RockOm

Today RockOm is bringing a huge dumptruck load of new content for you to check out!

To kick things off, we have two new featured articles including Part II to last month's Zakir Hussain interview as well as a new piece called Social Change and the Power of Music (w/ Ram Dass, Odetta and Christine Stevens).

Secondly, this week's Track of the Week and podcast are with singer/musician Larkin Grimm. Larkin's dark and sensual music breaks the genre mold and her life story (which includes a religious cult, an Ivy League school, psychedelics and spiritual experiences) is quite unique and fascinating. Check out her track "Ride That Cyclone" on the homepage this week as well as our 20-minute interview on the most recent RockOm podcast episode.

Lastly, the week ahead is going to be an intense one here at RockOm. You can come along for the wild ride and join us as we prep in-depth features and interview a dizzying array of stellar musicians and artists in the South Carolina / Georgia area. This week’s feast includes Platinum-selling emo rockers Hawthorne Heights, Vans Warped Tour alum and Fellow South Carolinian-to-West Coast transplants Emery and four-time Grammy-Award winners, The Blind Boys of Alabama. Both Hawthorne Heights and Emery will be appearing in Hilton Head Island, SC at The Shoreline Ballroom this week. The Blind Boys of Alabama will be appearing at Café Loco on Tybee Island, GA. Originally, The Blind Boys Of Alabama were scheduled to appear at The Shoreline Ballroom, but the show has been rescheduled courtesy of the great folks at Café Loco, as promoter Robert Marzbanian of Lighthouse Entertainment, the promoter for the Shoreline Ballroom was recently hospitalized and is being treated for cancer. The entire RockOm team sends our best wishes for healing to Robert, his family and the entire Shoreline Ballroom Family.

Hawthorne Heights headlines the Never Sleep Again Tour of 2008 performing new cuts off their latest CD entitled Fragile Future on Victory Records. No stranger to the top of the Billboard’s charts and accustomed to MTV, VH1, and Fuse rotation as well as Platinum and Gold selling brackets of the record industry, Hawthorne Heights is pushing past, but by no means forgetting the untimely death of guitarist/ vocalist Casey Calvert just over a year ago. Fragile Future marks a new chapter in the band's story and there is, no doubt, much more to be written in the annals for the now quartet as the tracks from Fragile Future point toward bigger and more meaningful avenues waiting. Catch Hawthorne Heights on December 4th at The Shoreline Ballroom on Hilton Head Island, SC or at one of their other tour dates.

South Carolina’s own Emery got their start in the small up-state town of Rock Hill but in 2001 decided the West Coast was where they were destined to really kick it in to high gear and now call Seattle home. These guys have four albums out on Tooth & Nail records including their latest EP While Broken Hearts Prevail and are a part of the 2008 Never Sleep Again Tour featuring Hawthorne Heights, Tickle Me Pink, The Mile After and The Color Fred. Emery will be joining Hawthorne Heights on December 4 at The Shoreline Ballroom, Hilton Head Island, SC.  For other tour dates, click here.

Since 1939 The Blind Boys of Alabama have been serving audiences near and far with their blend of Gospel music and have garnered four Grammy Awards along the way. Several members have come and gone since 1939 but the music is still the same crowd-pleasing, spirit moving mix they’ve perfected throughout their years of performing. The Blind Boys of Alabama have collaborated with a diverse assortment of artists including Ben Harper, Aaron Neville and Mavis Staples. They’ve even joined Tom Petty and Peter Gabriel on tour. Catch them live December 5th at at Cafe Loco on Tybee Island, GA., or at one of their other dates.

Watch for these featured interviews in December at RockOm.net.

With Ram Dass, Odetta and Christine Stevens

It was while attending the Seva Foundation’s 30th Anniversary Concert in Oakland, CA on September 27, 2008 that the conversation began. The line-up for the evening included Ruthie Foster and Nina Gerber, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, David Crosby and Graham Nash, Elvis Costello, and Los Lobos. The night was filled with great music by some great artists, some of whom you could say have changed the world as we know it. Perched in our seats in Oakland's Paramount Theater at intermission, we began to discuss whether music does indeed have the power to change the world or if that is just a poetic, though inaccurate, perspective.

Then we remembered what the great folk singer Ms. Odetta said in an earlier interview with RockOm. When asked by Tom Crenshaw if she thought music still has the power to change the world, Odetta replied,

“Not the music, not the music… It’s people who are actually on the firing line that we’re supporting, that are doing the changing of the world. Person by person, there is some power there.”

The people Ms. Odetta were speaking of are the Seva workers and social activists in the field - the doctors, nurses, organizers, planners and support staff who are actually doing the changing. It’s really not about the music… or is it?

So we went to the top with this, asking Ram Dass, renowned author, spiritual teacher and board member of the Seva Foundation about the work of groups like Seva and music's transformational potential.

RockOm: Thinking back 30 years ago to the beginning of the Seva Foundation, what would you say was the driving force behind the founding members' aspirations and has Seva exceeded your expectations as to what the founders hoped to accomplish?

Ram Dass: The original purpose of Seva was two-fold: social action and using it for spiritual growth (Karma Yoga). Though the years the social action (relieving of suffering) has become more of the primary focus.

RockOm: What are your thoughts on how, year after year, music has helped Seva raise such awareness of its purpose and mission?

Ram Dass: Our music events led by Wavy Gravy have brought us money for our projects and publicity for the foundation.

RockOm: Do you believe music has the ability to heal and relieve suffering on a profound level as with other fields of service?

Ram Dass: I believe that the music itself at these events have healed the audiences, and we at Seva, who heal the blind, need music for our healing as well.

All of this from a man who, in his late 70s with a nearly unmatched spiritual resume and nothing left to prove, has released a new album entitled Cosmix - a unique blend of music and spirituality, mixing electronica beats and soundscapes with sound bites and spoken word. There is no doubt that Baba Dass finds in music that great power to bring healing and transform lives.

In our continued effort to explore this topic, we sought out Christine Stevens from UpBeat Drum Circles who, along with the UpBeat team’s Ashti Drum Project, recently returned from their second trip to Iraq. While there they served children with their music through Kurdistan Save the Children, as well as Iraqi women at two shelters in Suliyamania.

“There is only a one-letter difference between performer and reformer,” Christine commented. “Ashti Drum in Iraq has demonstrated that music and drum circles are successful models for transformation through cross-cultural collaboration.”

But what about music healing and serving profoundly, as with other fields of service such as the medical field? Christine went on to clarify,

“First of all, let’s define the term ‘heal.' Healing is restoring into one's life what is missing, becoming whole. Secondly, let’s define the term ‘healer.’ In indigenous history, the healer was both a musician and physician - the shaman. So, at its roots, music has been part of healing for centuries.”

Christine concluded,

“Let’s empower people to take an active role in their own healing and health. In our research, positive biological changes occur when people drum together (www.remo.com/health). Because of this research, we could go into Iraq with an evidence-based program that was accepted by all religious sects for the medicinal purposes of alleviating the suffering - both physical and psychological - of the survivors of the war in Iraq. Do I believe music can be healing? I literally bet my life on it going to Iraq... and it worked!”

So does music “change the world” or does it simply inspire the hands and feet of the change-makers? Like most questions, the answer is less “either-or” and more “both-and.” Or perhaps most likely, the question needs no answer at all. In the end, who really cares? It is all one process and one cycle. Perhaps a better lens in which to view such profound questions is best summed up by what Christine offered with regards to intention:

"As Krishna Das says, ‘If you want enlightenment; feed people.’ Music is food for the soul. Share your music. Let your gifts shine. Go to a shelter and sing. It is time for music to be unleashed as a powerful force of healing and cross-cultural peace-making. Music immediately removes barriers and creates dialogue and connections. Even the Dali Lama recommends music sharing festivals for peace-making in the Middle East.”

May the music-makers continue making their music, those in the field continue their work and each of us do what we can to make a positive impact. And, “person by person,” personally and publicly, alone and together, may we all work to, in Gandhi's words, “be the change we wish to see in the world.”

[By Trevor Harden (Trevor@RockOm.net) and Tom Crenshaw (Tom@RockOm.net)]

Discuss this article

_________________

The Seva Foundation is a non-profit foundation in Berkeley California that was founded back in 1978 by some very compassionate individuals such as Drs. Larry and Girija Brilliant, Dr. Nicole Grasset, spiritual teacher Ram Dass, Berkeley activists Wavy Gravy and Jahanara Romney. The Seva Foundation currently is working to:

• “Prevent blindness and restore sight in India, Nepal, Tibet, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Tanzania and Guatemala.”
• “Help indigenous communities in Guatemala and Mexico develop their capacity to meet basic needs and create solutions to poverty and injustice.”
• “Support Native American projects across the U.S. in the areas of health and wellness, community development, environmental protection and cultural preservation.”

To find out more or to donate a one-time or reoccurring tax-deductible donation, please visit www.seva.org.

Info about Odetta: www.mc-records.com/html/odetta_landing.html

Info about Ram Dass and his album: www.ramdass.org

Info about Christine Stevens: www.upbeatdrumcircles.com

[Edited by Andrew Hoogheem]

RockOm July 2008 Featured Article

In yoga centers and practitioners' MP3 players worldwide stream the melodies and voice of artist Krishna Das. Krishna Das' legendary history began with befriending spiritual teacher Ram Dass and soon thereafter becoming a disciple of Maharaj-ji (Neem Karoli Baba). Today he records albums and tours the world leading kirtan (devotional music) and has sung for and with many of the world's foremost spiritual teachers and musical artists. KD recently shared with RockOm's Trevor Harden about his rock'n' roll past and the influence of his guru.

RockOm - In the yogic tradition, there are several pathways to connecting with or serving God. You've chosen the devotional path, which is carried out through song. From Krishna Das kirtan sessions to Sunday morning church services, why do you believe music is such a powerful agent in connecting us with the divine?

Krishna Das - That's a good question. Music is a way people can get out of their minds, get out of their thoughts. It's something they can do themselves with their body and with their voice. It's something they can give themselves to without any artificiality; it just moves you. The rhythms of music and the sound and all those things helps people get out of their heads. I saw the new Rolling Stones movie at the IMAX that Martin Scorsese directed and they played some stuff from way back, stuff from their early albums from when I was in college listening. I broke out crying because those songs were so important to me at that time. They helped me so much to get through hard periods. It was so powerful for me. Our emotions are able to move into the flow of music in a way that's very beautiful. With chanting, there's music involved but also something else which is called the Divine Names in the East - the names of God or the names of that place in us that's ok, the place that we forget a lot. By melting the music in with these sounds, we not only get that ability to move out of our minds, but we also move into something that's more lasting in our own hearts - in our own self. No matter how much that music of the Stones helped me when I was young, it didn't give me something lasting. I'm not trying to put music down in any way, but the spiritual aspect of music doesn't necessarily come from the music itself. It can come from the person who's doing the music. It can come from what's in the music, what's put into the music by that person. The intention of the musician is very important.

RO - You mentioned the Stones; were there other artists or albums when you were a young man or teenager that also spoke to you?

KD - The blues. Mississippi Delta blues, country blues. When I heard that music, I fell over. I grew up on Long Island in the '50s and '60s. The '50s were a very superficial time - Eisenhower was the president; it was a weird time. Everybody was repressed, nobody talked about anything. And then I ran into the blues and I could not believe it - the power, the presence, the wisdom and the intensity of the experience of these musicians like Mississippi John Hurt, Rev. Gary Davis, Skip James, and Robert Johnson. I couldn't believe how real this stuff was and how it cut through the nonsense of what I was living with every day. That music really changed my life, absolutely. And in some ways, what I do - I'm really still just a blues singer. It's big blues, but it's blues.

RO - It is well noted that your time in India brought you to the feet of Neem Karoli Baba. What, if anything, did your guru have to say about music?

KD - Not much other than, "Sing!" He wasn't a teacher. He didn't do a lot of intellectual talking. He didn't explain a lot of stuff but he guided each of us to finding our own way to help ourselves. He always asked me to sing - he asked all of us to sing - and the chanting became very important to me so I just kept up with it. Once again, he talked about the Name, the repetition of the Name. It is like calling out when you're in love with somebody, your heart is always calling them - calling their name and bringing their face and their presence to your mind. It's the same thing. Through this music, we're calling that Love - the essence of all that Love - to bring into ourselves, to bring it into our moment, into our lives. That's what the practice is about.

RO - You're currently on tour throughout the Eastern U.S., including June 28th at Charleston's Jivamukti Yoga and June 30th at Atlanta's Variety Playhouse. What have you learned over your years of touring and leading different kinds of people in different parts of the world in devotional singing?

KD - Get enough sleep! [laughs] For me, it's like being with family. No matter how many people are there, no matter where I am, no matter what language they talk it always feels like family to me. It's a wonderful feeling. I've found that everybody's the same, everybody wants the same thing. Everybody wants some relief from the intensity of the stuff that happens every day to us. We want to find a way to live with that. Everybody wants that love, everybody wants to find that place no matter where they are on this earth. You can see that a lot of us don't know how to go about doing that and that, instead of helping us find a way to deal with it, our very actions make more stuff to deal with. That's the same across the board everywhere. I've learned that everybody's the same.

RO - And you feel that through your sessions with these people it's helping them through this process a little?

KD - It's certainly helping me. I don't know about them. I would hope so, but I know it's helping me.

Krishna Das is currently on tour in Georgia, South and North Carolina and a few states in the Midwest, among others. Check out his tour schedule as well as much more information at www.krishnadas.com.

www.krishnadas.com

Top photo by Carla Cummings.
Second photo by Meg Carlough.

Article edited by Andrew Hoogheem.