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Folk Music

Peace Can Be Louder Than War

Brian K. Noe · February 20, 2025 ·

In May of 2024 I learned about this cool project from one of my favorite bands, Merry Hell. They crowdsourced a choir for the recording of this peace anthem, written by Virginia Kettle.

Each of us (representing five continents) sent in audio of ourselves singing along, and the band mixed them all together to form the “1000 Voice Choir.”

The recording debuted on New Year’s Day and rose to the Top Twenty of the Folk Alliance International Folk Chart shortly after its release.

The message is timely, and timeless. Here’s a wish that “some with their minds unconsciously blind” will be awakened by listening.

Peace.

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Folk Music, Folkie, Merry Hell, Peace

Chanting the Names

Brian K. Noe · May 9, 2020 ·

 

Ram, Sita, Hanuman PosterI began chanting the Sadaksara occasionally from the time I first obtained a Tibetan mala many years ago. Over the past year, as I took up the daily practice of meditation, I have alternated between it and the Adi Mantra (which we learned from Chand Shiva Singh, our Kundalini Teacher).

As my wife, Claudia, began her daily practice, she first used the Kirtan Kriya and then the Siri Gaitri Mantra.

Although all of these mantras have deep spiritual significance, none of them invoke (or make reference to) particular deities.

Over the past few weeks, though, I have been learning about the rich devotional tradition of bhakti. Much of that practice centers on repeating the names of various Hindu gods and goddesses.

Raised, as I was, in an Evangelical Protestant Christian home, I was taught that this sort of activity is akin to devil worship. Even the reverence of Christian Saints practiced by Roman Catholics was considered to be idolatry in our church. When I became Catholic, it took considerable study and soul searching for me to overcome this knee-jerk aversion stemmed in my upbringing.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that an idolater is someone who “transfers his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God.” Most Catholics, I suspect, would take this to be a prohibition against reverence to any god with a name coming from a tradition other than that of Judaism and Christianity.

Here is what I have come to believe. Our notions about God, and our faith traditions, are limited by our human capacities. Although we Catholics believe that scripture is inspired, we must also accept that the human beings who wrote the scriptures experienced the same limits of language and culture that we ourselves face. We are all trying to understand and describe something that is far beyond our ability to comprehend and convey. We can have an experience of the divine, but we can only approximate that experience when we try to conceptualize or describe it.

All of the world’s major religions have something to add to our understanding of why we are all here, and how we ought to pursue our lives. For me, Christianity in general, and Roman Catholic Christianity in particular, do better on the whole in the tasks of informing my conscience and nourishing my spirit – but I did not become Catholic because I believe that our teachings reveal the “one and only truth.” I do believe that there is truth to be found in the teachings of the Catholic Church, and in the way that we worship and work together. But this does not mean that we cannot also be nourished by the practices, and guided by the wisdom, of other religious traditions.

One of the great lights of kirtan in our age, Krishna Das, says that the practice of bhakti is singing to the loving presence that is always present within us and around us. “This loving presence may be called by all these names.”

In recent days, I have found great nourishment and comfort in singing the names of Rama, Sita, Hanuman, Krishna, Radha, Durga, Shiva – the list goes on and on. These names, for me, represent aspects of God, not beings who are distinct from God. I believe that learning their stories and chanting their names is another way of bringing more light into my life, and more love into my heart. I suppose that greater compassion will be the ultimate test of whether or not this is true.

All One.

 

Filed Under: Essays Tagged With: All One, Bhakti, Chants, Devotions, Faith, Folk Music, Hindu, Homemade Music, India, Interfaith Dialogue, Kirtan, Mantras, Music, Yoga

Diving in to Bhakti

Brian K. Noe · May 7, 2020 ·

About seven weeks ago, my wife and a couple of her yoga friends did a Facebook livestream from the Align Light studio where they shared the Siri Gaitri mantra. It was a beautiful meditation.

Unfortunately, after the live session, Facebook removed the sound, because they had used recorded music and the platform’s AI recognized it as copyrighted.

The idea struck me immediately that we could remediate the problem by recording the music ourselves. So I grabbed my handy recorder and guitar, played some arpeggios, then decided to add some keyboard sweetening. After a few hours I had the basic track together. We refined it over the next few days, adding some reference vocals and such. Done. It wasn’t what I would consider to be “listening” quality, but it was fine for the background to chanting.

It hadn’t occurred to me that this would be anything other than a fun, one-off project. But then my wife said “we should record Long Time Sun too.” So I got out the recorder and guitar again, and this time decided to add a bass guitar track in addition to guitar and keys. I had learned some things from the process for the first recording, and was noticing things during this second one that could be improved as well. Before I knew it, I found myself saying “the next one of these we do, I’ll want to start with a click track.”

By now I was absolutely hooked, and began searching all over the Web for anything I could learn about Kirtan music and devotional chanting. At this point I was still thinking of the music as a pleasant and interesting hobby or diversion. Then, something odd happened.

Although I already had a vague notion that the chanting had a spiritual basis and spiritual benefits (we chanted at the end of Kundalini Yoga sessions and our instructor always spoke about the deeper meaning of the chants), I hadn’t realized that it is at the very center of some folks’ devotional life. The practice already had a pretty firm grip on me, and now it pulled me in. It suddenly felt as if every thing that I have experienced throughout my life, from the time I was a small child, was leading to this moment of discovery.

Claudia and I continue to chant together every evening, and now I’ve added an afternoon session to my daily practice as well. I’ve also begun to read the Tulsidas Ramayana, and to consider how singing the names of Hindu deities each day relates to my life as a faithful Roman Catholic Christian. I’ll be writing more about that in the days to come.

In the meantime, we’ve ordered a harmonium. 🙂

Filed Under: Essays Tagged With: All One, Bhakti, Chants, Devotions, Faith, Folk Music, Hindu, Homemade Music, India, Interfaith Dialogue, Kirtan, Music, Yoga

Sing for Peace

Brian K. Noe · January 3, 2020 ·

Just a couple of old Hippie songs on a Friday Night.

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: Bobby Darin, Facebook Live, Folk Music, Folkie, No War, Pete Seeger

Cleaning Up The Hudson

Brian K. Noe · February 1, 2016 ·

Here’s the story of how an idealistic crackpot’s crazy idea saved what was once one of our dirtiest rivers.

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: Activism, Clearwater Sloop, Environment, Folk Music, Hudson River, Pete Seeger, Think Globally Act Locally

Folk Songs from Bernie Sanders

Brian K. Noe · December 30, 2015 ·

On November 19, 1987, Bernie Sanders went into a recording studio with 30 Vermont musicians. It was a crazy idea that could have produced laughable results, but for some reason, it worked.

James Napoli has the story on Atavist.

Read it: We Shall Overcome

Filed Under: Curated Links Tagged With: Bernie Sanders, Folk Music, Folk Process, Folkie

Goodluck to All of You

Brian K. Noe · November 19, 2015 ·

joe_hill_will

Rest in Power, Joe Hill – Executed by the State of Utah 100 Years Ago Today

Filed Under: Other Content Tagged With: America, Folk Music, Folkie, Heroes, IWW, Joe Hill, Joe Hill Centennial, Union, Wobblies

Glory Hallelujah

Brian K. Noe · October 16, 2015 ·

A Song Apropos of the Day: John Brown by David Rovics

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Abolitionists, David Rovics, Folk Music, Folkie, Heroes, John Brown

Rest in Power, Ronnie Gilbert

Brian K. Noe · June 7, 2015 ·

We sang songs of hope in that strange time after World War II, when already the world was preparing for Cold War. We still had the feeling that if we could sing loud enough and strong enough and hopefully enough, it would make a difference.

Read More: Ronnie Gilbert, Clarion Voice Of Folk Band The Weavers, Dies At 88 : The Two-Way : NPR

Filed Under: Curated Links, Quotes Tagged With: Folk Music, The Weavers

Joe Hill Road Show Chicago Performance

Brian K. Noe · May 27, 2015 ·

Here’s the full video of the first night of the Joe Hill Roadshow, from the Hideout in Chicago, featuring Bucky Halker, Anne Feeney, Jan Hammarlund, JP Wright and Alexis Buss with emcee Paul Durica. This program was recorded by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: Alexis Buss, Anne Feeney, Bucky Halker, Chicago, Folk Music, IWW, Jan Hammarlund, Joe Hill, Joe Hill Centennial, JP Wright, May Day, Union, Wobblies

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