RockOm

Today we bring you three new feature interviews with celebrated artists whose music is very distinct, but who are nonetheless connected by a burning desire to share their joy through music.

"I was given the gift of devotional song from birth, raised with the music of the temple, taught to sing and play beautiful instruments and dance... for love and for God," says Gaura Vani, the heralded musician and leader of As Kindred Spirits (which Jai Uttal calls, "Simply the most wonderful kirtan band in the Western world"). See RockOm's interview with Gaura, An Instrument of God's Peace.

The New York Times says, "Liking Brooklyn Qawwali Party doesn't depend on if you know what Qawwali is. Nor does it depend on how you feel about Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, its most revered practitioner. This is an 11-piece band... that piles texture into Mr. Khan's melodies, ultimately transforming them; it's joyous music, and this band adds all the extra fun and funk it knows." Get ready to rocket into musical orbit as we get, High on Sufi Jazz Grooves.

You could say that Sara Watkins' solo debut has been a lifetime in the making. The 27-year-old singer-songwriter, fiddle player and one-third of the Grammy Award winning group Nickel Creek sets out on her own and as you'll discover in her interview with RockOm. Watkins can't quite explain music's ability to bring us all together, she only knows that it does and that music is unavoidable. For Watkins, "Music is everywhere."