Boston, MA – April 13, 2017 – Long holding down the devotional conscious rock vibe in New England and nationally, the GuruGanesha Band is looking forward to an exceptional 2017 with the launch of their exceptionally timely single “Troubled Times” at https://soundcloud.com/user-944524281/troubled-times/s-hoi4s, their new website at www.guruganeshaband.com, a fall tour through the east coast of North America, and an album, People of Love, coming in September.
On the single GuruGanesha notes, “One morning in February, GuruSangat, Sat Kartar and I were sitting at GuruSangat’s kitchen table in Brattleboro, VT sipping piping hot cups of Yogi Tea when we were moved to write some lyrics and melody to a beautiful new chord progression that Sat Kartar was strumming on his acoustic guitar. We had just been watching the news on CNN which included several mind-blowing tweets from the new President that literally blew the gauges off our ‘BS detectors.’ It felt like the early 70s all over again. We decided that the song needed to speak directly to the frustration, pain and confusion that many of us in the United States are currently feeling. We also made certain that the second half of the song included a prayer and positive affirmation that we hope will be a forklift to listeners’ spirits.”
In the tradition of the great sacred music artists of our time combined with essential influences from classic rock n’ roll greats, GuruGanesha Band embodies an entirely new music landscape and style that is conscious mantra based rock.
GuruGanesha Band effortlessly spans a multitude of musical styles – from deeply meditative musical compositions that unfold like lotus petals, to a spellbinding fusion of Indian raga and Western jazz, to full-on bhakti infused rock. The band expresses a universal musical language that transcends boundaries, cultures, and generations. The over 25,000 people who’ve experienced the live juggernaut this is the GuruGanesha Band can testify to the fact that they’ve been part of an experience that is not only memorable but also transformative.
When GuruGanesha himself experienced the late 1960s groundbreaking musical adventure of the Grateful Dead he knew right away that he found the seeds for his musical blueprint. The Dead’s loose but profoundly adventurous melodies became something else when grace hit GuruGanesha in 1972. That’s when his life changed and his spiritual path was cemented by meeting his spiritual teacher, Yogi Bhajan. It was then that he was able to see that the path of musical alchemy could be combined with devoted spiritual service to create a union of love, melody, message and rhythm in a way that hadn’t been done before.
GuruGanesha explains “When Yogi Bhajan strode down the aisle from the back of the room, I could feel his presence come in. Amazingly, he stopped and spoke to me. With graceful eyes, he looked down at me and simply said ‘what took you so long?’ It was then, listening to Yogi ji, I laughed and felt joy for the first time since my own father had died. I was inspired.”
This inspirational musical mission took on many forms over the years and has now culminated in the what surely is the ultimate expression of all the GGB members’ musical intentions. It’s rare that a band, with a couple members in their 60’s, feel that the best years are ahead of them and that they’ve barely just scratched the surface.
Part of the uniqueness behind the GGB are the different colors, textures and ideas that each band member brings to the sonic devotional laboratory. GuruGanesha’s fluid lyrical lead guitar playing is complimented by the harmonic brilliance of Sat Kartar’s rhythm guitar and then held down in the groove by Guru Sangat’s brilliant jazz influenced bass lines, and Fabio Pirozzolo’s world drum beats. All of the band members sing, their voices combining in holy harmony to elevate each song and the listener’s experience.
Like a magical breath of devotional grace each member can only barely put into words, there is an effortless perfection that happens when the four of them plug in and exchange their musical vocabulary. Through improvisation, original composition and some traditional chant infusions the material for the upcoming GuruGanesha Band album, People Of Love, expresses exactly where they are at on this journey, at this moment in time.
And if it wasn’t for the joy of sharing it with the world out on the road the GGB would be in a barn somewhere in Vermont pounding out the sonic magic until all hours of the night and day.
Their open hearts encourage all to sing, chant, dance and meditate along with them. Those who have experienced the GuruGanesha Band live in concert already know that the group tears down the house while lifting the audience’s collective spirit to a higher plane. They are guiding the way towards a bold and blissful new direction for live mantra music that is perhaps even more necessary for the planet now than ever before.