An Evening with Katie Wise & Bhakti Explosion, with special guests Dave Stringer, Sheela Bringi and Elden Kelly

Date and Time

• Saturday, May 30, 2026  7pm - 9:30pm

Location

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Details

About Katie Wise + Bhakti Explosion:

Heart-centered yogis who love contemporary folk & Americana music have been flocking to Katie Wise & Bhakti Explosion’s live kirtans across the US and at the biggest sacred music and folk festivals in the world: Bhakti Fest, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest, Hanuman Festival, Holistic Manchester, Arise, Festival of Colors, Mammoth Yoga Festival, Shakti Fest, Bhakti Love Reunion, Lovelight, Relaxspansion, and Stonehenge Music Festival.

Based in Boulder, CO, USA, this mantra-infused powerhouse band pulses with rootsy world soul, and features layered harmonies that soar over emotionally crafted songs reminiscent of Sarah McLachlan and Alanis Morissette. Bhakti Explosion is currently composed of band members Katie Wise on guitar and keyboards, John Hoelle on bass and vocals, Gayan Gregory Long on drums and vocals, and lead guitarist Yoshi Aono.

Katie’s debut album, Lovolution, produced by Grammy-nominee Ben Leinbach, with guest vocals by Jai Uttal, received critical acclaim in the US (Yoga Journal, Yoga International), the UK (Kindred Spirit, Yoga Magazine) and Australia (Soul Traveller Radio, Australian Yoga Life), and was praised by Grammy-nominated kirtan musician and producer Dave Stringer as combining “beautifully nuanced country and Americana influences, inflected with just the right amount of Eastern mysticism.”

Bhakti Explosion has additionally released two live albums: Live at the Starhouse (2019), and Live at eTown (2021), and a second studio album, Akashic Rock, was released in 2023 on the conscious-music label White Swan Records.

​Katie and the band have toured and recorded with sacred mantra artist David Newman who calls her "a force and presence for those who look to their music for peace, heart, groove, and spiritual inspiration.” Australian Yoga Life magazine writes: "Wise's soulful, earthy voice embodies vulnerability in a way that turns emotion into art."

Katie has shared the stage with leading chant artists: Donna DeLory, Deva Premal and Miten, David Newman, Girish, Brenda McMorrow, Wah, and Sean Johnson, among many others.

Bhakti Explosion is pioneering their own genre of spiritual music: mantra-folk. They believe it has the power to heal and inspire the world. More at BhaktiExplosion.com.

About Dave Stringer:

Dave Stringer is a Grammy-nominated producer, singer, songwriter and innovative modern Kirtan artist, profiled in publications all over the world. Stringer’s sound connects the transcendent mysticism of traditional Indian instruments with the exuberant, groove-oriented sensibility of American Gospel and the ringing harmonies of Appalachia. He is currently featured in the documentary films Mantra: Sounds into Silence and The Power of Mantra.

Initially trained as a visual artist, filmmaker and jazz musician, Stringer’s focus shifted significantly after video editing work brought him to an ashram in India in 1990. It has also been informed by a subsequent period of service teaching meditation to prison inmates and expanded by his interest and research in neuroscience.

An articulate and engaging public speaker, Stringer probes the dilemmas of the spirit with a wry and unorthodox sense of humor. His work intends to create a modern and participatory theatrical experience out of the venerable traditions of kirtan and yoga, open to a multiplicity of interpretations, and accessible to all.

In the last decades, Yoga has grown from Indian roots into a global cultural phenomenon. Simultaneously, Kirtan, an ecstasy-inducing, call-and-response form of mantra chanting, has experienced a worldwide renaissance. Stringer and a diverse ensemble of accompanying musicians travel extensively, giving concerts, workshops and retreats worldwide.

He was nominated for a Grammy in 2016 for his work as the producer and co-writer of the album Bhakti Without Borders, and nominated as an artist for a Grammy in 2023 for Mantra Americana along with collaborator Madi Das. Mantra Americana II, the sequel, is now in current release. Thrum, a recording of jazz-inflected duets in English with singer-songwriter Sheila Nicholls, is set for release in the Fall of 2024.