Susheela Raman is a Tamil - English - Indian singer, songwriter and composer. In her music you can hear the mixture of jazz, ambient, folk, trance, blues, carnatic and a hypnotic sound that captures you. while you're listening. She has released four albums, the latest in 2007. Grewing up she learned Indian classical music and later blues-like voice techniques. She has been teached by Shruti Sadolikar "one of the greatest living Hindustani vocalists"* and she has collaborated with many musically gifted musicians all over the world.
Check also: Maya, Bolo bolo, Love Trap Live, Mahima, Mamavatu, Voodoo Child, MySpace, Ennapane Live, Listen to tracks of Susheela Raman, Awards for World Music, Raman tells.
Here is what she has wrote of the song Woman that I have selected for today:
Woman is a song about someone in a destructive relationship who is looking for the way out. As Susheela urges her on, the song transforms into a mesmeric chant invoking the Goddess Kali, a kind of archetype of feminine power. Susheela’s family has long tradition of Kali devotion and the intensity that comes through shows it. The song also describes situations she can relate to in her own family history. Indian woman have often had to endure a lot…family and social structures are very patriarchal and women are expected sometimes to sacrifice their own happiness on the altar of family honor. Woman features the amazing Egyptian percussion virtuoso Hosam Ramzi (who has played with many artists including Peter Gabriel and Page and Plant).
Woman, where’s your dignity?
How can you lie there while the lover destroys you?
He doesn’t know your worth
But you bear his burden and make it yours
Why do you cry?
Woman, don’t be tortured by a madman
You’ve got to get out
The prison door is open
Woman
Oh, woman why do you rest here?
Is your love an ignorant sacrifice?
Roles you learned to play
Conspire against you and hold you down
Why don’t you fight
Woman, don't be tortured by a madman
You've got to get out
The prison door is open
Um Krim Kali e Nama
