Rock Of Love

Larisa Stow and Shakti Tribe’s blissful rhythms
7/23

Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat!

But there is neither East nor West, nor Border, Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth.
— Rudyard Kipling

Larisa Stow would know something about Kipling’s lore of the kindred, as, with her band Shakti Tribe, she plans to bring a musical ethic that’s part sacred space, part multicultural rave to the Ventura Center for Spiritual Living.

It’s a vastly different world than that which Kipling understood when he penned his famous and oft-misunderstood 1889 verse, The Ballad of East and West, and yet, as is so often the case with great artists, his thoughts ring prescient to this day. For while the compass points remain as divergent as ever, and east lies just as distant from west as ever, many of the substantial divides between the realms have fallen — an ethic that lies at the heart of Stow’s musical communion.

“I believe that music is the bridge that brings us together,” she notes. “When I integrate sounds from another culture, I feel like I am embracing it … declaring our oneness.” While such feel-good intention makes little more than good copy for some public profiles, for Stow and Tribe it’s a lifestyle choice that informs every note of music, a choice influenced by triumph and tragedy, that resonates very much like the pulse of a hopeful future.

Stow was a rising star in the So Cal music scene, winner of the L.A. Music Award for Singer/Songwriter of the Year, when the tragic events of September 11, 2001, turned her social and musical context upside-down. “After years of performing in the world of pop-rock,” she said, “I became so affected by 9/11 and the deep division that ensued that I decided to take my knowledge of music and songwriting and apply it to a peace project.”

Deeply influenced by Gandhi’s maxim “Be the change that you wish to see in the world,” the talented performer was ready to commit more than words to the idea. She abandoned the conventional path to music industry success for a road considerably less traveled — one that has generated not only a busy recording and performance schedule, but a dedicated following — across Southern California and
the West, and as far as Bali, where the group hosts annual spiritual retreats.

“Performing live is my favorite part of being an artist,” she confides. “I love connecting with a live audience and the exchange of energy that happens.” That love is evident to anyone who has shared the space while the Tribe does its thing, as the barrier between audience and player blurs, and the artists enlarge the circle with ancient kirtan, call-and-answer devotional mantra, and an exultant “get-on-your feet and love life” energy that truly has to be experienced to be understood. While it might seem unlikely that so few people could love so many strangers all at once, the experience surely lays the cynic’s doubt to rest.

As one critic-turned-fan notes: “Their inspiring music fuses the spiritual and sacred with a rock/pop groove and sensuality like no other . . . the result is a magic carpet ride your soul needs to experience. Committed to expressing the joy in the oneness that we all share, Shakti Tribe celebrates unity, culture and diversity through its music’s messages of peace, hope and love.”