Subtitled 'Songs for the Beloved'. Devotionals you can dance to. Inspired by Judi's relationship with Avatar Meher Baba, her music sings of the joys and longings that go along with trying to live your life for the Christ within.

9 MP3 Songs
GOSPEL: Contemporary Gospel, FOLK: Folk Blues



Details:
Ranging from the reggae-tinged sound of An Everlasting Love to the blues of To Make You Mine, and backed by a wonderful group of musicians, these Songs for the Beloved -- of love and longing -- call us to open our hearts and dance!

Judi says: 'God Loves Rock' (with a heart sitting in for 'loves') was a bumper sticker I had on my car for many years. And for me, that's true. I was working at Rolling Stone magazine when the article, 'In Love with Meher Baba,' by Pete Townshend, was published (Nov. 26, 1970). I first saw Meher Baba's beautiful form when that issue with His picture on the cover was laid on my desk. I wrote my first song the following spring, picked up the guitar a few years later, and I've been writing ever since.

Notes on some songs collected for The Very Best Wine:

An Everlasting Love: This is an adaptation of an anonymous prayer. I love the exclamations: "You have set us in the thick of things! You have fed us!" And there's a story to this as well! On the morning of my CD release party, I decided to check a perpetual calendar my dad had given me. It had a spiritual affirmation for each day, along with chapter and verse from the Bible. I looked down before I flipped the pages and what my eyes and heart beheld was: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love' - the title line of the opening track on the album!

The Very Best Wine: The inspiration for this song was twofold: At a Meher Baba House meeting in New York, a dear friend set the challenge. The speaker mentioned Jesus changing water into wine and my friend leaned over and said: 'That'd be something to write about!' I knew I had it the next time I read Meher Baba's statement from His Universal Message:
"My present Avataric Form is the last Incarnation of this cycle of time, hence my Manifestation will be the greatest. When I break my Silence, the impact of my Love will be universal and all life in creation will know, feel and receive of it."

Your Lovers Yearn: This is the English translation of Meher Baba's Gujerati Arti. I first saw this in both languages on a prayer card and learned the English version by heart before I heard it sung in Gujerati. I think hearing different types of Indian music during my visits to Meher Baba's Samadhi enabled me to find a way to share this in a Western form.

Reviews:

From Michael Haldeman, The Whitehorse Review, No. 9:

I have believed for some time that a new qawalli is trying to take root in the West. This album is not qawalli, nor is it intended to be, but I see it as part of the early first efforts of developing a similar passionate, rhythmic spiritual music for the new era. As in qawalli, there are romantic lyrics here, there is a solid rhythm, there is the ache of love in the vocals.
In a broad array of styles held together by the musicianship of producer/arranger Michael Engberg, who also contributes guitars, keyboards and backing vocals (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/engberg), Meher Baba follower Judi Schoeck expresses a thoroughly contemporary longing for God.
Her voice seems to hold great emotion in check. The effect, even on an upbeat song like Pilgrim Is My Name, with its driving, didgeridoo-based beat, is a bittersweet evocation of the complexities of spiritual love. To Make You Mine is a bluesy rock tune propelled by harmonica and walking bass, with a Lesley Goresque girl-group vocal and the marvelous pairing, on a rising melody, of 'unshakeable' and 'unmistakable'.
(Contact Whitehorse Review at PO Box 482067, Denver CO 80248)

From James R. Newell, recording artist w/Blue Sadhana Records (http://www.james-r-newell.com/recordings.htm)

I'm really enjoying your album! You have a wonderful gift for melody and songwriting!