Kirtan Podcast Archive
Let’s Play Kirtan!
When I was looking over the results of the recent New World Kirtan listener survey I noticed lots of interest in local kirtan, and several of you expressed an interest in starting a band in your community. This week’s podcast will help you get started. Here's a link...
Where Is Western Kirtan Headed? Conversations With Kirtan Leaders, Part 3.
This podcast is the third and last of the series about where Western kirtan is headed, and features the second part of my conversation with Jai Uttal & Ben Leinbach that began in Part 2. We'll also talk with Nina Rao, and she’ll tell us her view of the current kirtan...
Where Is Western Kirtan Headed? Conversations With Kirtan Leaders, Part 2.
The next two podcasts will be released back to back, and they continue the conversation about where Western kirtan is headed. Creative artists today are facing unprecedented challenges, and our kirtan musicians are being deprived of income because of the growth of...
A Conversation With David Newman (Durga Das)
There’s nothing better than a good blast of Bhakti love, and the Hanuman Festival next weekend would be the perfect place to get you some. It’s happening June 9-12 in Boulder, CO and in this week’s show we talk to David Newman who is headlining. It’s always a pleasure...
Fresh Tracks Redux 2
I don't repeat podcasts very often, but the Fresh Tracks shows are an exception. Fresh Tracks are podcasts with all new chants, and sometimes I bring them back because so often they deserve another listen. This week's show posted about a year ago, and it has some of...
Where Is Western Kirtan Headed? Conversations with Kirtan Leaders.
This week’s show begins a series of interviews on where Western kirtan is headed. The topic is serendipitous, and came about because of a conversation I had several months ago with Dave Stringer & Madi Das -- I was interviewing them because their CD ‘Bhakti Without...
The Gayatri Mantra
This week's New World Kirtan Podcast explores the deeper meaning of the Gayatri Mantra, one of the oldest & most powerful mantras in existence. Here’s a simple translation: "O Divine Mother, our hearts are filled with darkness. Please make this darkness distant from...
The Yoga of Sound
It is wonderful to see devotional chanting and mantra practice develop into this huge wave here in America and worldwide. And it feels especially rewarding to be among those who helped create this wave. Here is that story … In late eighties, the west was just...
Deep Sleep
Last week I found myself waiting for the results of a biopsy. If you've been in a similar position you can probably relate -- the compulsive checking for THE CALL, waking up at 3AM with mind racing. It was a great lesson to show how much work I have to do to control...
Fierce Female Podcasters
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Article originally appeared on Power Press Podcast on March 22, 2016. 2 Fierce Female Podcasters You Should Be Following Forget the image of podcasting as an old boy’s club: the visibility of women in the community seems to be on the...
A Conversation With The Kirtan Rabbi
I met Reb Drew, the Kirtan Rabbi, several years ago. Chanting in Hebrew was a new experience for me, but to my surprise it took me to the same place chanting in Sanskrit did. Rabbi Hahn travels extensively to bring Hebrew Kirtan, Jewish meditation and Torah learning...
Fresh Tracks 30
30 Fresh Tracks sets -- that's some kind of milestone! I love introducing new artists and new offerings from our favorite artists so these sets are special to me -- #30 is no exception. The CDs featured in this show had so many great tracks it was really hard to make...
Madi Das & Dave Stringer Go to the Grammys
It's a pretty special night at the Grammys when members of our kirtan family are nominated! In this edition of the New World Kirtan Podcast artist Madi Das & producer Dave Stringer talk about the vision behind their CD 'Bhakti Without Borders' nominated for a Grammy...
Divine Healing
About a year ago I was in terrible pain from a back spasm that ultimately became a spiritual journey. I did some of the hardest & deepest work of my life during that back spasm, and many of the chants from this week's set were on repeat in my playlist this time last...
Return of the Light
This week's set is based on one we sang with our Kirtan/Meditation Group at Winter Solstice. It's many variations on the chant "Om Asatoma Sad Gamaya Tamasoma Jyotir Gamaya Mrityor Ma Amritam Gamaya Om Shanti Shanti Shanti." This means "Lead me from the unreal to the...
Surprise Package 2
Winter Solstice is always special to me because it marks the anniversary of the launch of the New World Kirtan Podcast. It hardly seems possible that it has been seven years, and that many of you have been with me since the beginning of this journey. The podcast is...
A Conversation with Jai Uttal & Ben Leinbach
One beautiful day last month my son Jesse & I drove up from San Rafael to Ben Leinbach's studio where Jai Uttal was just beginning work on his next CD. The four of us had such a fun conversation about all kinds of things -- what Jai was for Halloween, letting children...
A Conversation with Vijay Krsna of the Kirtaniyas
Our show this week features an interview with Vijay Krsna of the Kirtaniyas. Vijay is a rising star in the kirtan movement, and I loved his stories of ashrams, Krishna & Vrindavan. Here's a link to the chant "In Vrindavan" he talks about on the podcast. And here's a...
Best of Dance Dance Evolution
The last few months I've been going to the gym a lot -- that back spasm last winter scared the beejeezus out of me, so working out has become a priority. But now autumn is coming on and lethargy is setting in. I mostly listen to other people's podcasts at the gym, but...
Creating Success With Ganesh
In our last podcast I told you about beginning a Community Kirtan here in Corvallis. Our first was on a Friday night two weeks ago -- that afternoon yet another mass shooting occurred about 100 miles south of us at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg. In this week's...