Books, Music and More

Jungle Bells CD by Brent Lewis offers harmonicly tuned African rhythms and drum music for holiday season. 

For the first time on the planet earth, Brent has created the first all drum Christmas CD. Christmas melodies are played on the drums supported by African rhythms. 

This is the ultimate stocking stuffer. Guaranteed to melt the heart of any scrooge. Learn More

Kokopelli Christmas CD by Douglas Blue Feather offers Native American Music and Holiday Music. 

Christmas songs featuring the Native American flute, Mother drum, bells and rattles by multi-award winner, Douglas Blue Feather.

"For lovers of the Native American flute, Kokopelli Christmas is a definite buy this holiday season." Richard Banks - christmasreviews.com Learn More

The Song of the Tree reminds us that we are like the magnificent tree, rooted and transcendent. This beautiful CD by composer & vocalist Lis Addison offers unique Vocal Chakra Healing Tones (VoCHeTTM) and ambient groove music. Designed to activate the chakras and fill the listener with light, this music supports yoga, dance, healing & vocalizing. The Song of the Tree comes with instruction booklet. Learn More

Animal spirit guides are spirit helpers in animal form who can provide guidance for questions you have about any aspect of your life. In this deck of 44 oracle cards created by Steven D. Farmer, you'll find clear and concise messages from each of the spirit animals represented that will offer you sensible advice on whatever question you pose. The enclosed easy-to-follow guidebook provides detailed instructions to help you immediately give accurate readings for yourself and others, as well as elaborations on the initial message from each animal spirit guide. Learn More

As producer of The World, Mickey Hart's personal odyssey into the spirit of percussion, he showcases some of the most dynamic, yet sublime music of our planet. On At The Edge he combines these ancient techniques and instruments with the most modern of recording technology to explore the outer limits of drumming. The companion piece to his first book, this album is a chronicle of Hart's search for the rhythmic beginnings of music, for the primal pulse that has beaten under every human activity -- all celebrations, rites of passage, wars, shamanic rituals -- in every culture since time immemorial. Exploring the primeval instrumentation of man's earliest sonic expression, the 'instruments that have made it through time,' Hart tuned the percussive rudiments of whistles and gourd rattles, wooden rainsticks and slit gongs, panpipes and bells, using state-of-the-art spatial reverberation and electronic processing. Acoustic natural sounds (wind, thunder, rain, insects, recorded with close-microphone technique outside his mountain home) were mixed, enabling Hart to create the environment for 'an ancient future, allowing us to go back in time, recreating a more silent space.'

At The Edge is a journey to the Edge, 'between the old and the new...rhythm and noise, just as much as between imagination and reality, nature and music, or creation and destruction.' An exquisitely peaceful soundscape evolves from a world before the presence of man ('#4 for Gaia') through quickening rhythms of human activity to the final sonorous swirl of chanting voices ('Pigs in Space') in a silence devoid of nature, a silence of Man at the Edge he has reached. Where, for our world to survive, we must change rhythms. And dance. One of Mickey Hart's most atmospheric albums, At The Edge, from 1990, features Jerry Garcia, Babatunde Olatunji, Airto Moreira, and Zakir Hussain. Learn More

This 1998 album continues the polyrhythmic approach of Planet Drum and features many of the same players, including Zakir Hussain, Babatunde Olatunji, Airto Moreira and Giovanni Hidalgo.

For Mickey Hart's Mystery Box, Mickey Hart set out to do one thing: to give voice to the drum. Hart crafted songs from the rhythmic foundation up, and that meant not just the beat, but the melody. To find the roots of these melodies, Mickey laid down the basic grooves with Planet Drum partners Zakir Hussain and Giovanni Hidalgo, and then turned to longtime Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter to complete the story with words.

The voices, the last fundamental element of Hart's vision appeared in the form of the Mint Juleps, a remarkable a cappella group from Great Britain. Over the next two years, in between Grateful Dead tours, Mickey continued to refine the grooves, bringing in at various times such players as Airto, former Tower Of Power drummer David Garibaldi, Sikiru, and Youssou N'Dour's bass player, Habib Faye.

While Hunter's words melded perfectly with Mickey's grooves, they really took flight when given voice by the Mint Juleps on songs that run the gamut. To help achieve the album's distinctive sound, Hart enlisted the services of co-producer Robin Millar, who has crafted worldwide hits for the likes of Sade, Fine Young Cannibals and Kate Bush. The collaboration was a fortunate one, resulting in the perfect marriage of ancient and modern, earthy and cosmopolitan — irresistible dance grooves wedded to soaring voices and profoundly affecting words. Learn More

The Grammy-Winning world music phenomenon featuring: Mickey Hart, Babatunde Olatunji, Zakir Hussain, Sikiru Adepoju, Giovanni Hildalgo, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. Learn More

Supralingua, 'beyond language,' is the second Planet Drum album produced by Mickey Hart. More Latin than African, Hart combines compelling production techniques with power players of the drumming world including: Zakir Hussain, master of the North Indian tabla; Giovanni Hidalgo; conguero great from Puerto Rico, Sikiru Adepoju, a disciple of Babatunde Olatunji (a member of the first incarnation of Planet Drum) on dundun; bassist Bakithl Kumalo; and David Garibaldi, traps player.

Promising to surpass words, ironically the first track, 'Angola,' features chanting by The Gyüto Monks Tantric Choir. Supralingua grooves. Learn More

Author: Griffin, Kevin

Meditation teacher and author Griffin discovered that his Buddhist practice deepened as a result of the 12-step program that freed him from addiction. In examining the relationship of Buddhism and the steps, he learned to escape spiritual traps endemic to the culture of addiction, namely, instant gratification and nihilism. He writes that many addicts are dissuaded from attending 12-step meetings because of the Christian tenor exemplified by faith in a Higher Power. Learn More