NEW ORLEANS, LA – Last week, two benefit concerts raised over $6,000 for Sweet Home New Orleans — a coalition of non-profit organizations that helps find affordable housing and provides rental assistance for the city’s musicians — and Big Easy music legend Al “Carnival Time†Johnson. The concerts were the culmination of FMC and ATC’s annual Artist Activism Camp, which brings together established and emerging artists to discuss best practices for artist advocacy. For two days prior to the concerts, the benefits’ performers toured New Orleans, visiting the Ninth Ward and hearing from some of the city’s musicians about the efforts to revitalize their music community.
On February 2, Bonerama and OK Go will meet for another benefit, this time at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club. The show is in support of You’re Not Alone, a digital EP the two bands put together after OK Go spent the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina recording with the New Orleans funk-soul band deep in the city’s Upper 9th Ward. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the EP — available exclusively at iTunes — will benefit Al Johnson and other members of New Orleans’ music community who are still struggling to rebuild their homes and their lives in the wake of Katrina. read more