“Listen To Your Heart” is introspective and serenely joyful; a musical meditative journey generating an atmosphere that lifts and releases the heart and spirit. The music is inspired by the great spiritual teachings from various traditions, by great world teachers, and our own personal teachers, Srimata Gayatri Devi and Srimata Sudha Puri Devi. It is dedicated to the source of all vibration and sound. “Music should be healing; music should uplift the soul; music should inspire. What makes us feel drawn to music is that our whole being is music; our mind and our body, the nature in which we live, the nature that has made us, all that is beneath and around us, it is all music.” -- Hazrat Inayat Khan This recording came together during a period of powerful musical, personal and spiritual transition in our lives, helping us to both create and navigate through an exciting and tumultuous time in life’s journey. The music is the fruit of a longtime friendship, collaboration and intertwining musical paths that merged in Boston for two years, long enough to create and record this music with the help of Jim Richards, a gifted and inspired sound engineer and a great friend. We thank Alan Perlman for the magnificent guitars. (www.perlmanguitars.com) Credits: All songs composed by Gordon Burnham and John McCormick John McCormick (acoustic guitar) Gordon Burnham (acoustic guitar) Jim Richards (synthesizer & piano on Listen to Your Heart, synthesizer on Iona Wind) Joe Bull (acoustic slide guitar on Ocean Dream) Rita Burnham (tamboura on East West Raga) Recorded and Engineered at Ultrasounds Studio, Brookline, Massachusetts. by Jim Richards. Artwork, mixing and mastering: Gordon Burnham 1. Listen To Your Heart (7:22) 2. Europa (4:36) 3. Iona Wind (6:42) 4. Souldance (3:53) 5. Ocean Dream (6:17) 6. Big West (6:46) 7. Jalanti (4:28) 8. Come Home (5:38) 9. East West Raga (6:21) John McCormick (www.mccormickjohn.com) was born and raised in Indianapolis. While studying philosophy at Ancilla College in Indiana, he met Gordon Burnham and Bob Beaser, two exquisite pickers from Kalamazoo, Michigan. They inspired him to take up the acoustic guitar. John has since played the finest venues in North America and Europe, and recorded five CDs for Phantom Records. He is a modern minstrel with gentle wit, sensitive vocals, and wicked guitar skills. Gordon Burnham (www.gburnham.com) was born and raised in Michigan, attended college at Western Michigan University and after a fortuitous gig booked by John McCormick at Ancilla College, he moved to Boston to play music in coffeehouses and colleges. He soon made a home on the south shore of Boston, in an idyllic harbor town called Cohasset. For twenty years he played music throughout the U.S as well as in the Carribean and Europe, was music director at the Vedanta Centre and now lives in La Crescenta, CA. Song Descriptions: Listen to Your Heart, listening to the heart is listening to inner silence…the heart speaks it’s truth in silent rhythms. Europa, written in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, born out of the inspiring atmosphere in the incredibly beautiful 1200 year old monastery and the powerful presence of the Black Madonna. Iona Wind, John often visits Iona, the home of his father’s ancestors, where fifty of ninety-eight residents are McCormicks, living in the beautiful peaceful atmosphere of a small windswept and mist enshrouded island in the Irish Sea. Iona is a legendary island that many make pilgrimage to, to visit the Abbey, the burial place of the Scottish Kings. Souldance, the natural response of the soul when it’s free from the bonds of self concern…..to dance! Ocean Dream, the ethereal beauty of Big Sur, the cliffs, soaring birds, clouds and sunlight dancing on the majestic waves…. Big West, the spirit and majesty of the vast open western lands and sky, inspiring the courage to live today and leave behind past lives and explore the unlimited present. Jalanti, meaning “lighted lamp” in Sanskrit, is a common spiritual symbol for the heart or the soul, invoking a feeling of warmth, comfort, hope….. Come Home, a bluesy expression of an aching desire to come home, and a joy of being on the journey, arriving at the realization that we are already there….here…. East West Raga, a blending of the musical colors and feelings from music born in India in the East, and music with it’s roots in the West.