My most recent  open mike performance took place last night and was in the Under St. Marks Theater, a small hole-in-the-wall kind of location in a basement on St. Mark’s Place (which used to be the “main drag” of the East Village). There was a small crowd there, mostly composed of other performers. My “lottery number” was  high and I did not get a chance to play until 11:30 PM. The people who preceded me were quite far-out and  I was not sure how I would be received. I played one song and also told a humorous spiritual story and the audience seemed to enjoy it.I will be going back to the open microphone events again, so if you are in New York City just contact me and I will let you know when and where I am performing.

By the way: the open mike  where I performed is called, Penny’s Open Mike and is located at 94 St. Mark’s Place (between 1st avenue and Avenue A). It takes place every Tuesday from 9:00 PM to 2:00 AM)

For the last few weeks I have been playing at “open microphone” sessions at various places in Brooklyn and Manhattan. One thing I am struck with as I travel around New York City is how much it has changed since I was last living there forty years ago.

In those days New York was a dangerous place and you couldn’t ride the subways late at night.  I’ve been coming back from the open mic sessions at 12:00 midnight without problems and lots of people are out late enjoying themselves. The East Village (on Manhattan’s Lower East Side) is now a pleasant residential area and I enjoyed playing Banjo Jim’s on Avenue C and 9th Street this past Saturday. Avenue C and D just near the river used to be quite dangerous areas but now they are nice streets.
New York was always aninteresting place, but it is a lot more fun now and a pleasant place to be.

Another landmark that has changed for the better is Tomkins Square Park in the East Village. This is the park where the Hare Krishna movement began, but in the late 1960s it was a scruffy place.  Once I met Abbie Hoffman (the revolutionary) in Tomkins Square Park. He was a visionary in a sense. He looked around at the park and insisted to me “This place is beautiful.” Well, in November 1968, it was definitely not beautiful. It was kind of bare and there was dog excrement everywhere, but he just closed his eyes and insisted that it was beautiful. I guess he was trying to be very positive and to bring about a new reality just by the power of his thought.

Well, if he were still living he would be happy to know that Tomkins Square Park is indeed a beautiful place these days with a great playground for kids and good landscaping.  It looked beautiful in the snow this past Saturday and in the summer a lot of people like to sit in the sun.

I hope that all the other troubled spots on this planet will be healed in a similar way.

In Case anyone is wondering what my new songs are all about. Below are some capsule comments that explain what I had in mind when I wrote each of the songs on my new CD. (more…)

I am in Poland at the beautiful Ananda Marga center near Jelenia Gora. It is a 46 hectare organic farm. We are enjoying a yoga conference.

My next stop in Denmark for another conference and then to Stockholm for a concert. Here is a poster for the concert.

This week one of the icons of folk music passed away. Mary Travers was a member of Peter, Paul and Mary and throughout her life she worked for various social causes. Her music many people and she will be sorely missed. However, the music lives on in recordings and in video.  Here is one of her inspiring performances:

For the past year I have been in NYC (though I did travel to many places all over the US) but now I have shifted my home base to Urbana, Illinois. I live a the Ananda Marga spiritual community in Urbana, Illinois. It is a three hour’s drive from Chicago and it holds the main campus of the University of Illinois. Our center here is very beautiful, sitting on ten acres of land and is part of the Ananda Liina eco-village.

I have already started my work here, giving yoga and meditation workshops as well as performing music for children and adults in two centers for people with special needs.

In addition the quiet rural location is great for recording and video recording. Here is my first video which was made at Ananda Liina, it is a cover of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind.

Here is a video from my performance at the Red Rock Cafe in Mountain View, CA

A new review of the CD Love is the Best

Spiritually inspired, Globally-tinged Folk and Americana music is what you’ll find on “Love Is The Best,” Dada’s second album overall. He seamlessly melds the rhythms of rock, country and Americana folk with the ancient wisdom of Yoga, bringing together such disparate strains to create a remarkable, eclectic music collection. There’s even a Bill Haley and the Comets-1950s style doo-wop song ~ which honestly is a bit of a surprise coming from an orange turban and robe wearing Yogic monk, but he performed this style of music flawlessly.

Overall “Love Is The Best” moves with a deeper spirit. Dada, much like Bob Dylan, U2, Johnny Cash or Bruce Springsteen, musically tackles topics that dominate our daily news, such as war and world peace, racism, economic and ecological issues as well as the need for open-minded spiritual discourse and real universal tolerance. Songs such as “From Zero To Hero,” “A Better Deal” and “Liberate Your Mind” bring these subjects into perspective. Also included on the album are two kirtan meditative tracks that feature mantra chanting. These songs were specifically written to assist the listener with their meditative focus.

This record and Dada’s music overall is a subtle work of simplistic beauty. I highly recommend “Love Is The Best.” But I would also suggest his first CD, “Brighter Than The Sun” – recorded in 2003 in Albania. With its acoustic, country-folk melodies and spiritual sensibilities, it makes for an excellent accompaniment to “Love Is The Best.” The radiant song “In The Stillness of the Morning” is worth the price alone.

Dada Veda’s website is www.dadaveda.com

reviewed by Michael Lohr (from New Renaissance Magazine, www.ru.org)