New Age nomination in 2012 for “Live Ananda,” and also became the first kirtan artist to play at the Grammys.  Jai Uttal broke the ground a decade earlier with his nomination for “Mondo Rama.” And just last year, a relatively unknown kirtan artist from the Krishna tradition, Madi Das Brinkman, was nominated for the groundbreaking charity album “Bhakti Without Borders.”

You can listen to and purchase “White Sun II” here.

Here is the band receiving the Grammy:

Also see: www.whitesun.com

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Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
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Where’s the Bhav? Snatam Kaur Tours East

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Buoyed by a surprise birthday concert for none other than Oprah Winfrey and an avalanche of publicity surrounding it, Snatam Kaur is back in the East with a new band for a series of concerts and workshops in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

The Sikh songstress and Kundalini yogi, who practically grew up at the feet of Kundalini yoga founder Yogi Bhajan, has enchanted packed live audiences for years and has emerged, arguably, as the most widely known artist in the “sacred chant” world.   And if the Oprah story is any indication, the rest of the world may be starting to wake up.  (Does anything say “mainstream” more than Oprah?)

Answer to a Heart Prayer

Absent this tour are Snatam’s long-time travelmate, band leader and manager GuruGanesha Singh (whose own tour with The GuruGanesha Band is storming the East Coast right now) and tabla maestro Ramesh Kannan (who played two shows in Northern California with Snatam earlier this month).

The new troupe includes the brilliant guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Todd Boston (who played with Snatam for Oprah, along with Daniel Paul on tabla), Jason Parmar on tabla, and Matthew Shoening (Shane-ing) on the electric cello. Yeah, the electric cello. You gotta hear this — the usually-solo Shoening does this live-looping thing on the cello that creates layers of rhythms and depth in the music that is truly innovative.

“This is what happens when God turns a page in your life and opens your heart,” Snatam says in a new promotional video about the tour.  “This whole band came together from a prayer from our heart.”

Boston, New York and Beyond

The tour opens with two nights (5/24 and 5/25) at the historic Regent Theater in Arlington, just north of Boston. (Get tickets for Boston here.)  It will be Snatam’s third trip to Boston hosted by Shunyam Productions, the husband-and-wife team behind the Boston Yoga and Chant Fest, now in its third year and quickly making a name as one of the country’s premier annual gatherings of kirtan artists.

Awakening the Kundalini

From Boston, the band heads to New York City for a weekend workshop in which Snatam “will share the technology of Kundalini Yoga and Mantra that awakens the Kundalini energy flow within” and two evening concerts (5/26 and 5/27) at Integral Yoga NYC.  The tour continues with a concert in Washington Depot, Conn. 5/29 and a workshop in Keene, N.H. 5/30, before the group heads to Kripalu Retreat Center in Lenox, Mass. for two multi-day mantra-practice workshops — Mantras of Spiritual Warriers (6/1-6/3) and  Mantra Medicine Wheel (6/3-6/6) — where Snatam will be joined by her husband Sopurkh Singh Khalsa.

For the full schedule, visit Spirit Voyage’s Website.

Here’s a little taste of the nectar Snatam consistently delivers, from her appearance at 700 Voices Sacred Music Concert in West Branford, Conn. last May…

If you’ve never experienced the divine presence of this lit-from-within enchantress in the flowing white veils and voice of liquid velvet, well…what are you waiting for?  If you have, you know what we mean, right?

Also see:

www.snatamkaur.com

www.spiritvoyage.com

 

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