MySpacea place for friends

Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor - Image Hosting

..

Sruti Ram & Ishwari’s Fire of Devotion. Two rivers flow into one as this dynamic duo fills our hearts with song of divine love and longing. The album represents the first recorded offerings of two established vocalists and kirtan wallahs. Sruti Ram and Ishwari come together, two voices into one enchanting outpouring and Fire of Devotion. The CD features an ensemble of talented musicians and vocalists including: Sruti Ram - Vocals & Harmonium Ishwari - Vocals & Guitar Ray Spiegel tabla and various percussion Steve Gorn - Bansuri Flute Noah Hoffeld - Cello Tommy Be - Percussion Avinash - Djembe Backing Vocals - Kim Lesley, Premalata Kaye, Hillary Carr, Carrie Wykoff, Joe Veillette & Bihari SRUTI RAM has been in communion with the Divine through music since his childhood as a Catholic choirboy in the Bronx. Kirtan is for him another way to connect with Divinity, and he has been helping people find that connection all his life. ISHWARI is a singer, musician, painter and Interfaith mninister. The Divine feminine has influenced her music over the past 30 years. Her devotional practice is listening to Divine guidance and chanting the Divine Names. She studies Advaita Vedanta with Shubhra. Her Sat Guru is Babaji, and considers herself an employee of Neem Karoli Baba. SRUTI RAM & ISHWARI Sruti Ram and Ishwari met in Woodstock, New York in 2004. Over a period of time they cultivated the relationship and have been inseparable since. With Ishwari on acoustic guitar and Sruti Ram on harmonium and kartals, their blended vocals create a haunting, hypnotic effect with a driving rhythm. This is high energy, heart opening kirtan. It is both ancient and modern, with a spirit of joy that is pulsating and contagious. Sruti Ram and Ishwari sing the traditional kirtan of India, Sanskrit chants handed down intact for thousands of years. To these traditional melodies, they add harmonies unheard in the West since medieval and pagan times. Says Raka Mukherjee, the renowned North Indian classical vocalist, “You have invented something new.” Sruti Ram improvises spontaneous harmonies to Ishwari’s compositions with voice and harmonium and drives the energy up with his creative kartal rhythms. SPIRITUAL TEACHER Sruti Ram found his spiritual home in India in the ‘60s, at the feet of Satya Sai Baba. Later, he states, he was ‘chosen’ by his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. Sruti Ram has traveled and taught with Ram Dass since the early days on the road. He has been the meditation master and pujari for Ram Dass’s traveling satsang, teaching at such places as Omega Institute and countless other venues. Writes NPR commentator Marion Winik in her memoir, Rules for the Unruly, “[Rules] didn't stop me from falling in love with Krishna Das and Sruti Ram and the rest. These guys were in their twenties; they had traveled in India; they had the pure faces and shining eyes and wavy hair of saints.” Sruti Ram has been counseling privately from his home in Woodstock for 35 years, leading weekly kirtan for most of that time, and inspiring fledgling kirtan leaders within the thriving Woodstock kirtan community. INTERFAITH MINISTER Ishwari Lynn Keller is an interfaith minister who has strengthened and developed her psychic intuition over decades of study and practice, and who has learned to trust deeply the messages she receives. She credits Babaji as her guide and guru, says she is employed by Neem Karoli Baba, and studies Vedanta with Shubhra. Ishwari was ordained from the New Seminary in NYC in 2001. Ishwari and Sruti Ram host a monthly satsang in Woodstock, at which kirtan alternates with intimate discussion of global, personal, spiritual and emotional issues. MUSICIAN Sruti Ram has sung with divine inspiration since childhood. As a Catholic choirboy in the Bronx, Sruti Ram studied Gregorian chant for eight years. He has also studied opera, sung doo wop, and fronted for his own band. After discovering his spiritual path in India, Sruti Ram began singing kirtan and has never stopped. On one of his many journeys to India, Sruti Ram toured Rajhistan with the renowned kirtan singer Swami Cheytan Jyoti Ma. They had made the CD Ram Re Bhaav together prior to this tour. It was his association with her that led to their singing at the famous Shiva temple, Maha Kal, to an audience of eighty thousand people. This was a once in a lifetime experience. Sruti Ram’s CD, In Divine Love, was made with the Woodstock kirtan community in 2005. It is live kirtan recorded in the studio. Ishwari Music produced it at Hari Om studios, Ishwari’s production facility in Saugerties, New York. Says Krishna Das of the CD In Divine Love, “Sruti Ram and the group share the blessings of sweet devotion with wonderful exuberance.” And Jai Uttal says, “I’ve had the good fortune of knowing Sruti Ram for more than 20 years, and over the course of our friendship, Sruti has continually inspired me with his devotion and commitment to the light. This deep and beautiful spirit permeates his new CD.” Ishwari has performed her own music all her life, from her earliest harmonies over her sister’s folk guitar in the ‘60s. Ishwari fronted an art punk band in Austin while attending film school there in the late ‘70s. She studied opera and fronted several alternative music bands in New York City, Los Angeles and Austin in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Her original music is featured on the soundtracks of Slacker and The Return of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Her music videos have been shown at gay and lesbian film festivals around the world. Salvation Circus, her self-produced CD was released in 1999, which is a compilation of her music up until that time. It can be heard at www.mysticdiscoball.com Ishwari Music released Sruti Ram and Ishwari’s debut CD, Fire of Devotion, in October 2007. Fire of Devotion features top musicians in the field of Indian music, including Steve Gorn on bansuri flute and tabla master Ray Spiegel. Fusion drumming from Avinash, Naren Budhakar and Tommy Be and Noah Hoffeld’s ethereal cello create a sacred space that expands infinitely. A crowd of 150 friends celebrated at the CD release party in October. The spontaneity of kirtan and the harmonies of Sruti Ram and Ishwari create an intensity and a loving embrace to which the audience can fully surrender. Sruti Ram says, "Together we evoke a feeling of bliss that allows us and kirtan devotees to transcend any separations and remind us that we are all divine expressions and yet members of the same human family. It’s like fusion, our energies together are more than the two of us apart.” CHANTING WITH THE DEVELOPMENTALLY DELAYED One of the greatest heart opening moments happened at the Cerebral Palsy Center of Ulster County while chanting with developmentally delayed children and adults. One young autistic girl stood up and danced with complete abandon totally connecting to Sruti Ram & Ishwari and the kirtan. Another came when one of the adults, whose face has been frozen with one expression, left the kirtan with a full smile. This is the power of chanting the Divine Names. Since then, they have decided to bring kirtan to other organizations serving challenged populations and continue sharing the joy and healing effects of chanting. One such organization is The Center for Discovery, a groundbreaking facility in upstate New York for adults and children with developmental disabilities, with whom Sruti Ram and Ishwari have established an ongoing relationship. They sing kirtan for residents, their families and staff alike, reaching out to those who are largely noncommunicative. At a recent concert, Richard Humleker, chief of development, stated "The more that Sruti Ram & Ishwari played, the more faces lit up; and the healing and soothing effect of the music could be seen and felt." AUTHOR Sruti Ram has written a personal history, telling stories from his spiritual experiences, his encounters with high beings and teachers and his escapades with various satsangs. Its publication is forthcoming. Sruti Ram has presented some of his stories at BardCollege, where he spoke as part of a series on Hinduism Today.

Sruti Ram & Ishwari's new CD "Fire of Devotion" is for sale at http://www.cdbaby.com/srutiramishwari