Merchant, Springsteen And Bon Jovi Fight Homelessness On Benefit Album

Wednesday September 12, 2007 @ 06:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Natalie Merchant and friends

Natalie Merchant, Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen are among the artists included on Give Us Your Poor, a benefit album set for release on Sept. 25 through Appleseed Recordings to aid various homeless programs across the U.S.

The album, produced by Merchant over a three-day period last September, partners well-known musicians with those who are or have previously been homeless. Demo recordings from around the U.S. were collected, with Merchant selecting finalists from a batch of 50 original songs. Of the 19 tracks on the album, 16 are previously unreleased. The record also includes spoken-word pieces by actors Danny Glover and Tim Robbins.

"Something that's been phenomenal about doing this session is that the musicians didn't really know each other," says Merchant. "We didn't know the song, we didn't know the arrangement, we didn't know what direction we were going in, and I would say probably half the people involved never stepped in a recording studio before."

The process was filmed for an upcoming documentary, but an eight-minute excerpt can be found on Merchant's website.

Here are the tracks on Give Us Your Poor:

• Jon Bon Jovi and Mighty Sam McClain — "Show Me The Way"
• Keb' Mo' and Eagle Park Slim — "Baby Don't Let Me Go Homeless"
• Natalie Merchant & Friends — "There Is No Good Reason"
• Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger — "Hobo's Lullaby"
• Sonya Mitchell — "So Lonely"
• Michelle Shocked and Michael Sullivan — "Becky's Tune"
• Bonnie Raitt and Weepin' Willie Robinson — "Walking The Dog"
• Danny Glover — "My Name Is Not ‘Those People'"
• Madeleine Peyroux — "I Think It's Going To Rain Today"
• Del Goldfarb and John Sebastian — "Portable Man"
• Dan Zanes and Kyla Middleton — "Boll Weevil"
• Buffalo Tom — "Ink Falling (Father Outside)"
• Sweet Honey In The Rock — "Stranger Blues"
• Jewel — "1,000,000 Miles Away"
• Tim Robbins — "Impossible Boulevard"
• Mario Frangoulis — "Feels Like Home"
• Danny Glover — "When We Left Minneapolis"
• Mark Erelli — "Here And Now"

—Jason MacNeil