6/29/17 - And so it begins. After almost a year of writing, arranging, recording roughs… I get to emerge from my cave and gather together with such a stellar group of musician/singer friends to make “Awakening” happen. This album, a mix of devotional/mantra and ambient/new age/meditation music, is being made with the gracious help of two all-star womens’ choirs, Naomi Charanpal Kaur, Johanna Beekman, Susan Shloss, Andrew Foehner, in the capable hands of engineer/mixmaster Will Kreiser at Indigital Studios here in Santa Cruz. Here in the photo, Will is uploading the Awakening tracks onto their system, where we’ll begin our work on Monday. So grateful for this abundance…
When I was a kid, I'd spend hours setting up a really intricate Hot Wheels track, complete with hills, loop-de-loops, jumps. And then the moment comes that all that's left is to set the car at the top of the track... and release! That's kinda what today was like 
My spiritual. sonic. Sister… It’s like #gettingthebandbacktogether. Yes, there’s the nose-to-the-grindstone effort, then absolute, resonant, on-the-beam ecstasy, and then just crackin’ each other up as our Midwest roots start showing. Thank you as big as the ocean, #kundalini_priestess Naomi Charanpal Kaur, for being the perfectly fitting last puzzle piece for ‘Ocean, Carry Me’. And thank you once again, Will Kreiser, for being the wizard of making things seem effortless and seamless and bringing it all to a level beyond.
After driving down from the North Bay this morning, Susan Shloss arrived at the studio before me and was warming up when I walked in. What followed with the most soul-stirring, gut-wrenchingly beautiful 3 hours of sweet violin tracks on 4 songs for the Awakening album. Yes, there were tears. Man-tears…
When the student is ready, the teacher appears… It was just a couple of years ago that I first experienced Andrew Foehner's playing (‘how does he make those sounds?!’), and this week, here we are. As Will Kreiser, the engineer, set up mics and Andrew got his tablas and djembe just right I began to be aware of how each beat entails this complex unfolding – that initial slap, that unfolds into this deep, bhakti boominess that reaches deep, deep inside. You root me, brother… deep bows.
And now, as mixing begins, the fine-toothed comb that brings it all together, it's like a fogged mirror slowly clearing, unearthing this gift that I'd only imagined, and for the first time, holding it in my hands.
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