The Contribution (Tim Carbone, Phil Ferlino, Jeff Miller) Release 3rd Single to Benefit HeadCount

The Contribution Release New Music Throughout 2017
Singles to be released for seven months, with 100% of proceeds going to nonprofits
Rex Foundation, Conscious Alliance, HeadCount, Rock the Earth, The Delaware Riverkeeper Network, BCEF (Breast Cancer Emergency Fund in SF Bay area), and Piedmont Land Conservatory

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The Contribution has been living up to their name and giving back, they released their third single from their Wilderness And Space project April 21, benefiting HeadCount. Listen to the Exclusive Stream Premiere of “Passengers of Darkness” at Live For Live Music.

Since this February, The Contribution has been releasing one single a month, as sort of a mid-month pick-me-up, partnering with a variety of nonprofits to which 100% of the profits from each single (sold as a digital download) go to a charity (hand-picked by members of the band) in perpetuity.

The Contribution is the brainchild of Tim Carbone of Railroad Earth (violin, guitar, vocals) together with Phil Ferlino (keyboards, vocals) and Jeff Miller (guitar, vocals) of New Monsoon. Keith Moseley (String Cheese Incident), has been the bass player from the band’s inception along with vocalist Sheryl Renee (The Black Swan Singers). The drum chair has been occupied by Jason Hann (String Cheese Incident), Matt Butler (Everyone Orchestra), and currently Duane Trucks (Widespread Panic). Both Matt Butler and Duane Trucks appear on the band’s new record, Wilderness And Space. Although the band is comprised of some of the scene’s heavy hitters, the first listen to their music reveals their love of 60s pop and soul coupled with their ability to flat-out shred. The full ten song album will be released on vinyl this Fall on LoHi Records.

Tim Carbone tells Shows I Go To about how the nonprofits were selected, “I put it to the band at large. What do you feel strongly about? Matt Butler said we should go for the Rex Foundation. Keith wanted Conscious Alliance, who I have also worked with before. Phil suggested Rock the Earth. I thought we would go with HeadCount because I am politically motivated. They don’t choose sides, they just encourage people to register to vote. When you don’t vote, bad things happen. I think we found that out.”

Tim says, “I wrote the words to ‘This Too Shall Pass’ for our guitar player Jeff after his mother passed away from breast cancer.” He says they did some searching and found BCEF, a Breast Cancer Emergency Fund in SF Bay area, to pair up with that song. LoHi Records labelmate, Jim Brooks, suggested Piedmont Land Conservatory as he has held events to raise money for them in the past to preserve natural and scenic lands, farms, and open spaces in Piedmont North Carolina. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network is located nearby where Carbone is from and they do wonderful work in protecting the waterways, including the drinking water of nearly 17 Million people, throughout the entire Delaware River Watershed which includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and New York.

The Contribution. Photo by Erin Mills

The newest single release “Passengers of Darkness” explores trauma suffered in a relationship, with two people confronting challenges to their love and trust. Carbone says, “It could also be a metaphor [in retrospect] for the trauma some people are feeling over our recent presidential election. The lack of transparency and trust in an election, as well as a relationship, can be destructive and almost always leads to chaos.”

How fitting to pair the song up with HeadCount, an organization that works with musicians to promote participation in democracy. HeadCount is best known for registering voters at concerts – having signed up 450,000 voters since its launch in 2004 – and for the Participation Row social action villages at concerts and festivals which have raised over $1 million for various nonprofit organizations.

“The Contribution is a brilliant concept and we were honored when Tim asked HeadCount to participate. Seeing Tim and The Contribution elevate and amplify the voices of so many incredible organizations is a real example of how music can change the world,” says Andy Bernstein, HeadCount’s Executive Director.

The first single “Back This Way” came out in February with proceeds going to Rex Foundation. Created in 1983 by the Grateful Dead and Family, Rex Foundation aims to help secure a healthy environment, promote individuality in the arts, provide support to critical and necessary social services, assist others less fortunate than ourselves, protect the rights of indigenous people and ensure their cultural survival, build a stronger community, and educate children and adults everywhere. Rex Foundation has granted $8.9 million to over 1,200 recipients.

“For more than 30 years, the Rex Foundation has funded organizations most people might never have heard of, but all of whom do meaningful work that we find important. I believe that these same groups need all of us now more than ever, and I doubt there could be any better way to celebrate their work than by coming together with songs in the air and spirits held high,” says Rex Foundation Executive Director Cameron Sears.

March’s release unveiled “The Great Boot” to benefit Conscious Alliance. Live Music News and Review’s Miles Hurley spoke with Conscious Alliance’s Executive Director Justin Levy about their work to help solve the hunger crisis in America since 2002. He writes, “… one of the organization’s really successful efforts in the music world has been Art That Feeds, a project that has touring bands’ artists creating posters and other art that fans can donate food to purchase. As Justin tell us, it’s the fan bases that are a fundamental part of the organization’s mission. “People do want to contribute, people do want to give back locally. It’s about making it easy and accessible, and effective for folks,” he says.

“The idea,” Justin explains, “is to engage people in the middle of their good time, and provide them an outlet to give back locally in each city where the music plays. Tim Carbone has been a huge supporter of Conscious Alliance for many years,” Justin says. “[He] reached out to us as they were getting ready to launch, and said ‘We love Conscious Alliance, and we’d love to continue the support through this program.’”

Hurley says “The Great Boot” is “a doozy of a track, echoing both the epicness of something like ‘Terrapin Station,’ and the folky, rich tones of a Railroad Earth tune. The last few minutes launches the song into a powerful climax, fronted by some inspired fiddle playing from band leader Tim Carbone.”

“It’s a pretty special collaboration and we’re very lucky and honored to be involved,” says Levy.

Hurley writes, “Purchasing a wicked cool new track, and getting to contribute to an amazing cause while doing so? It’s a definite win-win all around.”

All songs written and produced by Tim Carbone, Phil Ferlino, and Jeff Miller. The songs from Wilderness And Space were recorded mainly at Silo Sound Studio in Denver, Colorado and engineered by Todd Dival with additional recordings at TRI Studios in San Rafael, California (engineered by Rick Vargas).

Carbone says, “We feel blessed to be able to make this music and have it help people in need… and we would like to empower those who share our passion and provide a resource for them to take action with us.”

Wilderness And Space Singles

2/17 — “Back This Way” benefits Rex Foundation
Listen to the Exclusive Stream Premiere at Relix Magazine

3/17 — “The Great Boot” benefits Conscious Alliance
Listen to the Exclusive Stream Premiere at Shows I Go To

4/21 — “Passengers Of Darkness” benefits HeadCount
Listen to the Exclusive Stream Premiere at Live For Live Music  

Further Release Dates:
5/19 — “Ain’t No Sin” – Rock the Earth
6/16 — “Dream Out In The Rain” – The Delaware Riverkeeper Network
7/21 —  “This Too Shall Pass” – BCEF (Bay Area Breast Cancer Emergency Fund)
8/18 — “Wilderness And Space” – Piedmont Land Conservatory

Music available to buy here → www.cdbaby.com/Artist/TheContribution

For more information, please visit www.TheContribution.net, www.facebook.com/TheContribution, www.twitter.com/thecontribution, and www.instagram.com/thecontribution.

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Grateful and Unforgettable: Lockn’ 2015 in Review. Words By Kirby Farineau; Photos by Milo Farineau

Grateful and Unforgettable: Lockn’ 2015 in Review.
Words By Kirby Farineau; Photos by Milo Farineau

Stepping up the grassy hill to attend the third annual Lockn’ Music Festival, attendees were greeted with the sight of the event in all its grandeur. Fields of tents, cars, and RVs stretched into the distance far from the dazzling Oakridge stage. Held inside the Oakridge farm racetrack, Lockn’ provides a wide open space for its many thousands of attendees. Based on previous year’s success, the setup for year three is mostly unchanged, providing a great structure to explore the festival grounds and enjoy the music from almost anywhere.

One cannot discuss this year’s festivities without mentioning the unfortunate and literal rain on the parade. Due to an intense storm system on Wednesday, there was enough damage to the festival stage, vendor tents, and campgrounds that impaired their ability to safely run on its scheduled opening day. To the dismay of many, the festival shut all Thursday events down, turning attendees away to the many impromptu pop-up shantytowns in campgrounds and parking lots around the state. Some of the acts were lost, as Thursday was the only day they could play (Little Feat, Galactic, etc.), but Lockn’ was quick to remedy the situation, taking action to create a condensed schedule of music for the remainder of the weekend, making the best of the time and musical talents they had to work with.

Seeing as that first Friday fell on the important but somber date of 9/11, the festival did their best to honor the occasion in a way that didn’t dwell on the tragedy. John Popper of Blues Traveler took the stage first to deliver the national anthem, surrounded by a group of first responders from the attack on the Twin Towers underneath a big star spangled banner waving for everyone to see. After a few moments to reflect, the swaths of festival attendees bunched up towards the stage were finally greeted with the sounds of The Doobie Incident, a respective combination of classic rock band The Doobie Brothers, and The String Cheese Incident, who played classics from the Doobie’s career but with some added instrumentation from String Cheese. The rest of the first day’s acts followed in a seamless succession, as bands like Seth Stainback and Roosterfoot, Moonalice, and the North Mississippi Allstars all provided rocking, roots, and bluesy sets before New Orleans singer songwriter Anders Osborne and his band brought their original style of heavy funk/blues rock to the stage.

Steve Earle and The Dukes, with his deep southern tones and their unique country style provided a chance for audience members to gather themselves, and prepare for a torrential outpouring of musical experiences that evening which surpassed the literal storm from the days before. The String Cheese Incident revisited the stage to deliver their own set, followed closely by a performance from the always varying Phil and Friends, this time featuring the fantastic vocal stylings of Lockn’ veteran, Chris Robinson, who took the stage singing classic Grateful Dead tunes in front of Phil Lesh, himself. This was the first of many performances that emphasized one of the greatest elements of Lockn’: collaboration. The cooperative efforts of veteran musicians across genres made for some historical and downright crazy performances throughout the rest of the weekend.

The night ended with back- to-back powerhouse celebrations of music history: The 50 year anniversary of Jefferson Airplane, and a tribute to the late Joe Cocker. The first performance featured Jack and Jorma of Hot Tuna fame, alongside Rachael Price of Lake Street Dive, and drummer Bill Kreutzmann, followed by an unforgettable show simply dubbed Mad Dogs and Englishmen. There’s something magical about seeing Susan Tedeschi, Leon Russell, and Chris Robinson all on the same stage alongside Cocker’s old backup singers like Rita Coolidge which created an image and a sound that attendees will not soon forget.  Closing up with late night performances from Mickey Hart and Umphrey’s McGee, Friday came to a very rousing and very late conclusion.

Things ramped up early on Saturday kicking things off with one of the Rockn’ to Lockn’ contest winners, local country band Lord Nelson, followed by the always entertaining 80’s cover bluegrass group Love Canon.  Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe teamed up with keyboardist Chuck Leavell to deliver a remarkable performance of soulful horn-heavy rock before Hot Tuna once more took the stage, this time playing a sit down acoustic set of their own music and introspective conversation, allowing audience members a little period of relaxation. More great sets that afternoon with the Tedeschi Trucks Band, who somehow get better with every performance. The soulful duo of quiet guitarist Derek Trucks alongside wife Susan Tedeschi, a woman who could sing the roof off a stadium, was soon joined by Grateful Dead legend Bob Weir for a few tunes. The appearance of Weir enamored audience members with another brilliant aspect of Lockn’: The Legacy of the Grateful Dead.

Ever since the grand reunion show in Chicago, speculation about the Grateful Dead at Lockn’ gripped the hopes of Deadheads everywhere. For many who were unable to attend that “last show” at Soldier’s Field, it seems that Lockn’ was a possible opportunity to see the four members in some capacity. Ever since Lockn’ organizers Dave Fry and Pete Shapiro announced that all four members were going to be there, the hearts and minds of fans everywhere were racing.

Before that was to be seen, we got musical legend Robert Plant with the Sensational Space Shifters , followed shortly by what at this point seems to be a Lockn’ tradition of Widespread Panic collaborating with a classic musician, in this case Jimmy Cliff.

Then came a show from Billy and The Kids, which may be the closest to the real lineup people may ever get, with Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart all performing on the Oak Stage, while Phil Lesh set up for his show on the Ridge Stage adjoining (but not accompanying). For a very brief moment in time, from the audience, one could at least see all four members of the Grateful Dead together, in some capacity on stage together.

The second Phil and Friends show was as interesting as the first, featuring two different but masterful guitarists Warren Haynes and Carlos Santana. Saturday finished with another late night performance from Mickey Hart, and an appearance of Govt Mule.

Sunday waved goodbye to the thousands of festival-goers, but not without a few more stunning performances. Richmond reps and Rockn’ to Lockn’ winners, The Southern Belles , followed by Fishbone, The Oh Hellos, and a hip shaking performance by St. Paul and The Broken Bones. Save for performances from Trombone Shorty and Slightly Stoopid, the last evening was comprised of artists (Widespread Panic, Gov’t Mule, and Robert Plant) who had  played previously, but played additional sets in different configurations, proving that more is sometimes better.

It seems that with each successive and successful year, Lockn’ has become one of the biggest and most unforgettable festivals in Virginia. Through the efforts of vendors, volunteers, and staff, Lockn’ managed to overcome significant environmental challenges and not only compensated but turned obstacle into accomplishment by providing collaborative combinations into experiences unlikely to ever be forgotten by event participants.

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Help Leftover Salmon Webcast ‘The Nashville Sessions’ Live From The Ryman on Sept 15th

Help Leftover Salmon Webcast ‘The Nashville Sessions’
Live From The Ryman on Sept 15th 

Pledge to Celebrate 15 Years Of The Nashville Sessions Live at the Ryman Auditorium.
Help Bring the Live Webcast of this Special Evening Into Your Home!

LEFTOVER SALMON
JOHN BELL ● SAM BUSH ● JEFF COFFIN ● ELIZABETH COOK ● JOHN COWAN ● COL. BRUCE HAMPTON ● JEFF HANNA ● TAJ MAHAL ● TODD PARK MOHR ● BILL PAYNE ● RANDY SCRUGGS ● JO-EL SONNIER ● SALLY VAN METER ● REESE WYNANS

To Find Out More and Pledge: http://bit.ly/LoSNashSess

Bring 15 Years Of The Nashville Sessions Live From The Ryman To Your Home. Help bring this historic night of live music to living rooms around the world! With your help, this one-of-kind concert experience could be webcast live from the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. There are some exclusive items being offered to those who pledge. Our good friends at Music City Roots will be bringing their A-team along with full HD production to capture the night! By pledging, you could help make this live HD webcast a reality. In addition Leftover Salmon will be donating a portion of the funds raised to the Americana Music Association!

Celebrating 15 years of The Nashville Sessions Live At The Ryman Auditorium! On September 15th, Leftover Salmon will assemble an all-star cast which includes John Bell (of Widespread Panic), Sam Bush, Taj Mahal, Bill Payne (of Little Feat), Jeff Coffin (of Dave Matthews Band), Elizabeth Cook, and many more amazing musicians! 15 years ago LoS was joined in the studio by many of these musicians to record their most treasured album to date, The Nashville Sessions. Years later, they are excited to recreate this album in a live setting. Many music fans out there won’t be able to join in on this special evening in Nashville. This is why the band wants to bring the show to you!

At the Ryman, Leftover Salmon will also be releasing The Nashville Sessions [1999] on vinyl for the first time. A limited pressing of 1000 copies will only be available for purchase at the Ryman or by pledging. This double vinyl set includes a special track featuring Col. Bruce Hampton, which has been aging in the vault for the past 15 years!

You can be the first to download “Bluegrass Pines,” one of the new songs off Leftover Salmon’s forthcoming studio album for a pledge of $5. This track was written by Bill Payne of Little Feat and Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. Be the first to hear it!

Please join Leftover Salmon in helping make this webcast a reality. If the goal is reached, this unique performance will be broadcasted to the world. So, pick up one of these great offerings, and mark your calendar for a special night of entertainment on Monday, September 15th right from the living room for your home!

Vince Herman shares his thought on The Nashville Sessions:
Recording The Nashville  Sessions was like a musical fantasy island for us. We’d have Earl Scruggs come in the morning, Taj Mahal in the afternoon and Waylon Jennings the next day. We were loving it. It’s still dreamlike thinking about it years later. I sure treasure having had the chance to play with such iconic figures, especially those who have passed on, including our brother Mark Vann. I’m going to savor the chance to make music with the great cast of characters assembled at the Ryman that night. Life is short. Art is long. –Vince Herman

Thank you for supporting Leftover Salmon for the past 25 years!

For more information and complete tour dates for LoS, please visit and www.LeftoverSalmon.com. To find out more about the Ryman and the event, please visit www.Ryman.com.

Leftover Salmon with Bill Payne of Little Feat. Photo by Tobin Voggesser.

 

 

 

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