Spirit Voyage Idol Competition @ Yogi Tea Cafe

I am back from a beautiful week up in the mountains above Espanola, New Mexico at the Summer Solstice Camp. I had a great experience (as I normally do). Just me and Narayan camping out with 1,300+ other people from all over the world. It was quite dry and hot this year so was more of a challenge dealing with the elements, but in the end it is the outcome of the full experience that really counts. As normally happens after the week of the camp I am processing (mentally) all kinds of stuff. The camp always has a way of re-connecting me in many ways. It’s hard to explain the feeling.

Anyways… I took some pictures (not a whole lot) and recorded some videos which I will start to share in the coming days, so that you can see some parts of the camp. I thought I would do a lot more (pictures/video) but it was too much with the dry heat, doing the camp activities, long days, and taking care of Narayan.

For the past few years at the Summer/Winter Solstice camps we have had evening/night music "jam sessions" titled "Yogi Tea Cafe" where any musician can perform to the camp attendees as we drink our Yogi Tea. At the summer Solstice camp the evenings are a nice time to relax, get relief from the day of dry heat, and just hang out and talk with friends (or make new ones).

This year we had a fun new event at the Yogi Tea Cafe which was an event organized by Spirit Voyage Music. This is the music company that produces Snatam Kaur’s CDs and sells lots of great spiritual music and related products. The event was called "Spirit Voyage Idol", which is a twist on the TV show "American Idol" (though it was very different than the TV show in all respects). Over the course of the week different musicians who signed up for the event performed outside under a huge tent and the audience was given ballots to vote for a certain number of their favorite musicians. First two days we voted for 3 out of something like 7 people. The winners from the first rounds went to the semi-finals which we had to then vote for 2 out of 6 people. The last day we had to chose between the two musicians who made it to the finals. It was great fun hearing all the different styles of music and how many of the participants supported each other by providing backup musical roles for each other.

The final night we had heard music from Sat Purkh Kaur (from Espanola, NM) and Dileep Kaur (AKA: Deep Kaur from Surrey, Canada). After their performances and everyone voted, it was such a close vote that they had to re-count the votes 4-5 times just to make sure of the count. Dileep Kaur got the most votes and won the Spirit Voyage Idol competition, which means she gets some prize cash and a $5,000 recording contract (meaning she’ll be producing a CD in the near future).

Here is the audio/video from the three nights that Dileep Kaur performed. I’ll post some of the other performances in the coming days.

Download Video (108MB)

Gobinday Mukhanday
[Audio:http://www.mrsikhnet.com/mp3player/western%20-%20non%20traditional/dileep%20kaur/dileep%20kaur%20-%20sv%20idol%20-%20gobinday%20mukhanday.mp3] Download

Ong Namo Gurudev Namo
[Audio:http://www.mrsikhnet.com/mp3player/western%20-%20non%20traditional/dileep%20kaur/dileep%20kaur%20-%20sv%20idol%20-%20ong%20namo%20gurudev%20namo.mp3] Download

Sun Sajan Preetam Mayraya
[Audio:http://www.mrsikhnet.com/mp3player/western%20-%20non%20traditional/dileep%20kaur/dileep%20kaur%20-%20sv%20idol%20-%20sun%20sajan%20preetam%20mayraya.mp3] Download

9 Responses to “Spirit Voyage Idol Competition @ Yogi Tea Cafe”

1. Sarib Singh says:

   June 24, 2006 at 10:14 pm

   Waheguru! All I can say is it is beautiful. I was huming it all the way to the store and back after listening.

   Our baby Nihal Singh fell asleep listening. As soon as it stopped he woke up and started crying loudly. We turned it back on and he immediately went back to sleep.

   Thank you Daleep Kaur! Give our love to your family.

2. Mannu Kaur says:

   June 25, 2006 at 11:00 am

   Vahegurujeekakhalsa
   Vahegurujeekeefateh

   Deep kaur has a beautiful voice, and sings the guru’s shabad with so much pyaar. It was very beautiful.

   Gurmustak Veerjee, was there a girl at the camp named Mukhande Kaur from Ottawa, Ontario? I think i saw her in the video jee..

   Beautiful and very inspiring blog by the way :)

   Vahegurujeekakhalsa
   Vahegurujeeekeefateh

3. Pritam says:

   June 25, 2006 at 5:50 pm

   She deserves a CD. She is real sweet sounding.

   The same as Sarib Singh said My daughter also falls asleep

4. Hari Singh says:

   June 27, 2006 at 11:49 am

   Wow – What a wonderfully touching moving electrifying kirtan from the deep reaches of the devoted and dedicated heart – A great to-be-renownwed kirtaineea of the Guru – May His blessing be with you, Dileep.

5. Adi Singh says:

   June 27, 2006 at 3:24 pm

   By any chance are there any recordings of Sat Purkh Kaur as well?

6. Seva Kaur says:

   July 6, 2006 at 11:47 pm

   I liked so much! they are very nice tunes for the shabds. Do they have any other performances that you would upload here? Thanks!

7. Jagjinder Singh says:

   July 5, 2007 at 1:55 am

   I had got the opportunity to sit besides Deep Kaur when she came to Minnesota along with her friends from Canada. That was really one of the nicest occasions I have experienced in my life, singing together the praises of the Almighty.
   I recently sang the shabad “Say Sanjog karo mere pyare” at a samagam here in Bangalore, I hope Deep Kaur would not sue me in coying her tune for the shabad. :-)

8. Mandeep Singh says:

   September 14, 2007 at 4:00 pm

   Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh…

   Well i have heard Deep Kaur’s shabads.. well Keeping person aside, her shabads are sooo good as she sings them all with patience.. i love the way she sings. well neways i dont have habit of praisin others.. only i wish is that she should keep it up…Waheguru ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru ji Ka Khalsa

9. Mandeep Singh says:

   September 14, 2007 at 4:03 pm

   Sorry just wanted to update my comment.. sont take it in negative way as i said keeping the person aside… this was because i haven’t met that person.. neways guru de bande hamesha change hi honde han.