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    • Give US Your Poor

    09/25/2007 | Appleseed Records 

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    All Music Guide Review

    Give US Your Poor is a benefit record that doesn't duck from its subject for commercial considerations, which is to say that -- the excellent contributions of Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, and Bonnie Raitt aside -- you're not going to get through the album without contemplating what's it's like to be homeless. But a downer this CD is not: from Springsteen's juiced-up version of the classic "Hobo's Lullaby" with Pete Seeger to Madeleine Peyroux's pretty "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" to Dan Zanes and Kyla Middleton's rootsy picker-upper "Boll Weevil," the music shoves away preachiness and solemnity in favor of hope. It's there in Danny Glover's affecting spoken word "My Name Is Not 'Those People'" and also Sweet Honey in the Rock's grounded a cappella "Stranger Blues," but where it really reaches its target is on the opening sequence. "Land of 10,000 Homeless -- Minnesota" is a brief audio documentary set to music; here you meet people living the life, and here you hear their sagas. Self-pity never plays a part; only simple humanity, taken to the streets and scrubbed to its core elements, shines through. ~ Tammy La Gorce, All Music Guide

    Track Listing

    Credits

    • Steve Wood
    • Vocals (Background), Mixing, Engineer, Producer
    • Joe Tooley
    • Assistant Engineer, Session Assistant

    Notes

    from Appleseed Recordings: Two years in the making, this fund-raising CD created by Appleseed Recordings and the national Give US Your Poor organization at UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School brings together established musicians, socially committed actors and currently or previously homeless musicians in a collection of mostly exclusive new recordings that address the ongoing crisis of homelessness in America. There are frequent collaborations between the stars, who donated their time and music, and their formerly or currently homeless brethren on songs that often reflect on existence without guaranteed lodging, food, and the simple necessities of human existence. Almost all of the profits raised by this release will be donated to organizations benefiting the homeless.

    There is a broad spectrum of artists, genres and styles represented on Give US Your Poor that makes the CD a moving, engrossing, and enjoyable, as well as educational, experience. Among the high-profile performers: Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger; Jon Bon Jovi and Mighty Sam McClain; Madeleine Peyroux and Sonya Kitchell; Bonnie Raitt and Weepin’ Willie Robinson; Natalie Merchant, Michelle Shocked, and Jewel; Keb’ Mo’; Sweet Honey in the Rock; Dan Zanes; Buffalo Tom; opera singer Mario Frangoulis; and actor/activists Tim Robbins and Danny Glover.

    The CD’s final track, “Here and Now” by Mark Erelli, was chosen for inclusion from among 775 original compositions by musicians submitted around the world to the Sonicbids Independent Artist Homelessness Songwriting Contest.



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