Thursday, August 6, 2015

An infrequent and brief album update from the writer who never has time to write...

This week we're getting ready to mix the one track on my album that hasn't quite come together the way "I" had envisioned it. This is a traditional "Govinda Hare/Gopale Hare" kirtan song that we recorded in honor of Shyamdas. (The song and its unusual instrumentation basically came to me in a dream, fully formed, the day after Shyamdas died). All this time I have really clung to that dream-version of the song, and all this time I have been singing the song to Shyamdas, but it still wasn't coming together. Several weeks ago I actually prayed to Shyamdas for guidance and the next day, out of the blue, a good friend wrote to me saying that she really wanted me to meet a good friend of hers--a fellow Buddhist practitioner named Susan Ryan. I knew who Susan is of course--she is Shyamdas's sister--and we have met at various events, but we hadn't really spoken at length up to that point (which is mainly a product of my own shyness at large events). Long story short, Susan and I connected by phone a week or so after that and we spoke about how much we love Shyamdas. Then another message came to me in a dream to re-record the chant like a true love song (to the Divine) rather than in the big way I had initially envisioned it. So that is what we are doing today. I am grateful for all the guidance I have received on this project--from both visible and invisible sources. JSK!