Listen to the Music Playing for Change

• 1Listen to the Music04:17
• 2Everlasting Arms04:40
• 3All Along the Watchtower04:18
• 4Natural Mystic / Just a Little Bit04:18
• 5Skin Deep05:13
• 6Chan Chan04:06
• 7Africa Mokili Mobimba05:21
• 8Ahoulaguine Akaline03:47
• 9Rasta Children04:08
• 10Congo to the Mississippi04:27
• 11Bring It on Home to Me03:42
• 12Ripple04:22
• Total Runtime52:39

Info for Listen to the Music

Listen to the Music is our fourth Songs Around The World album and showcases 12 new classic songs, all recorded live outside with a mobile recording studio in 25 countries. The album features performances from over 200 musicians including The Doobie Brothers, Buddy Guy, Warren Haynes, Dr. John, Tom Morello, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and more.

In music as in life, the things that make us different make us stronger. All the various instruments, tones, perspectives, and cultures in this recording combine to create a new version of this classic Song Around The World.

The idea was born a few years ago during breakfast at the Byron Bay Bluesfest in Australia. Our friend and drummer, Peter Bunetta, introduced me to Tom Johnston of The Doobie Brothers and we talked about taking "Listen to the Music" around the world. We started the track with an acoustic guitar demo played to a click track and then added bass from Colombia, tablas and veena from India, and then headed to the Redwood Forest in Northern California to record and film Tom Johnston live outside. We then recorded and filmed Patrick Simmons and John McFee playing along to the track in a park in San Diego. The journey then continued throughout North and South America, Europe, The Middle East, Asia, and Africa. This final version features 30 musicians from 12 countries united through their love of music.

Playing For Change Foundation
grew out of a common belief that music has the power to connect people regardless of their differences. Founded in 2007, PFCF was established to create positive change through music and arts education. Our work engages marginalized youth in diverse communities around the world, primarily located in low and lower-middle income countries. These communities are home to great cultural wealth, which we use to create educational and social opportunities.

We currently operate 17 music programs in 13 countries, and have positively impacted more than 40,000 lives since 2007, including more than 3,000 youth through regular programming in 2019. We employ more than 200 staff, teachers, and community leaders locally across program locations, including: Mali, Morocco, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. Each program serves anywhere from 50 - 900 children. PFCF was honored to be named a Polar Music Prize winner in 2019.

Changing the world through music requires localized knowledge, outreach, and vision. Our programs are organized to combat systematic social and economic disparity, as well as disparity intensified by crisis. Across many PFCF communities, our programming serves as the only access point to cultural and creative educational activities. These activities drive youth, community, and gender development, cultural preservation, social cohesion, and the promotion of social identities regardless of ethnicity, caste, class, and economic statuses.

We identify strong local leaders, primarily cultural actors, and empower them with the resources and strategies to drive positive change in their communities. This includes providing financial support, leadership development and human resource support, material capacity development, networking, educational resources and curriculum development, operational guidance, and emergency support, among other strategic factors. Local leadership is in the best position to determine how to realize this approach through programming.

Science has shown that learning music benefits people on many different levels. From enhancing cognitive capacities for children, teens and adults to helping memory, literacy, creativity, self confidence and collaboration skills, the power of music has already been demonstrated by hundreds of scientific studies.

One of our main goals is to provide the communities we serve the opportunity for economic and social development, through the educational and artistic activities that we develop. In order to foster sustainability, both locally and globally, we strive to establish valuable partnerships and collaborate with other organizations.

Our work also extends beyond music and arts education as we support essential needs for the communities we serve by providing emergency supplies, medical care or humanitarian support.

Booklet for Listen to the Music