Artists together with R.E.M., Waxahatchee, and MJ Lenderman have banded collectively for a 135-song compilation of unreleased recordings benefitting Hurricane Helene victims in Western North Carolina. Cardinals on the Window is out right this moment, with funds going to Rural Organizing and Resilience, BeLoved Asheville, and the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina. You should purchase the album for $10 at Bandcamp.
Three North Carolina natives organized the compilation: musician Libby Rodenbough, New Commute founder David Walker, and journalist (and Pitchfork contributor) Grayson Haver Currin. In addition to Lenderman, a number of artists contributed authentic, unreleased songs to the compilation. Amongst them are Sharon Van Etten, the Mountain Goats, Hotline TNT, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Evening Sweats, the Go-Betweens, Sylvan Esso, Lonnie Holley, Geologist, and Actual Property.
Others contributing covers, dwell recordings, and extra embrace Fleet Foxes, Jeff Tweedy (collaborating with Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman), Helado Negro, the Struggle on Medication, Angel Olsen, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Jason Isbell, Feist, Yasmin Williams, Mary Lattimore, William Tyler, Invoice Orcutt, Les Savy Fav, Tyler Childers, the Decemberists, Drive-By Truckers, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and Phish.
Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn and Asheville native Clay Blair offered free audio engineering work for the compilation. The fundraising efforts are operating in tandem with a direct-relief effort launched by members of the North Carolina arts neighborhood.
Organizer Libby Rodenbough, who was on tour with the Lifeless Tongues when the storm hit her residence, mentioned in a press launch, “Within the aftermath of a ‘pure catastrophe,’ it’s vital to situate this manifestation of ecological collapse inside a historical past of inequitable exploitation of land and other people. This can be a area that has suffered within the identify of human progress for a very long time. I hope we’re going to take this chance to start out constructing a special form of world in Western North Carolina and past.”
