“Your
vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens."
~ C.G Jung
Friday,
November 25th, 2011
REDUCED PRICES on CDs!!
~
Prices reduced on most items. Big reductions on multi-CD package
deals.
Noted savings are on top
of already reduced prices!!
'Shaman Mirror Medicine
Tree' CD/Book combination also reduced!
*** Please consider supporting independent
artists this holiday season.***
Visit
the Recordings
page
for details and ordering.
Sunday,
August 14th, 2011
NEW BOOK: Now online ordering & excerpts
posted.
"Shaman Mirror Medicine Tree:
Healing Visions of Earth, Heart, Spirit and Sound"
The
"Shaman
Mirror Medicine Tree" book
page now has an online ordering option. Also one chapter
and several poems have been posted for your reading pleasure
and enticement!
Sunday,
April 17th, 2011
NEW BOOK COMING IN MAY!!!
"Shaman Mirror Medicine Tree:
Healing Visions of Earth, Heart, Spirit and Sound"
This
is my
first book, which is also Part
2 of the "Shaman Mirror Medicine
Tree" project. A collection of 23 poems, plus prose
and essays on sound healing, shamanism, chi, heart, presence
and silence. This will initally be a very limited release. Also
a couple of sound meditation practices included. (Email me if
you are interested in obtaining a copy.) (Email address at bottom
of page.)
Saturday,
April 16th, 2011
Two more "Rare Tracks" posted...
Two
more songs have been posted on the RARE
TRACKS page. Both studio recordings, one a collaboration
with Jon Anderson of YES, the other a collaboration
with Daevid Allen of GONG.
Saturday,
February 27th, 2011
NEW PAGE: "Rare Tracks"!!
Just
put up a new page called RARE TRACKS,
which is a place to post unreleased live and studio recordings
from the archives, available free and now for your listening
pleasure. This is a sub-page of the Music
Clips page and is accessible through a link at the top
of that page.
Up first is a live Sanza/Clarinet Duet with Steve
Gorn playing clarinet in a very middle-eastern flavor; and
the classic YES song "Soon" performed live
by myself on dulcitar and John Ragusa on flute.
There are alot more tracks to come....
Saturday,
February 26th, 2011, 12:22am...
SITE Improvements
Finally,
getting around to sprucing up the site...a little!
It's
been in need of an overhaul for years.
Primarily there's more accessible navigation... and the Musing
Moon Mystery School has some additions as well as being
easier to find! (When in doubt, follow the healing hand... ;-)
)
Some new Events posted....more to come.
A
couple of links updated.
More to do yet though... want to rethink this "double home
page" thing that I've got going on here. The "Official
Home Page" is from the original site design 11 years ago....
it's really quite primitive..... but I also gave that a facelift,
and a completely new, MUCH better resolution background art
scan.
Friday,
February 25th, 2011
News:
Ok, a long time since I've posted new happenings here!!
Several announcements to come, but for now:
SOUND HEALING RETREAT INTENSIVE,
June 2nd - 5th, 2011
I'll
be both performing a Sacred Journey through Sound as
well as presenting a workshop at Menla Mountain Retreat in Phoenicia,
NY in June
as part of this Sound Healing Retreat along with other presenters
including John Beaulieu, Peter Blum, Philippe Garnier, Zacciah
Blackburn, and Grandmother Barbara Threecrow. Produced by Sage
Healing Arts Center in Woodstock, NY.
SageHealingCenter.org
845-679-5650, sagecenter@earthlink.net
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
SOUND HEALING NETWORK, 6th Annual
Conference.... at the OMEGA
INSTITUTE
Once
again I will be part of our annual Sound Healing Conference
and for the second year in a row it will be held at the Omega
Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. Presenters include Dr. Mitchell
Gaynor, Therese Schroeder-Sheker, Dr. John Beaulieu, Chloe Goodchild
and Zacciah Blackburn. I will be present for the entire event,
contributing live music as needed, and in particular, performing
the Saturday evening concert in collaboration with Chloe Goodchild.
For more information please visit:
SoundHealingNetwork.org
For registration please visit: eomega.org
Sunday,
March 14th, 2010
NEW ALBUM COMING!!!
Also Spring concerts...
Oh,
I have been so remiss with updates lately...
And this is just a quick one, but want to let everyone who has
been wondering and asking know that the new DOUBLE CD
album is coming along and is on track for a mid-April release.
It's title is "Shaman
Mirror Medicine Tree".
See Recordings
page for details.
Great thanks to those who contributed to the fund raising
efforts with presale purchases (and more). (I didn't get anywhere
near meeting the fund-raising goal however... so will gladly
and gratefully take more presale orders/contributions over the
next few weeks as I am facing the biggest single payment outlay
of the project for the manufacturing phase.) (And still time
for someone to fly in and get a big "Executive Producer"
credit.... )
Also,
several Spring Concerts coming up... details to be announced
on the Concerts & Events page soon!
Peace
and thanks to everyone for your patience!!!
Thursday,
March 11th, 2010
First
The fish needs to say,
"Something
ain't right about this
Camel ride -
And I'm
Feeling so damned
Thirsty."
~ Hafiz
~
Thursday,
August 13th, 2009
GREAT CONCERT LAST NIGHT at OMEGA!!!
Wednesday evening I
had the great pleasure to guest perform on the entire gig (all
except the first piece) with "KaleiDhaPhonic",
a new World music ensemble featuring Kevin Nathaniel Hylton:
mbira, shekere; Salieu Suso: Kora, voice; Tripp Dudley:
tabla; and John Ragusa: flutes, conch, jaw harp etc.
This was one of the best gigs ever at Omega.... flowing, meditative,
complex trance journeying music with much joy, energy and attunement,
at times with ecstatic high energy dancing even as it maintained
it's meditative
center. (I played ashiko, doumbek, melodica,
sanza, shakers, and other percussion.)
Friday,
February 20th, 2009
FREE LIVE TRACK mp3 "rarity"....
As
any musician knows... so many tracks, both studio and live recordings,
build up over time with no particular place on an album to share
them. So no promises but I'm going to maybe begin offering a
random series of free MP3 downloads here for your listening
pleasure.
Here's
the first one:
The
classic YES song
"Soon"
from their "Relayer" album.
performed live by BEGINNER'S
MIND: Rich Goodhart & John Ragusa
in concert at the Omega Institute in 2007.
Monday,
December 1st, 2008
HOLIDAY
"LIVING IN THE PAST" CD and TAPE SALE!!
"Oh,
we won't give in, let's go living in the past..."
(Jethro Tull)
We've
turned back the calendar to the latter half of the 20th
Century with special holiday sale price reductions, last century's
shipping rates, archaic payment method options and amazing deals
on ancient and obsolete recording technology!!!
***
First up: An
extra special holiday gift-giving
discount sale!!:
3
CDs - "Earth Spiral Water Sound", "The Gathering
Sun" & "Divining Signs", all for only $32
(In
addition to our ongoing 2 for $25 specials.) That's a regular
price of $15 for the first CD, $10 for the second one, and only
$7 for the third!!
***
Second:
For all of you anti-IPOD Luddite living in the past hippies
with 1980's cassette machines and 1990's automobiles, a special
cassette clearance sale:
Either of the first two albums,
"AFFIRMATIVE REPLY" or
"DIVINING SIGNS" on
cassette tape format for
ONLY $4.00 each, OR BOTH
for a mere $5.00 total!!!
***Third:
For those who relish the relaxed pace of a bygone era, additional
discounts on the old
pay by check option!! Yes,
utilize the postal service, send your payment in by hand written
check or money order and take $3.00 off the price
of any single CD or $3.00 off any "2 for
$25" special.
***And
Fourth: One
low 20th century shipping and handling price of only $3.00
per order, regardless of quantity!!
For
more info, music samples and ordering please visit the Recordings
page.
Wishing
you all Peace, Prosperity, Love, Magic and High
Vibrations for this gift of the present moment and for
the New Year to come...
!!! .....<<<<{{{(((!*!)))}}}>>>>.....!!!
Monday,
September 29th, 2008
RECENT GUEST APPEARANCES
I"ve
recently (within the past year!) made guest appearances on CDs
by:
KDZ:
The Drummers at Kripalu, album titled "SLANG
RHYTHM SPEAK".
Spiral
Harmony, album titled "BEAUTY'S WAY".
KDZ
is wonderful high energy danceable and tranceable and heavy
on the African influenced drumming. I wrote and played most
of the instruments and vocal on one track, and played Native
American flute on another track. Great ecstatic music to move
your groove to!
Spiral
Harmony is more contemplative, emphasis on a variety of
flutes and piano with some voice. I play percussion and hand
drums on four of the tracks. Wonderfully meditative and melodic,
tranquil yet uplifting.
Saturday,
August 30th, 2008
UPDATES!!
Oh,
I am so lazy and negligent about posting updates lately!!
Well, plenty has been happening and plenty is in the works....
And having said that, I don't have time to really talk about
it all now!
But the "Concert and Event Calendar"
has been updated with some new offerings for September
and October.....
I hope you can come out and join in and contribute your presence
to making any and all of these events a splendid and uplifting
experience for all!
More
Info and Updates to follow.... sooner than later hopefully!
Peace, Love, Magic and High Vibrations to all!!!
Monday,
February 25th, 2008
GRATITUDE
Saruah
often
liked to say
"Gratitude is the Attitude that turns the energy on"....
And
as I sit here at my desk on this February winter morning I find
the desire to acknowledge all that I am grateful for. (It's
a big list so I am not going print it here!)
But I will say that the top positions on the list are all reserved
for friends. And particularly all of those magnificent beings
with whom I've had the gift of sharing a moment or much more
of honest, nurturing, loving heart space and uncovered truth.
It is all of you that help to hold me up and get me through
this strange game called "Life" that we play here
on Planet Earth. You all know who you are. Some are long time
friends, some are new ones. With some I shared great depths
in the past.... yet the "past" is an illusion as you
are with and within me now and always have been. Some I've shared
wonder, inspiration and exploration with here in "recent
times"... even as you may be choosing now to step back
from all that is. Others still I only know through the computer
screen and telephone... yet your love, generosity and opened
trusting hearts shine your Light through as clear as in any
more seemingly "solid" dimension.
I
am also grateful for the energies of transformation and letting
go, even as it sure as hell/heaven doesn't feel too good
when swirling in the midst of them!! (Ha! I tell myself I am
grateful for this... though am I really? Do I joyously welcome
such often painful fires of change?... well, that I never said...!!)
Dear
Friends, if these word were the last words you ever received
from me I would feel complete. Complete in knowing that you
received and heard my true and heartfelt thank you for all that
you are.
Thank you, Thank you.......
Monday, February 25th, 2008
In Memory of SARUAH BENSON, 1935
- 2007
Somehow
I completely failed to acknowledge it here on my website last
year, but on the evening of April 2nd, 2007 Divine Sound
Master Sarah 'Saruah' Benson passed on from this earthly
dimension.
At
the time I sent out this announcement to my personal email list:
"Sarah was, to me, a dear and close friend of more than
ten years, a spiritual mother, sound healing mentor, performance
collaborator and trusted Soul Realm Ally. There is so much that
I am and will be forever grateful to her for.
Most recently we were twice able to again create our Sounding
Celebration Events, one in October and then again in November
last fall. Our usual compatriot and Sound Ally Jim Ballard was
with us on both events and Molly Scott joined us in November.
Of all the many times we worked together in this way, these
two occurances were by far the most potent, with the October
one truly being in a "category" of it's own. At this
October experience all three of us felt as though we had opened
up a portal to and entered more deeply into the Spirit realm
than ever before. Clearly she was already out front navigating
the deeper Soul waters."
For
more on SARUAH, please visit here
& here.
Friday,
September 7th, 2007
"PLACE OF POWER" ~
Featured Music Of The Month
"Place
of Power", the tribal trance journey track from "EARTH
SPIRAL WATER SOUND" featuring Daevid Allen and Steve
Gorn has been chosen by The Sound Healing Network as
the Featured Music of the Month on their MySpace
page. For more info also visit their website.
Monday,
August 13th, 2007
LATEST NEWS, RECORDINGS... etc...
Recent
studio activity includes a couple of guest appearances on the
next KDZ:
The Drummers at Kripalu album titled "SLANG
RHYTHM SPEAK". I composed and recorded one interlude
piece for the project and also played Native American flute
on a second track. This is their first studio album and is a
follow up to their highly successful debut "LIVE"
album.
And
I've also recently contributed to five tracks for the upcoming
Sue Blessing/Jim Ballard CD "BEAUTY'S WAY".
Got
back home a week ago from two great weeks teaching and leading
Shamanic Sound Journeys, drumming, chanting and a variety of
energy work at Omega
Teen Camp. Much thanks to all campers, counselors, teachers
and staff!!
Two
days ago accompanied David Newman/Durga Das on one of
the best kirtans I've ever participated in!! Such great spirit
and energy coming through from David and Mira!!
Various
projects in the works that will remain secret until the appropriate
time for their public revealing!!
Also,
the June Interview on WRPI with Gary Goldberg, which
was cancelled due to a weather induced power outage is now rescheduled
for October 4th. (See "Concerts
& Events" page for details.)
Thank
you and wishing to all peace, magic and high visions for this
continuing summer season!!
Monday, June 25th, 2007
LIVE RADIO INTERVIEW & NEW
MUSIC SOURCE
This
Thursday, June 28th, at 12:10pm
(just after noon) I'll be doing a live in-studio radio interview
as a guest on WRPI's "IN THE SPIRIT", hosted by Gary
Goldberg. Located at 91.5FM in the upstate New York region,
and Live on the web at
wrpi.org
Also,
my two most recent albums are now being carried by CROW
AND WOLF MUSIC.
Crow and Wolf carries an exclusive line of unique and often
hard to find high quality World Music, Native American, Celtic,
Folk, Instrumental Acoustic, Americana etc....
They are also now carrying the great high energy drumming CDs
by my good friend David
Macejka.
(I
co-produced and engineered some of the tracks on David's "Poi
for Gadje" CD.)
Wednesday, February 14th, 2007
5th ANNUAL WORLD SOUND HEALING
DAY
Participation
is simple:
Find
5 minutes, anytime during the day or evening, and chant the
"AH" sound, the sound of the heart chakra,
while focusing first on and within your heart, and then with
extension outward to your, family, friends, community, the planet.
As you do this also hold within your being the feeling of unconditional
love and peace. So when you are focusing the intention of your
sound within and outward, you are also holding and transmitting
this feeling through the sound.
If
you are alone, do it alone.
But if you can do it with others, the feeling and power of this
simple practice is magnified exponentially.
And
know that you will be joining in with thousands of others around
the planet in creating, holding and magnifying this vibration.
Saturday.
January 27th, 2007
NEW SITE UPDATES & ADDITIONS
~
A professionally filmed concert video clip of BEGINNER'S
MIND: Rich Goodhart & John Ragusa has been added
to the MUSIC CLIPS page.
Check it out, it's a great piece of concert footage!!
~
There is now a page devoted to my Sound Healing and Qi Cultivation
work under the guise of
The Musing Moon Mystery School.
This page is currently just a beginning and will expand over
time with more in depth information and relevant articles.
~
In order to cut down on spam, the email links are no longer
active. The addresses are still valid but you will have to manually
copy them into your email program. Sorry for the inconvenience
but you'll have to blame the spammers - the amount of automatically
generated spam coming through the website has been absurd in
recent months.
~
Several other navigational and informational updates have been
done as well. All too numerous and way too boring to mention
here specifically!!
Peace,
magic and high vibration visions for this new year!!
October 20th, 2006
DAEVID ALLEN COMING TO WOODSTOCK IN NOVEMBER!!!
YES!!!
Beginner's Mind Productions is proud to announce that the wizard
supreme of Planet Gong, the amazingly inspired DAEVID ALLEN
will be returning to Woodstock, NY for a SOLO CONCERT on
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12th at 7:00pm
For details and info please visit: Bearsville
Theater Calendar
Don't
miss this very rare opportunity to see and hear this multi-dimensional,
vastly prolific creative and influential force in a magical
and intimate upstate New York (or for that matter North American)
setting.
Bearsville Theater, 291 Tinker St., Woodstock, NY 845-679-4406
August
14th, 2006
OTC, THANKS AGAIN!!
~ Once again GREAT THANKS to ALL the campers,
counselors, directors and teachers at this year's OMEGA TEEN
CAMP who participated in my workshops, concert or shared in
great conversations or even just extended a few good heartfelt
words of appreciation. In fact some of the most deeply expanding
moments for me were from those of you who took a moment to come
up and express gratitude for whatever bit of Spirit and experience
you may have received from something I offered. EXTENSIVE
AND GREATEST OF GRATITUDE TO YOU ALL, TRULY!!!
Best
wishes and highest vibrations of Spirit and Light to everyone.
May you perceive and receive the *MAGIC* that flows through
your life always. Everyone of us is a mysterious and magical
universe, a celebration of this Mystery of Life. I hope to see
and create with all of you again next year.
August
10th, 2006
"Those
who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those
who dream only by night."
~Edgar Allan Poe
July
2nd, 2006
SPIRIT WORDS.... from Ram Dass
~"Truth
is scary, but it's better than the numbing deception of making
believe reality is real."
~"When
we're trapped in our minds we're always one thought away from
where the action is."
~"We
are the consciousness that defines the reality we are moving
into."
April
27th, 2006
SPIRIT WORDS... from Carlos Castaneda
"There's a primary knowledge that we all carry, directly
connected with the two-million-year-old person at the root of
our brain. And we do our best to suppress it..... (which makes
us ill)."
He
(Don Juan) said... "relying on something mechanical only
makes us more and more sterile." "It curtails your
magic", he said. "Better to learn with your whole
body so you'll remember with your whole body."
August 15, 2005
OTC THANKS!
~
GREAT THANKS to ALL the teenage "campers" (and unadulterated
adults!) who participated in my workshops, concerts, music jams
and/or shared a simple word or other interaction with me during
the three great weeks at the OTC!!! (Omega Teen Camp). If not
for you it would not have been what it wonderfully was! And
it was, wonderfully, it. Peace and joy to everyone!!
************^*^************
Wisdom, truth, growth, expansion of being through pain and suffering
is possible (though not guaranteed) but is NOT the only way.
Wisdom, truth, growth, expansion of being through love, joy,
radical trust, participation in high and open hearted experience,
and sharing of unrestrained appreciation is not only possible,
but is as EQUALLY VALID as the path of suffering - and it's
a heck of alot more enjoyable. So why not choose and share this
path whenever possible? We have the free will to recognize,
and our eyes will see wise such splendor of being!!
Wisdom is found in nature. Please respect what we have remaining
- before it's too late. Endeavor to know it's truth, and PLEASE
don't cut the trees down!!
August
12, 2005
A FEW BITS OF NEWS
~
The Gallery is up with a few
PR photos plus several images from the 2003 concerts with Gilli
Smyth and Gong Matrices, and also some photos I took of
Daevid Allen and Nic Stephanz from the Woodstock show
I produced for them in 2003. For more on Gong's goings on (and
there are many), visit the green Planet
Gong!
April 25, 2005
RANDOM UPDATES
The
status of the album with Deepak Chopra, "Soul Offerings:
The Yoga of Love", appears to be that of indefinite
shelf-sitting. The victim of corporate economics and too small
potential profit projections. If anyone wants to finance production
costs I'll gladly publish it on the Beginner's Mind label. There
really is some good music and words on it, I still believe.
(yes, "indefinite shelf-sitting", trying saying that
10 times fast...)
I'll
be teaching another "Explorations In Sound Healing"
workshop at the Kripalu Center in Lenox,MA on Thursday,
the 28th. If you've any interest in this aspect of my work,
enquire within.
And
finally, for all you 12 to 17 year old fans, I'll be teaching
again at the Omega Teen Camp this summer. Creatively influencing
the open minds of some of our brightest and most adventurous
youth and inheritors with esoteric energy alchemy and the powers
of sound and chi.
April
17, 2005
MUSIC FOR HEART'S SAKE
I
have little interest in music for music's sake these days -
music for the sake of playing a bunch of complexly arranged
notes and little else. (Though I'll admit it can sometimes be
fun, though in those cases it's probably inherently music for
the sake of pure joy and levity, which I do dig.) I also have
no interest in music for business's sake. Music "product"
influenced or designed by soulless corporate money men who don't
seem to have a clue as to the deeper and truer purposes of this
exquisite and amazing life gift of music.
What
I am interested in is music for spirit's sake, music for heart's
sake, music for beauty's sake, music for nourishment of soul,
body, mind and spirit. Music for awakening, connecting and tuning
into the deeper levels of consciousness, spirit and love.
Of
course I am selling my music at this website, and that is a
form of business. But the business is designed to serve the
music, not the other way around.
April
2, 2005
RANDOM WISDOM
"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again.
Fail better."
~ Samuel Beckett
The
domain of love expands intelligence.
The domain of fear restricts intelligence.
According
to all the shamans of the entire earth, one establishes communication
with the spirits by way of music.
"I
think we will collectively need to abandon some of the rules
we have been given on how to live a life ~ like not making waves
and pretending that everything is alright and that we can continue
to live like we are used to."
~ Tom Kenyon
October
31, 2004
NEW ALBUM, FINALLY!!!
My
new CD, "Earth
Spiral Water Sound", is finally in manufacturing
and due in stock later this week, on or near November 5th.
Representing
a more than two year recording effort and drawing on and bringing
to fruition more than 25 years of rich musical experience (pun
or not), I can honestly say that this is my best and most musically
and spiritually evolved recording yet. If you like the style,
vision and spirit of my previous recordings, then I can proclaim
with good and clear conscience that this is the one to have
if you want to experience realization of the music that all
the previous ones were aiming for. (Gee, what will I say about
the next album??) (Hey, it really isn't easy to convincingly
appraise one's own work, you know!)
For
more info, list of guest artists and instrumentation and on-line
or mail ordering, please visit the Recordings
page.
June
11, 2004
NEW RECORDINGS UPDATE
THREE PROJECTS:
1.
The final mixes are FINALLY done for my new solo album!! Mastering
still needs to be done, then artwork, graphic design and manufacturing.
I've got quite a few guest artists and several are well known
very special guest musicians and singers. Most notably, Native
American singer and supreme vocal goddess JOANNE SHENANDOAH
and psychedelic art-rock legend and GONG co-founder DAEVID
ALLEN!!! Both are people that I've long admired and have
been an inspiration and a dream come true to work with. A mid-summer
release is the current projection. More details as things continue
to develop.
2.
Last year's concerts with GONG co-founder and shakti
goddess GILLI SMYTH were digitally recorded by Mike Lopez
and also video taped. A DVD project is being considered for
eventual release, hopefully later this year. Many highly attuned
improvisations which find Gilli in a very supportive and dynamic
ethno-acoustic setting. Some of the most expansive work I've
ever heard from her, and well, I'm all over it too!
3.
The poetry and music project with DEEPAK CHOPRA that
I produced has been finished for quite some time now. There
have been a couple of plans in the works to secure it's release,
but the uncertain forces of the record business have not yet
coalesced into an actual release date for this fine recording.
In short, it's Deepak reading the poetry of Tagore, Hafiz, Mirabai
and Kabir in an organic flow of acoustic world instrument based
music part composed and performed by myself and part performed
live in concert as a trio with John Ragusa. To all who have
heard the pre-release airings and wanted to buy a copy I apologize
for the repeated delays. I can only be patient for it's eventual
release at this point.
June
2, 2004
A Poem by HAFIZ
"IT
HAS NOT RAINED LIGHT"
It
has not rained light for many days.
The wells in most eyes look drought-stricken.
Thus
friends are not easy to find
In this barren place
Where
most everyone has become ill
From guarding nothing.
On
this primal caravan
Careers and cities can appear real in this
Intense Desert heat,
But
I say to my close ones,
"Don't
get lost in them,
it has not rained light there for days.
Look,
most everyone is diseased
From 'making love' to nothing."
Translation by Daniel Ladinsky from his book "The
Gift".
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
~
Rich teaches various workshops and also privately. If you're
in the Northeast/New England area or beyond, and are interested,
please visit the Musing Moon Mystery School,
then contact by email for more information:
