Joel Veena - Cardinal

​Joel Veena

Cardinal
self-released; 2025

​By ​Dino DiMuro

American guitarist Joel Veena Eisenkramer is a great example of cross-cultural alchemy, in that the Vermont-born Veena has totally embraced Hindustani music and collaborates with artists from the US, the UK and India. His main axe is a 20-string Indian slide guitar, which has that magical exotic sound while often sounding like a traditional American Steel. I’ve seen photos of this fascinating instrument: it basically resembles a regular guitar but with tuning pegs all the way up the neck. Cardinal is Veena’s 12th album, along with many past singles, all of which “push the boundaries of contemporary fusion with beats, poetry and masterful collaborators.”

Veena notes that Cardinal was “built up, track by track, to exalt the listener from their present state into a space of rich resonance of cascading strings, thunderous drum beats and tightly honed intention, crafted to be listened to from beginning to end, from original to traditional and back again. My purpose is to provide encouragement and refuge, and for the feelings of ease and wholeness to seep outwards into our worlds. I am grateful for this life and I wish to spread that vibration. ” Recording took place in both Vermont and the UK, with mixing by Veena and mastering by Tom Hutten of Bionic Mastering in Vermont.  

“Just Give Thanks (acapella)” is an interesting choice to open a guitar album, as it only features “call to prayer” bells and shakers introducing sung poetry by Veena, inspired on his porch in the summer of 2024. I thought for sure there were two singers but they’re both him! His message is clear and simple: “Just give thanks for life / All this pain and strife / What to do, but push on through / There is indeed another side.” Next up is another surprise: “Resistance” establishes an electronica beat as a backdrop to Veena’s resonant, weeping Hindustani guitar melodies. It’s a fascinating melding of Western and Eastern musical traditions.

“Never Too Late (For a Shower of Rain)” was recorded at Rift Studios in New York and features guest Mir Naquibul Islam on tabla (amazingly present and resonant). If you randomly stumbled upon this track you’d most likely assume it’s played on sitar, and the mediative Indian melodies have that same soothing effect (George Harrison said: “My intellect didn't know what was going on, and yet this other part of me identified with the sitar” before becoming an adherent both of the music and its spiritual practices). 

“Reminder” features Jasdeep Singh recorded in the UK on the jori, which is a pair of drums that are deeper and more resonant than a tabla (which is already pretty deep!). Singh is actually an expert on the jori drum, which is used to accompany dhruap music (an even older form of Hindustani classical music). Veena notes that this original track is “the first-ever such collaboration between Indian slide guitar and jori.” To Western ears these melodies feel a bit more traditional, while still ensconced in that magic Indian vibe. “Raag Bageshree (Alaap)” is a traditional North Indian raga again featuring Mir Naqibul Islam on tabla. It’s a ten-minute journey that really evokes the late ‘60s to anyone who was around then. You can smell the incense!

“Mountains Ramble” is a solo guitar track recorded by Veena in Vermont (by Matthew Hall at Guilford Sound). I honestly can’t tell if it’s one live track or two (they used to say the same thing about Leo Kottke) but it’s a lovely, gentle penultimate track with just the guitar tones washing over you. “Sabke Llye” closes the album with a simple, one-minute poem written and read by Vidhi Salla, which I roughly translate as “Adding some strings to the tune / Breaking old habits / Made of strings of tunes…”

Here in the West we didn’t necessarily grow up with Indian music, yet it has always seemed to be with us. For those that are open, this is an amazing cross-cultural journey that I strongly recommend!

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