I’m winding down my time in Mysore: Sunday was the last conference of my three-month practice stint at KPJ Ashtanga Yoga Institute — Sharath got down to business on explaining mula bandha to a packed-t0-the gills room—and Monday the last practice (wired from too little sleep and the fact that I was soon to leave the Mysore bubble of goodness and revelation). But like last week—when sarod player Govinda Schlegal took the stage after Sharath along with tabla and vina accompaniment — conference concluded with a bit of music. Amid the past week of packing up and processing what’s gone down for me in India this go, the opportunity arose for me to be one of David Garrigues’s back-up kirtan singers at what would be a special kirtan performance at the yoga shala. David’s a Certified Ashtanga teacher (aka, an exceedingly experienced and knowledgeable practitioner of traditional Mysore-style Ashtanga yoga) and a fine kirtan singer and composer. On Sunday after conference, he led a packed and very sweet kirtan. Here’s a snippet of some bhakti yoga in action. Much gratitude is there.
Visit David’s website for his teaching and kirtan schedule http://davidgarrigues.com/
Deborah Crooks (www.DeborahCrooks.com) is a writer, performing songwriter and recording artist based in San Francisco whose lyric driven and soul-wise music has drawn comparison to Lucinda Williams, Chrissie Hynde and Natalie Merchant.
Singing about faith, love and loss, her lyrics are honed by a lifetime of writing and world travel while her music draws on folk, rock, Americana and the blues. She released her first EP “5 Acres” in 2003 produced by Roberta Donnay, which caught the attention of Rocker Girl Magazine, selecting it for the RockerGirl Discoveries Cd. In 2007, she teamed up with local producer Ben Bernstein to complete “Turn It All Red” Ep, followed by 2008’s “Adding Water to the Ashes” CD, and a second full-length CD “2010. She’s currently working on a third CD to be released in 2013.
Deborah’s many performance credits include an appearance at the 2006 Millennium Music Conference, the RockerGirl Magazine Music Convention, IndieGrrl, at several of the Annual Invasion of the GoGirls at SXSW in Austin, TX, the Harmony Festival and 2009’s California Music Fest, MacWorld 2010, Far West Fest and many other venues and events. She toured the Northwest as part “Indie Abundance Music, Money & Mindfulness” (2009) with two other Bay Area artists, and followed up with “The Great Idea Tour of the Southwest in March 2010 with Jean Mazzei.
