Seán Johnson: News

Sean and the Band have been receiving lots of great reviews of their new album Calling The Spirits. Visit the 'press' link to read what Yoga Journal, LA Yoga Magazine, Yoga Chicago, and Aura Magazine have to say about the music.

The band will be doing a lot of touring starting in Spring 2008 playing yoga studios nationwide and launching a European tour in May. They'll be playing three major yoga conferences this year including The German Yoga Conference, The Midwest Yoga Conference, and The Miami Vinyasa Yoga Conference.

Visit the "calender' link for all the details!

Namaste Wild Lotus Kirtan Family!

Can't wait to sing with you! We'll be doing lots of touring in the coming weeks including trips to southern California (Los Angeles, Venice, Santa Barbara, Fresno, San Francisco, Berkeley, Sausalito ), NYC/Norwalk, CT, and Easton, PA) and Las Vegas. Highlights include Global Mala Project hub celebration at the Los Angeles Convention Center Sat. Sept. 22. (Other musicians who will be playing that day include Sheila Chandra, Jai Uttal, Girish, Wah!, Donna DeLory, Suzanne Sterling, Saul David Raye, Govindas and Radha, Joey Lugassy, and many more.) to find a Global Mala Celebration near you. The Birthday Bash of Lotus Yoga NYC, and sharing our dear friends' Dana and JJasmine's Lotus' Grand Opening celebration in San Francisco with the legendary Bhagavan Das. And to top it all off I'll be teaching and playing with members of the band at the Las Vegas Vinyasa Yoga Conference, a beautiful gathering of yogis guided by amazing yoga teachers from around the nation. Details about all these events and more are below.
Thanks as always for your love and support!

Om Shakti!
Sean

Dear Wild Lotus Kirtan and Yoga Family-

Namaste! Hope all is blossoming in your life this Spring! We have some great news to share. Our new album Calling The Spirits has been released into the Universe and we're excited to share it with you. You can listen to clips from the album on this site and purchase it at the "buy cds: link on this site. You can also download our music at I Tunes.

We're also going to be touring-in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington DC-- this coming weekend; playing and teaching at the Midwest Yoga Conference outside of Chicago at the end of May; singing our way across New England in early July including the joyful Cosmic Yoga Camp and Pow Wow at Kripalu with Dana and Jasmine of Laughing Lotus; and a 4th of July celebration of freedom in all its forms at Kripalu's main hall; playing the Florida gulf coast in late July; and returning to the west coast for extensive touring in the fall. If you are interested in booking the band for a kirtan celebration, please contact our tour manager Celeste Stamps at celeste@wildlotusyoga.com. Celeste is currently booking our schedule in the Northeast in July. Read below for more details about the new album and upcoming tours.

Om Shanti!
Sean

Calling The Spirits

Calling The Spirits has eleven mantra-based songs perfect for accompanying yoga, singing and dancing along with, and setting an inspired vibe for your day. The album features myself on vox and harmonium, my brother Matt Johnson on tenor saxophone and guitar, percussionist/vocalist Gwendolyn Colman, and Alvin Young on fretless bass.. Guest artists on Calling The Spirits include Kristen Jensen on violin, Ludmila Konstantinova on cello, vocalist Paul Ruest, and Dean Klopsis on tamboura.

All of the songs on Calling The Spirits were composed and recorded post-Katrina and capture the soul and spirit of our life in New Orleans. The songs include dreamy melodies and spicy grooves to soothe our minds and to wake us up. Many of the songs were originally shaped as a soundtrack to Jasmine Tarkeshi's beautifully creative and poetic home practice vinyasa yoga cd Sun Celebration: A Creative Companion to Your Daily Vinyasa Practice. We liked what emerged from that soundtrack so much, that we kept going-- adding new layers as they were revealed. Our friend, master recording engineer Paul Ruest at the Argot Network in NYC did an amazing job with the recording and production of the album.

The cover art is a valentine to kirtan and to our hometown of New Orleans. In the middle of a one of our recording sessions, I had a vision of what would later become the album cover: In kirtan, when we chant we seek to become instruments for the divine presence. The album cover represents this spirit of surrender and celebration. The deities Krishna, Hanuman, Ganesha, and Saraswati play our instruments: sax, harmonium, fretless bass, and frame drum. This celestial band (representing the rebirth of New Orleans, and the rebirth of our hearts when we sing kirtan) is rising from a wild lotus in the bayou while the swamp critters-- including alligators, snakes, turtles, and egrets-- sing in celebration. Janine Kelly, an amazing artist brought this dream image to life with her inspiring drawing and watercolors. In her hands, the image became even more lush, vivid, and powerful.

Reviews of Calling The Spirits will be appearing in upcoming issues of Yoga Journal, LA Yoga Magazine, Yoga Chicago, and Aura Magazine, and other publications.
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If you're interested in deepening and enriching your yoga and kirtan practice there are two wonderful opportunites in the next few months...

Midwest Yoga Conference

Come together! Don't miss this wonderful annual gathering of yogis from around the country. From May 29-June 1, I'll be teaching at the annual Midwest Yoga Conference unifying hatha and bhakti yoga at The Indian Lakes Resort, 30 minutes outside of Chicago. along with 29 other inspiring teachers from all over the U.S. leading workshops with many different styles and approaches to yoga represented. The band will be accompanying all my workshops, we'll be guiding an all day Bhakti Yoga intensive, and celebrating with a big kirtan concert.


Cosmic Yoga Camp
and Pow Wow at Kripalu

Yogic firecrackers! Last year we had a blast at this special retreat at Kripalu, one of the country's most beloved yoga retreat centers. From July 1-6 Gwen and I will be joining Dana Flynn and Jasmine Tarkeshi, two of the most inspiring and creative yoga teachers around for a week of adventurous vinyasa yoga, rockin' kirtan, storytelling, ritual, and lots of play. The band will also be lighting up the Main hall of Kripalu on Wednesday July 4 with some mantric fireworks in celebration of freedom in all its forms.

Hola Wild Lotuses!

Namaste! We're heading into the wild blue and hitting the windy roads for another California kirtan tour from Friday March 23 through Sunday April 1. Sausalito, Berkeley, Sacramento, Fresno, San Diego, Venice, and Santa Barbara. We'd love your help spreading the word. The incarnation of the band for this tour includes my bro Matt, percussionist Gwendolyn Colman, and bass player Alvin Young.

We're also crossing our fingers- our new album "Calling The Spirits" is scheduled to arrive just in time for our first gig at Yoga of Sausalito on Friday April 23. I'm excited to crack open the boxes and share this music with you. The album, recorded in NYC by Paul Ruest, has 11 mantra-based songs with spicy grooves and dreamy melodies great for pure listening, accompanying yoga, and singing and dancing along with. We will officially celebrate the release of the cd in New Orleans with our hometown yogis at a Party at Wild Lotus on Saturday April 14! The album will be available on CD Baby at that time as well.

I also wanted to share with you again that Jasmine Tarkeshi's cd "Sun Celebration: A Creative Companion To Your Daily Yoga Practice" has been released. The soundtrack we created for this magnificent yoga experience was the genesis of this new album. Jasmine is one of the most vibrant, creative, and poetic yoga teachers I know. Now you can do a class with her in your own living room accompanied by our music. The cd also features a colorful booklet of all the vinyasa sequences she leads on the cd. You can purchase the cd at http://www.laughinglotus.com/mainpages/yoga_store.html

I'll be touring lots more this year! Some of the upcoming highlights include playing music at Tulane University on April 3 for a visit by humanitarian H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of The Art of Living Foundation. In late May, I'll be teaching and playing with the band at The Midwest Yoga conference http://www.midwestyoga.com which also features 30 inspiring teachers from all over the country. We'll be at Kripalu with Dana and Jasmine for a special 5-Day Laughing Lotus Yoga Retreat and Pow Wow Retreat in early July http://www.kripalu.org/program/view/all/CPGR71/,
and presenting and playing music at The Art of Vinyasa Conference in Las Vegas in October.
Thanks as always for all your support and please keep in touch!

JAI MA!
Sean

Jasmine Tarkeshi's cd "Sun Celebration: A Creative Companion to your Vinyasa Yoga Practice" has been released with Music by Sean Johnson & The Wild Lotus Band! Yogis, dancers, and music lovers, you will love this cd! Jasmine's enchanting spirit and creative approach to yoga will come straight through to your living room. Find out more and purchase at http://www.laughinglotus.com

Dear Friends,

We're gearing up for a California tour from November 1st through the 11th, including concerts in L.A., Venice, Santa Barbara, Fresno, San Francisco, San Raphael, and Berkeley. If you're in the area, come and sing with us! If you have friends on the west coast, please help spread the word!

Love,
Sean

Namaste, Friends!

Getting real excited about our Fall plans. We'll be playing a big kirtan dance party at Laughing Lotus in NYC on Saturday night September 16 to celebrate the anniversary of that amazing place, and the Laughing Lotuses really know how to party! It's one of our favorite places to chant. While we're in NYC, we'll also be completing the recording of our upcoming album which-- cross your fingers!-- will be ready by late October.

Then in the first two weeks of November Matt, Gwendolyn and I will be on tour in California playing concerts up and down the coast and sharing the new album. Go to the calender link to see info on upcoming kirtans in Los Angeles, Venice Beach, Santa Barbara, Fresno, San Francisco, Berkeley, and San Raphael.

Stay tuned for more tour info for 2007 including a concert at The Midwest Yoga Conference in Chicago in late May, and our return to Kripalu with Dana and Jasmine for Cosmic Yoga Camp 2007 in July!

Hari Om!

Love,
Sean

Dear Friends,
Just returned from Kripalu. For those of you who might not be familiar with this place, it's a wonderful yoga retreat center in the beautiful Berkshires near Lenox, MASS. My yoga sistahs Dana and Jasmine from Laughing Lotus and Gwendolyn and I guided a 5 day retreat called "Cosmic Playground: Journey Into The Wilderness of the Soul". The week was all about re-igniting life's spark by approaching yoga practice like kids on a playground playing and singing and dancing. We had a really sweet group of enthusiastic yogis who were so open to the daily adventure of playful yoga practice with Dana and Jasmine in the mornings and chanting our hearts out each afternoon plus a lot of suprises along the way. Gwendolyn also treated everybody to an experiential afternoon devoted to drumming sacred rhythms. Mid-week Matt and Gwen and I gave a kirtan concert in the Main Hall which used to be the chapel in the building's former incarnation as a Jesuit monastary. There's a big, illuminated stain glass OM hovering over the stage area. You can see a photo of this on our photo link. Mark you calenders-- we'll be doing this retreat next year at Kripalu from July 1-6, 2007! Maybe see you there!

Love,
Sean

Sean was recently interviewed by the author of "Yoga and The Path of the Urban Mystic" and San Francisco-based yoga teacher Darren Main for an I-Pod audio-cast. The interview titled "Healing New Orleans With Yoga" consists of questions about the post-Katrina yoga scene in New Orleans, Sean's kirtan music projects, touring and more. To listen to the interview click on http://darrenmain.libsyn.com/

Dear Friends,

We just returned from a busy week in New York City. My friend Jasmine Tarkeshi, co-founder of Laughing Lotus Yoga, asked us to create the soundtrack to a yoga cd she is creating. Jasmine is an incredibly inspiring yoga teacher and we are thrilled to create the music for this special project. While in NYC, we spent most of our time in the studio recording the songs we've been composing over the last couple of months for the project. We were so excited by the results, that we're going to turn this into an album onto itself. The music features Matt on guitar, sax, and bass; Gwendolyn on percussion including udu (clay pot); Kristen Jensen on violin; Ludmila Konstantinova on cello; Paul Ruest on backing vocals; and myself on harmonium and vocals. The album is being recorded at The Argot Network by Paul Ruest who has been a great inspiration as engineer and co-producer. We'll be continuing to develop the album through the fall.

We also drew great inspiration from all the joyful kirtan lovers who came to to sing and dance at Laughing Lotus on March 25! It was a very sweet reunion, our first visit back there since recording the live kirtan album in September.

Dear Friends

Last night we celebrated our third anniversary with a wonderful party and kirtan concert! I'm feeling so grateful to everyone who has supported the studio over the last three and a half years!

This coming weekend (Feb. 2-4)we'll be playing several benefit concerts in California. Please see the calender for details. We will also be doing upcoming kirtans in Baton Rouge, New York, Chicago, the Kripalu Center for Yoga in Lenox, Mass, and Mexico. I hope to sing with you soon!

Love,
Sean

Dear Friends,

I arrived home to New Orleans on Thanksgiving Day with so much to be thankful for. To all of you who participated in some way in our New Orleans REBIRTH tour--please know we feel so flooded with gratitude. Your contributions have been a huge help to my family, to Wild Lotus Yoga, and to Habitat for Humanity and the future of New Orleans. Please know that we are continuing to accept donations to help my parents who lost their home and business in the storm.

New Orleans is still very crippled. There are still miles of the city that do not have electricity or other basic services. There is still a lot of debris and many months of cleaning up ahead. Many people still do not have water and gas service. The economy here is really struggling. And there is a lot of resistance in Congress to fund the strengthening of the levees to protect New Orleans from future category four and five hurricanes. I urge you to please contact your representatives in Congress and tell them you feel it is important to protect the cultural treasure that is New Orleans in the same way the Dutch government has protected Amsterdam after catastophic flooding there.

Yet, having so much taken away, people are generally kinder to each other. I've had many conversations with people here who have suffered much, but also feel the storm has brought more meaning and preciousness to their lives. And there are little things to celebrate-- like our first hot shower yesterday!, after having gas service returned and a new water heater installed.

Things at Wild Lotus are going well. Our classes have been packed with students who are discovering deeper connections and new layers of meaning in their sadhana and the warmth of community amidst the challenges of living here. We are planning on expanding our offerings in January as more teachers and students return to town. I'm feeling excited to teach and sing from new depths invoked by Katrina, and to channel that energy into the renaissance of New Orleans. We'll also be on the road some more in 2006 to sing with you and share the amazing, transformative spirit of kirtan.

WIth Immense Gratitude,
All Blessings,
Sean

Dear Friends,

I am currently on the west coast leg of our New Orleans REBIRTH Benefit Kirtan Tour. We are doing concerts in Ojai, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Santa Barbara, Fresno, Ventura, Portland, and Seattle to raise money for my parents who lost their home and business to Katrina, for the sustenance of our yoga studio Wild Lotus Yoga at this challenging time, and for the New Orleans chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

You can support the tour in a number of ways: by attending one of the concerts and bringing friends; by helping to spread the word about the concerts to other people; by sending a donation
(If you wish to make a donation, you can send a check, payable to "Wild Lotus Yoga" to: Wild Lotus Yoga, 4842 Perrier Street, New Orleans, LA 70115. Donations can also be wired to: Wild Lotus Yoga, L.L.C., A.B.A. routing # 065400137 account # 639901511, Bank One , (address for verification, not mailing is: 729 Harrison Ave, New Orleans, LA, 70124.) and you can also help by purchasing our cd's at www.cdbaby.com.

Thanks so much for your support and prayers!

Great Love,
Sean

Our new cd "LIve at Laughing Lotus: An Evening of Ecstatic Kirtan" with myself and The Wild Lotus Band has just been released! This recording really captures the authentic, wild, primal spirit of live kirtan at one of the country's most vibrant yoga studios-- Laughing Lotus Yoga-- in NYC. Visit the "Buy" link to see a full description of the cd and info on how to purchase it. The cd will be available online at www.CDbaby.com by November. 5th. You can also listen to clips from the cd at the "music" link!

Wild Lotus Yoga is committed to serving the well-being and peace of mind of New Orleanians at this challenging and creative time, and ready to participate in the rebirth of our beloved city. I have just returned to New Orleans to check on the condition of the city and the studio, having been on tour raising money for the recovery efforts. I am happy to share the news that the studio survived the storm with just minor wind damage. The only loss was having to clear out of our office located in the residential building next door which incurred significant roof damage. We send prayers to all who have suffered as the result of the storm.

We have many requests for classes from people who have returned to New Orleans. Having seen the condition of the studio and the daily strides of recovery in the city, I am excited to tell you that we will be re-opening Wild Lotus Yoga in November with an abbreviated schedule of classes detailed on our website at www.wildlotusyoga.com. Our schedule will grow as our staff and more residents return to town.

If you are living out of town and are hungry for Wild Lotus Yoga classes, please visit www.aliveyoga.com, where you can download audio recordings of classes from the past year including Power Yoga, Flow Yoga, and Serenity Yoga. Proceeds from those classes will benefit the re-opening of the studio.

I will be returning to Wild Lotus in late November to continue to rekindle the studio. In the mean time, if you are in town, ongoing classes begin November 1st with our wonderful teachers Beverly, Elaina, and Stacey who are dedicated to serving your spirit and the spirit of New Orleans through yoga.

Journal Entry

Dear Friends,

I am feeling so grateful to the many people who have supported us on the REBIRTH tour thus far. Traveling from one yoga community to the next, we've been so kindly welcomed. To all of you who have shown helped us along the way-- a huge Thank You!. It has been an amazing journey.

This is a stream of thoughts that have been flowing through that I recently shared in an e-mail with the Wild Lotus teachers, now scattered across the country...

Yoga is alchemy-- this is why the lotus flower is such a revered symbol in the yoga tradition. From the dark mud, from the lowest ditch, this amazingly beautiful flower rises unexpectedly and blossoms in the light. This is our hope for New Orleans. Everything that we counted on to keep our lives stable-- our homes, our jobs, our routines, has been taken away, at least temporarily, now covered in mud-- and we are each asked by this tragedy to perform alchemy, to turn this tragedy into an opportunity for positive transformation, for re-inventing our lives.

This experience demands from each of us a bold letting go, a courageous openness to change, a willingness to transform, amidst fear, doubt, and disclarity. What a yoga practice this situation is-- requiring such strength, flexibility, and surrender. And with our beloved city, our sweet homes, our friends, our family taken away, we are challenged to let go of the idea of a neighborhood, a city, a family, a studio as our home-- but to call the whole Universe our home.

Shiva, the Cosmic Dancer, is dancing wildly in New Orleans, in our lives. We are each asked to find our own way of transformation. This kirtan tour, in this moment, is my way of creating this transformation and inviting others, through the power of singing, to join me. What's happened in New Orleans is a mirror for the inner human struggles each of us wrestles with day to day. We are hoping for a renaissance in New Orleans, but also seeking to help inspire a renaissance inside each of our lives. As practitioners and teachers of yoga, the way we respond to this tragedy can be an amazing practice to strengthen our own spirits and serve as a great inspiration to others.

I've been thinking so much of Rumi's poem, "The Guest House":

This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival
A joy, a depression, a meanness
Some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all
Even if a crowd of sorrows comes
and violently sweeps your house empty of its furniture
Still, treat each guest honorably
He may be clearing you out for some new delight
The dark thought, the shame, the malice
Meet them at the door and invite them in.
Be grateful to whoever comes
For each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

Dear Friends,

We will be releasing a wonderful live kirtan CD called "Live at Laughing Lotus" recorded on Saturday night September 17 at Laughing Lotus Yoga Studio in NYC. This ecstatic recording of live, raw, wild kirtan music with Sean and The Wild Lotus Band singing with the beloved Laughing Lotus Yoga community should be available within a few weeks. Stay tuned.

Dear Friends,

I wanted to let you know that I have evacuated safely from New Orleans with my wife Connie, my parents and brothers, and our dog Lance. We are grieving for our city, for all those who suffered there, and all who have died. They say it could be three months or longer before we can return home again and we are uncertain what we'll be returning to. My parents have lost their house and we are uncertain about our home. Fortunately, we have been told that the studio did not flood, and sustained minor wind damage.

One of the only possessions I took with me was my harmonium! We have decided to take the next few months to tour the country giving kirtan concerts in hopes of raising money for my family, the hopeful reopening and sustenance of Wild Lotus Yoga, and for Habitat for Humanity which will be rebuilding many of the homes in the poorer neighborhoods of New Orleans. We will be on the East Coast from mid-September to mid-October, and on the west coast from mid-October to November. Please visit the "calender" link for daily updates on tour dates-- the schedule is taking shape as I write this, and as we get more invitations to come and sing.

We would be very grateful for your support.

If you are interested in helping to host or support a kirtan concert in your area, please e-mail Stacey Brass at stacey@laughinglotus.com, who is kindly coordinating the tour.

If you wish to make a donation, you can also send a check, payable to "Wild Lotus Yoga" to: Wild Lotus Yoga, c/o The Adlers, 110 South Kenyon Avenue
Margate, NJ, 08402. 

Donations can also be wired to: Wild Lotus Yoga, L.L.C., A.B.A. routing # 065400137 account # 639901511, Bank One , (address for verification, not mailing is: 729 Harrison Ave, New Orleans, LA, 70124.)

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers!

Love,
Sean