Miten even had Snatam Kaur collaborating on stage. She did NOT wail on the harmonica or sing the blues...but maybe next time?

Miten, the sultry, guitar-strumming, wise-cracking singer/songwriter/soul partner of Deva Premal, just seems to inspire extraordinary musical improvs wherever he goes.  At last year’s Omega Chant, he managed to coax the normally reserved Radhanath Swami onto stage for a wailing harmonica solo that had the crowd roaring.

Well, Swami-Ji apparently left his harmonica behind, so what’s a blues lover like Miten to do?  Get Shyamdas in on the act, of course.  You just knew it was going to be good when Miten called him up to the stage toward the end of Miten and Premal’s set during the Labor Day session of Omega’s Ecstatic Chant weekend. 

Nothing quite like the Radhe blues…

Later that same evening (yes, sticking around Omega for that final, fourth day of chanting IS worth it), there was an even bigger surprise.  And yes, it too involved Miten…who was kind of hiding in the dark corner for this one:

Whoa!  Krishna Das singing Bob Dylan’s famous ballad (often credited to Eric Clapton, who made it famous).  Never seen that before.  

In fact, Krishna Das told The Bhakti Beat, this was the first time he has sung Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door at a public concert, and only the second time he has sung it at all.  A week prior to Omega, KD joined his Russian friend Boris Grebenshchikov — who KD called “the Bob Dylan of Russia” and Wickepedia calls the “grandfather of Russian rock” — on stage at a private gathering for a spontaneous rendition of it.  We can’t help wondering if this signals a return to rock ‘n roll for “Ex-Rocker” Krishna Das.

Omega Moments — highlights for us from a long weekend of inspired, blissful (and decidedly more traditional than these two videos suggest) chanting, in all the deliciously diverse incarnations of the contemporary practice of kirtan.  What were yours?