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What better way to show you care during the holidays
than by picking up "Christmas in Detroit,"
a three-CD collection filled with 42 songs from local
musicians and personalities? Sales will benefit homeless
and needy people in the area.
The collection, with original compositions and classic
holiday tunes, features 17 new tracks from the likes
of Stewart Francke,
Devin Scillian, Jeff Daniels and more.
The tracks, which were produced and recorded at Harmonie
Park Music over the past two months, are combined
with the original "Christmas in Detroit"
charity CDs (released in 1992 and 1993) for this year's
package.
Proceeds will support S.A.Y. Detroit, a nonprofit
organization dedicated to programs for the homeless.
It was founded by Free Press columnist and best-selling
author Mitch Albom,
who is also featured on the CD.
"Christmas in Detroit" will be released
Tuesday online at www.ReverbNation.com/ChristmasInDetroit
for $20. It will also be available at more than 100
Biggby Coffee, National Coney Island and Tubby's locations.
A free concert featuring many of the artists is scheduled
for 5 p.m. Dec. 17 at the Renaissance Center's Wintergarden. |
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“Christmas in Detroit” offers holiday
cheer, support for area’s homeless CD features
amazing collection of local musicians
LANSING, Mich. – Detroit’s top celebrities
and musicians are joining together for charity this
holiday season, lending their time and talent to “Christmas
in Detroit,” a holiday CD set benefitting the
homeless and the needy in the Metro-Detroit area.
Christmas in Detroit is a unique 3-CD collection of
42 amazing songs by Detroit artists with recordings
of both original material and classic holiday favorites.
In addition to songs from the first two “Christmas
in Detroit” CDs (1992 and 1993), 17 new tracks
have been recorded by artists and personalities like
Stewart Francke, The Hell Drivers, Devin Scillian,
Jeff Daniels, Larry Lee & Back in the Day, Dave
Edwards and rising stars Molly Hunt & Quentin
Dennard. The new songs were produced and recorded
at Harmonie Park Music by brothers Brian & Mark
Pastoria over the last two months, with Mark mixing
most of the 17 new songs.
“We received overwhelming interest from local
musicians to take part in Christmas in Detroit. Their
generosity is inspiring,” said Brian Pastoria,
co-founder of
Harmonie Park and Christmas in Detroit. “Some
of these artists are household names. Others are soon
to be.”
Proceeds from the CD will support S.A.Y. Detroit,
a nonprofit organization founded by author Mitch Albom
– who also writes and performs on the CD - dedicated
to rebuilding the inner city one life at a time by
funding homeless programs in the area. Christmas in
Detroit will be released December 1 and will be available
to order online at www.ReverbNation.com/ChristmasInDetroit
for $20.00 and for purchase at more than 100 Biggby,
National Coney Island, and Tubby’s locations
in Metro Detroit. “This is who we are in Detroit,”
said Albom. “When there is a need, we pull together.
And with our musical tradition, when we pull together,
something beautiful results.”
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Christmas for me, started in October as the Pastoria
brothers, Brian and Mark embarked on their 3rd Christmas
album to benefit Mitch Albom's SAY Detroit homeless
charity.
Unlike other years when the economy was humming, a
lot of questions loomed big for them.
Could they afford the time and resources to craft
a charity driven holiday record when a burning economy
tells you to conserve energy to stay afloat? After
all, Harmonie Park Studio has been churning out advertising
jingles for 15 years and everybody knows where the
advertising business in Detroit has gone in the last
year.
With auto factories rotting, Detroit has an unemployment
rate of 28%, higher than the Great Depression of the
30's. The school system is an abysmal failure and
the homicide rate is back at "Murder City"
levels. With thousands of abandoned homes, it's streets
look like a well designed back lot on a movie set,
for a post Armageddon disaster. A once great city
that boasted the highest median income in the U.S.
is now thisclose to losing basic services. Are we
dead yet?
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We had the pleasure of
working with Grammy Award winning record producer, Mark
Pastoria, and Pastor Henry Covington who brought in the
choir we incorporated for backing vocals on the "Faith"
recording. Pastor Henry is featured in Mitch Albom's new
book, "Have a Little Faith." The choir was both
inspirational and perfect for this song; they weren't
professional singers, but a group made up of diverse
individuals who in some way or another ran into varying
degrees of hard luck in their lives.
These beautiful individuals, with the help of Pastor
Henry and others, have managed to turn their lives
around for the better. They have gone on to help and
inspire others.
It was during the subsequent recording session to record
this choir of hope that we had the pleasure of enjoying
a break from recording to talk to one of the choir
members. During our conversation about the overall
recording experience, the topic returned to the song
"Faith" and its meaning.
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| It was one of those
moments you can't plan, an event you can't count on.
Rarely do you get to see the things you believe in
actually come to life before you in walking, talking
human form. You don't often get to see those fragile and
ephemeral tenets that guide you, those vaporous words
behind living a life that counts toward something.
I've been lucky enough
to be included in this tremendous project called
Christmas In Detroit, the third installment in the
Brothers Pastoria' musical and spiritual statement about
Detroit. I didn't want to just contribute a re-make of a
Christmas standard, so I asked Brian Pastoria about a
song of mine called "Faith In Faith Itself," which I'd
written but not yet finished recording. There seemed to
be this dimension to the project. Skeleton Crew had
already completed a lovely song called "Faith," and in
these times, we all need to hang on to some kind of
belief in each other, in a turnaround, in our own
economic and spiritual re-invention. Even just remember
to keep believing in belief, which is what my song is
about in part. |
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