Acoustic At Night..

One truly great thing about the international, long term traveler crowd, is that there is a disproportionately high number of amazingly talented and creative folk. It makes sense though; those in business and commerce work hard to pay off their li'l boxes on the hillside and so by and large, any time for creative pursuits and travel are relegated to those few measly portions of time known as annual leave. Compare that to many musicians, artists, dancers, storytellers or performers, whose ambitions and dreams could not sit further afield, where the other side of the horizon is the next real destination and the contents of a well worn suitcase the only worldly possession, freeing those who pursue it the time, space and heart to cultivate their craft.

Every once in a while, we at the River Ashram throw open our doors to host a night of celebration of creativity, community and the arts. On the first pages of our sacred Scriptures we see God breathing beauty into existence through all of his creative acts, and as his children we wish to reflect back and celebrate that creativity and beauty and so we invite people to come and bless each other through the sharing of their talents and skills.

Some people chose to perform their craft as an individual, others lead the circle in something communal, but considering the caliber of those present often it takes just one person to light the spark that sets the entire night of fire. So often the vast diversity of backgrounds and nationalities means that the performances are a real sharing of unique cultures while the jam sessions are this insane fusion of east and west and everything in between. Just off the top of my head I can think of Guitars, Sitars, Sarods, Dulcimers, Bansuri, Glockenspiels, Tibetan throat singing, Harmoniums, Ukuleles, Harmonicas, Ouds, Dholaks, Didgeridoos, Djembes, Tabla, Banjos and most importantly Triangles, all getting a work out around the circle at one time or another.

 
One of my truly favourite memories from an Acoustic Night was late last year when I was leading a Yeshu Bhajan called Satchit Ananda Eh Namo Namah. It's a deep and moody Bhajan that works as a call and response and so I was singing and playing my guitar accompanied by 20 or so other folk who were singing and playing a collection of the previously mentioned instruments. We were all singing our hearts out when from out of the darkness came the booming reverberations of a tattoo covered Japanese hippy brother playing a Didgeridoo. It was one of those beautiful moments that felt like it captured so much of the color of my life in just one special moment.

The most recent Acoustic Night was only in the previous week and it was without a doubt the most unique one we've hosted so far. The night began rather slowly but as chai started flowing and the crowd began warming up, the vibe began heading in a direction that I could never have predicted. In the past there have always been lots of original songs, many performances on traditional Indian instruments, plenty of covers and even the occasional poem, belly dance or fire twirl. But never before have I witnessed the entire circle requesting, belting out and dancing along with old Bluegrass and Gospel Spirituals that continued into the wee hours of the morning. The night was even capped off with an a cappella song done in a round! Truly the most bizarre yet incredibly beautiful ending to an Acoustic night that I've ever been a part of.

So if you're a performer of any kind and you're heading through Banaras be sure to hit us up and join us for our next night, especially if your heart is warmed by the company of a bunch of sweet hippies from the 4 corners of the globe, dancing round a campfire and singing them ole Gospel Spirituals. Sure sounds like a party to me!