Album Notes

Yoga Journal CD review:
Give Love a Chants: Live Ecstatic Chanting, with Steve Ross. Chosen Wrd.
This album is straight-up kirtan (call-and-response chanting), captured live with no frills, and done to more or less traditional melodies. Los Angeles yoga instructor Steve Ross is an engaging leader with a strong high-tenor voice that encourages participants to sing out. And sing they do - nearly 100 people packed into Ross's studio, Maha Yoga, for this recording. Ross is no stranger to music: He's worked with bands such as the Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, and Men at Work and has taught yoga to the likes of Def Jam Recordings founder Russell Simmons. Here, he plays acoustic guitar, with rhythmic backing from bass guitar and percussion. His spirited singing and gentle, good-humored introductions to the
mantras like "Bolo Bolo" exude warmth. Ross's approach has the accessibility of American folk music. Several tracks escalate into stomping, barn-dance climaxes, and Ross's chordal treatment of "Hara Rama Hare Krishna" gives the mantra a sound reminiscent of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." These familiar musical touchstones provide a great point of entry for new comers to devotional chanting, but more seasoned fans will also appreciate Ross's incorporation of American folk and high pitched vocal style into live kirtan. Alan Di Perna