Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

East Indian singer Sheila Chandra was a pop phenomenon before the term "world music" as even invented. At 16, as a member of the group Monsoon, the English-born performer had a Top 10 hit with "Ever So Lonely," a clever synthesis of Indian melody over a Western dance beat. And in 1982, when she sang the song on Britain's Top of the Pops TV show, Chandra wore a sari, the traditional dress of Indian women. Today, although she's only 26, Chandra finds herself the veteran in a growing field of Asian artists--one whose influence is increasingly being felt in the mainstream. In fact, East Indian culture is a cornerstone of this year's WOMAD festival at Toronto's Harbourfront. And Chandra...

One of the most beguiling albums of the summer of 1994 is Sheila Chandra's The Zen Kiss (Real World/Virgin). Like Chandra’s previous Weaving My Ancestors' Voices, it's a recording of solo voice with simple drone-note accompaniment. But the songs are so rich and the vocal techniques so entrancing that the album comes across as a deep, full-bodied work. The Zen Kiss draws on influences as diverse as Islamic, Andalusian, Bulgarian and Celtic musics. And, of course, being of East Indian heritage, Chandra also employs ragas and classical Indian musical ornamentations—always anchored by the incessant drone. As she writes in the liner notes: "The concept of drone has been important in bringing thes...