Sacred Insanity
Listen to it at Amazon.com
(Eternal Music) www.eternalmusic.com
reviewed by Syd Baumel
Call it crunchy granola tabla rock. Call it world devotional music in the key of P (op).
Call it what you will, this album brims with energy, life force, prana, chi—call that what you will—right from its ebullient Jethro-Tull-on-acid first track, "Dancing Fairies."
Emam & Friends is a crack ensemble of 14 world/rock/jazz musicians with a nary-a-dull-bar set of songs and instrumentals to sink their sterling chops into. As if that weren't good enough, they have a secret arrow-through-the-heart-chakra missile onboard: Jillian Speer. The comely young singer-songwriter and classical guitarist with the waist-length hair sings New Age devotional lyrics as sincerely as other divas ache about love affairs. It's no mean feat to make the ancient Sanskrit mantra, om namah shivay, sound like a fresh, contemporary cry of the heart. Speer's sensuous, soft-yet-strong voice dominates every track it's on, even as the other Friends work up a storm.
Stay tuned for Jillian & Friends.
Listen to it at Amazon.com