Reggae Legends The Wailing Souls Announce Donation Program For the Trench Town
Development Association
Musicblitz to Also Make a Donation Each Time a Wailing Souls Song Is
Downloaded Free of Charge From
www.Musicblitz.com / www.Reggaeblitz.com
LOS ANGELES, July 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Grammy nominated reggae group the
Wailing Souls have announced a donation program, which designates a portion of
the profits from their new album, Equality, to be given to the Trench Town
Development Association. The Wailing Souls have previously given funding to
the organization, dedicated to developing the Jamaican inner-city of Trench
Town through business revitalization and educational programs for its youths.
Wailing Souls members Lloyd "Bread" McDonald and Winston "Pipe" Matthews
came up with the idea shortly after recording their new album in nearby
Kingston, Jamaica. "Our roots run deeply in this community, and we are in a
position to give back something to the people who are our family, our friends
and our fans. The town gave us so much love, kindness and strength while we
were recording Equality, and this is our way of saying thank you. With the
support of our record company, Musicblitz, we decided to give the Trench Town
Development Association a percentage of every album that is sold."
Musicblitz will also make an additional donation each time a Wailing Souls
song is downloaded from their website (www.musicblitz.com /
www.reggaeblitz.com). The songs are available at no charge to users who log
on to the site. In the wake of the spirited debates over downloadable music
and file sharing, the Wailing Souls and Musicblitz have taken the unusual
stance of not only legally offering music to fans at no cost, but go one step
further by making the donation to the Trench Town charity on top of paying the
band a royalty fee with each download. "We wanted to share the joy of the
Wailing Souls and at the same time remind everyone that digital music has
monetary value that can be put towards good causes like the Trench Town
Development Association," said Kevin Nakao, Founder and CEO of Musicblitz.
Michael Smith, Chairman of the Trench Town Development Association added,
"The Wailing Souls are the only musical group, outside of Bob Marley, who left
Trench Town and returned to give something back to their birthplace. The
entire community of Trench Town feels that Pipe and Bread have brought a
renewed sense of life back to the people and give them thanks and praise with
100% backing of all their endeavors."
The group returned to Trench Town in June to present the association with
a joint donation from the band and Musicblitz, and toured Trench Town Culture
Yard, Jamaica's first inner-city heritage tourism project. It was there that
Matthews and McDonald were inspired to work on a plan to provide continued
funding for the organization.
Equality was released on July 11 (Musicblitz/Reggaeblitz Records) and was
the highest-debuting album on industry trade magazine CMJ's New World music
chart. Originally signed to Bob Marley's Tuff Gong Records, the Souls made
history with a series of #1 hit singles in the UK and Jamaica with their
unique musical expansion of the traditional reggae song. The Souls' 1991
major label debut was nominated for a Grammy Award, followed by another one in
1998 for Psychedelic Souls (Pow Wow), as they carved out a place for
themselves in the reggae history books. Prominently featured in the
multi-platinum selling Cool Runnings soundtrack, they are the only reggae band
on the animated feature Titan AE soundtrack (Java/Capitol Records). The band
are currently touring the US.
SOURCE Musicblitz
-0- 07/20/2000
/CONTACT: Jolyn Matsumuro of The Brookes Company, 323-653-4330, for
Musicblitz/
/Web site: reggaeblitz.com
/Web site: musicblitz.com
CO: Musicblitz; Trench Town Development Association
ST: California, New York
IN: ENT
SU:
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