Shyamdas influenced the bhakti and kirtan communities of our time deeply, as was made clear by this year’s abundant album tributes.
Long-time traveling and devotional partner Vrajdevi premiered her beautiful first album, Loving Grace, featuring Shyamdas-inspired yet freshly rendered Pushti compositions (in Sanskrit and Brajbhasha) familiar and dear to Shyamdas listeners.
Shyamdas’s close friend and bass accompanist, Adam Bauer, released a dedicated kirtan debut album, Shyam Lila, a deep and rich offering featuring several spoken clips of Shyamdas definitely worth the listen. With Adam’s permission we posted a sample here!
Prema Hara released their heartfelt latest CD Ocean of Grace, whose title track, a “special tribute featuring Jai Uttal & the Mantralogy all-stars,” leaves the memory and bhava of Shyamdas reverberating in your heart with its Shri Krishnah Sharanam Mama, (the mahamantra of the bhakti lineage Shyamdas followed), sung sweetly and by no coincidence on all three of above stellar albums.
We can’t forget him!
Such a perfect choice of words… Yes, I can not forget him, and anyone who interacted with Shyam certainly shares that feeling… Radhe Radhe Radhe Shyam