Ward Parks and Band

Ward Parks was caught in the Avatar’s net in November 1970 when he was a freshman in college and he first went to Baba’s home in India in 1972. After a stint as a college professor of medieval literature, Ward cheerfully tossed academia aside and became a Spiritual Trainee at the Avatar Meher Baba Trust. Over his decades in India, he edited or co-edited an extraordinary series of books based on Baba’s early messages, including: In God’s Hand, Meher Baba’s Tiffin Lectures, Infinite Intelligence, Meher Baba’s Early Messages to the West, Creation And Its Causes and Francis Brabazon’s Stay With God. He also worked on the revised 6th edition of The Discourses and has given hundreds of lectures on Baba and His messages.

 In addition to his scholarly work, Ward is also the most prolific composer in our galaxy of Baba songwriters. From his first trip to India to the present, he has written hundreds of Baba-songs, many of them classics such as”Like a Silent Sea is Meher”,”You Are”,”I Sing of Meher”,”Blue Horizon”,”I Am All For Meher”, and one of Debbie Nordeen’s favorites,”Who Wears the Dawn Form”. Even now, Ward continues to write new and ambitious songs for Beloved Baba. At our Music Sahavas, Ward’s band will consist of Susan Taylor, Greg and Gay Dunn, Michael Ivey, Cynthia Drake and Chris Barker.

Videos:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0O8C6H9Ixo (Susan Taylor sings Ward’s”Precious Beloved”, with Ward on piano)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRIJuXTiz4o&list=PLxL0F0hMT1jlIx5_BSPCP8Yrvm16B-xlb&index=15 (I Am All For Meher)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPx0QRJDWUo&list=PLxL0F0hMT1jlIx5_BSPCP8Yrvm16B-xlb&index=18 (Chris sings My Friend, Be Here Beside Me)

Pam Rubenstein

Pam comes from a musical family. Her grandpa played fiddle, harmonica and accordion and told her,”Girls don’t play harmonica.” So of course, she learned harmonica! She and her parents sang in the choir, but in the 70’s she learned guitar and started playing professionally around Florida. In 1993, she was singing with her husband, Danny, as”The Rubensteins” when they met Bhau Kalchuri and were drawn to Baba through him. From then on, Pam and Danny wrote Baba-themed songs and recorded 4 CDs together. Danny went to Baba in 2022, but after this profound loss, Pam found a new well-spring of Baba-songs that are infused with the sweetness of the Beloved. In 2023, she recorded an excellent 18-song solo CD,”Original Sound.” We are fortunate to have her at the Sahavas!

Videos:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu80xQSjCtk
•“Days At Meherazad” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvjqJ3BTdfI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwcOpMspFxc

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Sharla Ember

Sharla has been helping at the Heartland Center in Oklahoma for several months. She has a beautiful singing voice and a unique meditative musical style all her own. Sharla grew up in a musical family, playing violin. But at age 19, she abruptly discovered that she could play piano! Sharla now has an extensive YouTube channel where she posts music videos and has a huge number of subscribers. She spent a few weeks in Asheville last year and performed a remarkable concert for the Baba community. She is now in the process of recording a CD with Phil Ludwig. Sharla will be accompanied in performance by her husband, Ben Ihloff, a fine guitarist.

Videos:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8We3WGdV2M (Song for Those Who Have Lost a Loved One)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjJzunXZqnM&t=5s (”Mama Said”, with husband, Ben)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5cbrswKEaM (”If I Look A Little Deeper”)

Topher Stephens

Topher Stephens inherited a profound love of music and deep reverence for wildness from his tree-hugging, Baba-Lover parents who raised him among the rivercane and old-time reels of Appalachia. After studying Appalachian Folk-Dance, Buddhist Philosophy, and Mushroom Foraging at UNC Asheville, he did what any self-respecting liberal arts graduate would do and wandered dirt-poor and aimless around the world for several years. Eventually he stumbled into his dream job as a naturalist guide and mindfulness instructor. He currently earns a living by teaching people to listen to bird songs, whittle spoons, and admire moss-covered boulders.

Along the way, Topher has written hundreds of heartfelt and sorrowful songs to all that he found wild, beautiful, and sacred in the world. His songs have earned him no accolades and paid few of his bills, though several have become well-loved standards at the Myrtle Beach Youth Sahavas. Those songs have, however, gotten him a gig at the L.A. Sahavas just a month before playing here at the Asheville Music Sahavas.

Videos:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPKyzayZPZU (Don’t Get Hopeless)
• Lots of his music at: soundcloud.com/thewinterwrens

Billy Goodrum
After graduating with honors from Boston’s renowned Berklee College of Music, Billy relocated to Los Angeles and was soon writing songs for iconic comedies including Dumb & Dumber and There’s something about Mary. He expanded into film scoring and has now created music for over 20 movies. In 2021 he was music producer for the Golden Globe nominated film The Life Ahead starring Sophia Loren.

Billy found out about Meher Baba when he was in college in Boston and made his first trip to India in 1994. He has written many Baba songs, including perennial favorites Call On Me, The Way and Always Be Together. Billy has performed as a featured guest at Meherana, Southeast Gathering, LA Sahavas, Midwest Sahavas, Northeast Sahavas and the Asheville Music Sahavas. He also conducted Music Workshops at the Youth Sahavas for several years. He worked with Katie Irani and produced her album entitled Singing for Baba which included songs she sang for Baba as well as songs Baba composed. Billy and his wife Pamela along with their daughter Rose were manager/caretakers at Meher Mount for 2 years. Billy currently resides in Asheville, North Carolina. His high energy live performances have entertained Baba-lovers around the world.

Videos:

• We Should Always Be Together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXw_Q0HSNEA

• The Way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6Gx5y0qRYI&t=44s

Adrienne Shamszad

Adrienne is a singer-songwriter from the SF Bay Area with a strong and soulful voice who writes in a variety of styles and plays guitar, piano, and setar (an Iranian lute). She is a bold performer (and a happy new mom) who brings her audiences together with her humor and extraordinary singing. Adrienne’s influences are rooted in folk, rock, and R&B, but she also draws soulful inspiration from her Persian heritage. Her music blends these diverse influences and steers her into the outer reaches of the singer-songwriter genre. In 2023, Adrienne released her second full-length album,”Wash It All Away”. Anyone who has seen Adrienne in person knows that she brings down the house!

Videos:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA7lyCtnns0&t=2s (”Truth is the Road to Freedom”)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXoIdyrF1Qk&t=4s (”Twinklings of Hope”)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjc53lFNNVI&t=2s (”When I’m Tired”)

Raine Eastman-Gannett

Beginning in 1967, Baba’s red-haired songbird was a mainstay of the Australian Baba group. She and a troop of singers performed exquisite musical renditions of Francis Brabazon’s poetry, often with the delighted poet sitting in their midst. For several years, Francis mentored Raine, Sam Saunders and others in the land down under. After a move to the U.S., Raine enjoyed life in San Francisco as a voice teacher, wife and mom. Now, with countless pilgrimages to India, Oz, and recording studios under her belt, she brings her clear alto and rhythmic guitar back to Asheville. Raine will regale us with Baba-songs cherry-picked from her 15 or so CDs.

NEWS FLASH! She will be joined on some songs by Asheville’s own Bradley Willard, another great Baba musical artist

Videos:

AMBCSC 2005 concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XRJmcDbKT8

    Avatar’s Abode 2018 concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RHoGtODpII

Will Stanhope and choir

William has lived in Asheville since 1988. Before that he spent years overseas including Australia and Algeria where his two children were born. He taught french in both elementary and high school. After retiring from teaching he worked for Delta airlines as a French translator on flights to Paris and other francophone destinations. William is married to Jane, and they have two delightful grandchildren. He loves gardening and creating a tranquil spiritual oasis at their country property in Sandy Mush valley. His favorite Baba quote is “It’s too late now for anything but Love!”

William set the Beloved God prayer to music around 2005 and later composed other Baba themed music. He is thrilled to have his compositions performed with the help of pianist Ruth Johnson and cellist, Gay Dunn, and is especially grateful for the choir members who have worked so hard. He hopes these ripples of praise will bring you joy and greater closeness with the divine God Man.

Videos:
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gEgWskSsTg&list=PLxL0F0hMT1jmryldJN4pDieJHmVgnU6t_&index=28 (Beloved God prayer, with choir led by Debbie Nordeen. Very beautiful!)

Beverly Smith with Jason Homan

Beverly Smith, a professional guitarist and fiddler specializing in folk and old-time music, had the distinction of calling the New Year’s Eve square dance at the Meher Center for many years. She began singing her lovely Baba songs for the mandali and Baba lovers in the 1970s, toured with old-time music groups for decades and is currently working on a new CD of songs for the Beloved.

Her guitar accompanist, Jason Homan graduated from the ‘Fame’ High School for the Performing Arts in New York City before moving to steamy New Orleans. After marinating there, he eventually moved to Asheville and has now relocated to the coast, near the Meher Center. He plays professionally and is an extraordinary guitarist and pianist. He brings a tasty spice to this musical duo.

Videos:
• A Beverly Baba Zoom concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A7MoS3lZiA
• Beverly at Meherabad, India: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivOeHp9JJMY&t=37s
• Beverly Smith (with John Grim): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8X0e8Z89fs