About Brenda – www.brendamcmorrow.com

Please visit: www.brendamcmorrow.com

AND www.myspace.com/brendamcmorrow

BIO

Canadian Devotional Chant artist, Brenda McMorrow, began her musical career in the early 1990’s as a singer/songwriter. She co-founded the London, Ontario folk/rock band Julia Propeller – a campus radio and CBC favourite – which opened for and shared festival rosters with acts like Ani Difranco and Bruce Cockburn.  Brenda’s rich musical exploration led her from folk to bluegrass to jazz and now – as meditation, yoga and expanding consciousness have become integral parts of her life – her true heart offering is to share her unique blend of original melodies, world beats and sacred Indian devotional chants.

It was when Brenda participated in her first Sanskrit chant while attending a Yoga workshop in 2004, that she had a profound knowing her musical journey was leading her to places more expansive and heart-opening than she had ever imagined. Brenda remembers: “It was a very simple chant (Om Namah Shivaya), and at the time I had no idea what it signified: all I knew was that every cell in my body started vibrating, and I felt absolute joy”. While in India soon thereafter, Brenda began combining her own songwriting with ancient Sanskrit chants – and she has been flowing with this divine wave of Bhakti energy ever since. Brenda has recently released her debut Kirtan album Ameya and is back in the studio with producer/co-writer Ben Leinbach (Jai Uttal/Deva Premal) recording her next album of devotional songs, which will be released with audio publisher Sounds True.

About the Players and Live Events:

Brenda and her group of musical yoginis and yogis perform devotional songs and Kirtan “call and response”, inviting the audience to join them in invoking the blissful connection that sound can create between the physical and spiritual realms. Venues for their gatherings include yoga studios, performance halls, churches, private homes and outdoor festivals; anywhere people love to gather and share heart-opening music. Brenda performs on vocals and acoustic guitar with a rotating array of guest musicians, including percussionists Roberto Menegoni (Barenaked Ladies) and Morgan Doctor (David Newman, The Cliks); singer/harmonium player Allison Menegoni; singer Shannon Kingsbury; bassist Chris Gartner (Look People, Tasa, Swaha); and Shakuhachi flute player Debbie Danbrook.

About Kirtan:

Kirtan – a practice of Bhakti Yoga (the Yoga of Devotion)- is a call and response form of singing which is expanding throughout North America as westerners discover it’s uplifting, healing and joyous effects. Open to participants of all religions or no religion at all, Kirtan is easy to learn and participate in. The lead singer sings simple and beautiful melodies and the crowd responds either by memory or by using lyric sheets provided. Brenda explains, “Singing together– chanting the Divine names – encourages our hearts to open and the beauty of our true beings to shine!”

Chant artist David Stringer tells us “Sanskrit is the mother tongue of many modern languages, and a kind of periodic table of elemental sound-meaning. The mantras are primarily recitations of names given to the divine. But perhaps the true understanding of the mantras can be found in the sense of unity, well-being and timelessness that they elicit. Ecstasy is both the process and the product.”