GIVE US YOUR POOR: 17 NEW RECORDINGS TO HELP END HOMELESSNESS
“Featuring musicians of many stripes . . . the nineteen-song set feels as seamless as the chapters in a novel. . . . Not surprisingly, themes of strife and poverty abound, but what’s most striking about these songs is the absence of pathos and the prevailing sense of hope. . . . With beauty, dignity and grace, Give US Your Poor draws attention toward places where the inclination is too often to turn away.”
– Russell Hall, No Depression
– People magazine
Appleseed Recordings release featuring exclusive new tracks by Bruce Springsteen & Pete Seeger, Jon Bon Jovi, Madeleine Peyroux, Bonnie Raitt, Mario Frangoulis, Keb’ Mo’, Michelle Shocked, Buffalo Tom, Natalie Merchant, Mighty Sam McClain, Sweet Honey in the Rock, in collaboration with currently or formerly homeless musicians on benefit CD to fight homelessness! Click here for more reviews
The CD project is an eclectic collaboration involving homeless musicians and celebrity artists (such as singers Bruce Springsteen, Natalie Merchant, Jon Bon Jovi, Bonnie Raitt, Keb’ Mo’, Dan Zanes, Jewel, Pete Seeger, actor Danny Glover, Madeleine Peyroux, Buffalo Tom, Sweet Honey in the Rock, John Sebastian, Jewel, Sonya Kitchell, Michelle Shocked, Mario Frangoulis, Mighty Sam McClain and actor Tim Robbins) co-produced and released by Appleseed Recordings.
The CD project represents a partnership between the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, the University of Massachusetts Boston, Appleseed Recordings, along with assistance in year one from Berklee College of Music Internship Program. Over the past year project staff and volunteers have collected demo recordings from homeless artists across through country culled for artists we feel represent the quality for which we strive. In addition, GUYP works with 25+ homeless advocacy/service programs across the country (see our partners list under About Us). These and other local and national homeless organizations will be able to sell the CD to raise funds and awareness for their organization.
The mission of the CD aligns perfectly with the Mission on Appleseed Recordings, which works to promote social justice through music.
Through the emotive and transforming power of music, we aim to break down the disconnect between housed and homeless human beings-as exemplified in the CD and some collaboration tracks between homeless and celebrity artists.
In the 2 years before release, we have collected performance demos from a number of homeless men, women, and children that are singers, instrumentalists, and songwriters in the hopes of selecting the best to include on the CD and in utilizing their talents for possible collaboration tracks with a celebrity musician. This recording is done thanks to a generous donation of portable recording equipment by Roland Corporation. We have met some incredibly talented homeless musicians from across the U.S.
Proceeds from the CD will go towards the national awareness/action campaign to end homelessness, Give US Your Poor, an initiative of the University of Massachusetts Boston. Give US Your Poor’s fiscal agent is the University of Massachusetts Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. In addition, local and national homeless organizations will be able to sell the CD to raise funds and awareness for their organization. Homeless artists involved will receive direct payment, all travel costs, and mechanical royalties for any original music.