R.E.M., the War on Drugs, Angel Olsen, Fleet Foxes and Jason Isbell are among the dozens of artists contributing new, rare or live tracks to the 136-track digital download LP, Cardinals at the Window.
According to the Bandcamp website, all of the proceeds from Cardinals at the Window will be split evenly among Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Rural Organizing and Resilience (ROAR) and BeLoved Asheville.
The project also features new songs from Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, MJ Lenderman, the Go-Betweens, Sharon Van Etten, Little Brother, Sylvan Esso, the Mountain Goats, Hotline TNT, Six Organs of Admittance, Archers of Loaf, Flock of Dimes and Real Estate.
Libby Rodenbough, one of the compilation’s organizers, shared: “In the aftermath of a ‘natural disaster,’ it’s important to situate this manifestation of ecological collapse within a history of inequitable exploitation of land and people. This is a region that has suffered in the name of human progress for a long time. I hope we’re going to take this opportunity to start building a different kind of world in western North Carolina and beyond.”
Added North Carolina music industry veteran Rusty Sutton: “Give what you can. Hug your friends and family. Use our experience to illuminate what, unfortunately, this new future will be like for us all: always on the precipice of climate disaster. It’s a stark, cold reality, and we’ll only get through it together. A friend of mine who stayed behind to spearhead aid efforts in his neighborhood shared these words earlier, and I think they’ll live with me forever: ‘Our terrain wasn’t meant to handle this storm, but our community was built for the aftermath.’”
Cardinals debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Compilation Albums chart, and in the top 10 on both Top Album Sales (No. 5) and Americana/Folk Albums (No. 8).
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