Posts Tagged ‘Blog’

From Cambridge, we made our way to the great state of Rhode Island, which was a short drive. The tour was making 2 stops on RI; the first in Cranston, at the studio Raffa Yoga, and the second in Providence, at Tazza Caffe. The stop had originally been conceived as a chance to meet up with another friend of mine from the ilovefuzz.com forums, Jeremy Withers. We hatched a plan to put together a show that would feature his band, The Inclined, the Basement Bhaktis, and Seismic Feedback, the project of another ilovefuzz.com forum member, Ben Carl.

Flash forward, some logistical hiccups prevented Jeremy’s band, The Inclined, from playing the show. That did not stop him from going out of his way to take care of us for the entire RI stop. Jeremy’s Inclined band mate had recently sold his house, and since they had moved out already, but the closing was not till the middle of the week, they allowed us to take up residence in it. Since we knew we’d be there until Tuesday morning, we basically got to set up camp; a welcome change even just being a few days on the road.

The show at Raffa Yoga was conceived literally at the last minute. With a little more than 2 weeks until the start of tour, we still had a day off before the Providence RI show. Jeremy sent me a list of Yoga studios in Providence and the surrounding areas. I was instantly drawn to Raffa because of their website; there were numerous testimonials about the profound effect that Christine Raffa and her studio had made on the students. With just 2 weeks to set up and promote, Christine opened her studio to us and agreed to host our kirtan. Jeremy happily agreed to the use of his PA for the evening.

Me & Jeremy at Raffa Yoga

The Cranston community was one of the most enthusiastic of the entire tour. They easily filled the entire room with their voices as we all sang in glorious praise. A particularly powerful moment for me came when we played the song “At Sea,” – I just so happened to open my eyes and look out the window as I sang the opening line, “Rain outside the window pane…” and saw a storm.

At the end of the night we made our way back to our temporary home base in Providence. It was amazing not having to drive anywhere the next day. While Patrick had to head to Brown College to take a proctored test for one of his PVCC classes, the rest of us were able to kick around Providence. Jeremy showed us around, took us to get some amazing Falafel, as well as bubble tea.

We also made a stop at the All Vegan “Like No Udder” ice cream truck, a new staple of the providence area. We met the couple that owns and operates it at Raffa. If you find yourself in the Providence RI area, look for it!

Monday night we played at Tazza Caffe with Seismic Feedback. SF play instrumental electronic music that is a bit hard to pin down, genre wise. There are elements of industrial, but I wouldn’t classify it as industrial outright. They created some serious soundscapes; each song was like it’s own world, and the listener was invited to explore it. It fit very well with what we were doing, and I hope that we get to share a bill with them again.

Jeremy, Me, and Ben from Seismic Feedback

I have to take an extra moment to again thank Jeremy for his hospitality. He made the stop in Rhode Island one of my favorite parts of the tour. Hopefully next time we could through we’ll be able to play with The Inclined as well!

The second night of the tour was Kitchari Kirtan in Cambridge, MA. KK is hosted by Tom Lena, and takes place once a month. It’s usually on Friday nights, but Tom was kind enough to shift to Saturday to accommodate the free night that we had on the tour.

It was immediately clear, just from walking into the room, that we were in a sacred space. The deep vibrations of all of the kirtan that had been sung in the room throughout the years made it feel very much like coming home; a nice feeling when out on the road.

Here’s Marshall with our friend Noah Krohn, a charlottesvillian who relocated to the boston area.

And here’s Ally, our new biggest fan from Cambridge MA. Ally hung out with us all afternoon, gave us all nicknames, and even helped make the Kitchari! The Kitchari was incredible, by the way. Unquestionably the best food we will eat the whole tour.

Special thanks to Tom for opening his home and heart to us. He helped to create one of the best kirtan experiences I’ve ever had, and certainly one of the most memorable stops on the tour.

What an incredible way to kick off the tour! Because of my deep connection to Yogaville in Virginia, playing at the Institute in NYC has been a dream of mine since I started singing Kirtan. Setting up this particular night was the catalyst for booking this tour.

We had a very easy drive into NYC, and found the institute without any trouble at all.

The folks we met were all helpful and kind, and the presence of Gurudev could be felt strongly throughout the rooms and halls of the building. It wasn’t until after we set up all of our gear and did a level check in the Heaven room, where we would be playing, that they told us that room was Gurudev’s apartment in NYC! What a blessing!

This stop was the first one on the tour where I got to meet up face to face with a friend from the ilovefuzz.com forum, a place where you can find me pretty much every day discussing the joys of guitar pedal related joys.

Meet Steev!

Steev was kind enough to film a bit of the beginning of the set with Marshall’s camera:

The first kirtan tour is just around the corner. Right now the house is atwitter with preparations, interspersed with attempts to relax as well. This morning was spent folding all of the laundry in the world, as well as setting aside the bits that would be coming on the road.

I’m putting all of this aside to say:

Whether or not you agree with or support a/the war, let’s all take a minute out of the day to give thanks to those who have given up free time, holidays, sleep, their kids first steps to graduations, and in many cases, their lives. People like them are one of the reasons we are allowed to disagree with war, after all. Pray (or …wish, if prayer isn’t your thing) for their peace, and safe return.

And say another prayer to the families of those brave soldiers, another to those we have lost, and still another to those that have lost someone.

Om shanthi shanthi shanthi

I want to take a second to put a spotlight on my pal, my homie, my BFF Bruce Stocking. Last week I had the honor and pleasure of attending his graduation from firefighters academy.

Here he is on stage getting “pinned” by his wife, Eliza. The pin is a gold bar with a “thin red line” in the very middle. There are lots of interpretations of what the “thing red line” signifies. One says it symbolizes the camaraderie between firefighters. Another is that the red line represents the firefighters, and it acts to separate good from bad, order from chaos.

I like to think that I’ve dedicated my life to serving others, but there are people out there, people like my friend Bruce, who really take service to the next level. They take it upon themselves to go to a person on what is likely the worst day of that person’s life, and put themselves in harms way for that person’s benefit.

I feel really blessed to be able to spend time around such a brilliant example of selflessness and service. Going forward in my life, when someone asks me what I think “service” means, it’s Bruce I’m going to think of. When someone asks what “one-pointed attention” and “meditation” I’m going to think of Bruce walking into a burning building to save innocent people. Bruce, and people like him, are Karma Yogis without a doubt.

Bruce with his mom, Cathy, and wife, Eliza.

Kudos to Bruce on his Graduation.

Om shanthi shanthi shanthi,

Jdavyd