Rang Rataa - An album of 5 shabads

Dear friends ... my celebration for #GuruNanak550 continues as I release a new colorful album today, "Rang Rataa," which has five shabads in five different colors. Rang means color, and rataa means imbued.


The first shabad, Rang Rataa, which was released earlier this year as a single, features one of the best finger guitarists in the US and my wonderful friend, Muriel Anderson. This is one of the two compositions of this shabad ... the other one in Raag Shri is still in the making. The other four shabads are in the raag that Guru Nanak used to sing in.

My special gratitude to my dear friend Ahsan Ali for pouring his immense love and co-producing Mere Laal Rangeele in Raag Tukhari (a raag that Guru Nanak composed himself). In Mera Prabh Raang Guru Nanak uses Rajasthani and is sung in Raag Parbhati.

Kusambhare is a Baba Sheikh Farid shabad about the impermanence of life like the color of a flower, which Guru Nanak used to sing in Raag Suhi Lalit. This is a new take on this raag and I will explain at some point why I believe Guru Nanak sang it like this. The last shabad, "Manjeethra" in Raag Suhi is a direct response of Guru Nanak to the previous shabad "Kusambhare" and talks about how the color of Name is "Manjeethra" or permanent despite the impermanence of life.

You should be able to find the audio versions of this shabad on iTunes, Spotify and YouTube and many other platforms.

May you all be imbued in the color of love. Now I can continue on the celebration ...