"All Along The Watchtower" featuring Warren Haynes - Song Around the World/Playing for Change

 

"I remember having a daydream about the opening acoustic guitar part of 'All Along The Watchtower' ending with a Native American scream and a big native drum on the downbeat. That was the spark to assemble one of our biggest and deepest Songs Around The World. From Beirut to New Orleans to the Lakota Nation, musicians play and sing like a musical army determined to stop suffering and greed all over the world. As a society, we need to get back to our roots and connect deeper with our ancestors and native people in general so we can find the wisdom we need to move forward as a human race. As Jimi Hendrix once said, 'If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.'"

−Mark Johnson, Playing For Change Co-Founder

 

See the previous Song Around the World/Playing for Change videos: The Band's "The Weight" here, Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks" here, Peter Gabriel's "Biko" here, and U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" here.

Learn more about Song Around the World on the Playing For Change website -- and check out all those other videos!

 

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" featuring Daniel Lanois - Song Around the World/Playing for Change

"I have to admit that I'm a soft-hearted sucker for the Playing for Change videos of musicians around the world covering a classic song together. This cover of U2's 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' was released in support of The International Day of the Disappeared, an effort to raise awareness of disappeared peoples (victims of armed conflicts, trafficking, violence, natural disasters, migration) around the world and the loved ones who continue to search for them." [BoingBoing.net]

See the previous Song Around the World/Playing for Change videos: The Band's "The Weight" here, Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks" here, and Peter Gabriel's "Biko" here.

Learn more about Song Around the World on the Playing For Change website -- and check out all those other videos!

 

"Biko" featuring Peter Gabriel - Song Around the World/Playing for Change

"'You can blow out a candle, but you can't blow out a fire. Once the flames begin to catch, the wind will blow it higher.' – Peter Gabriel, 'Biko'

In honor of Black History Month, we are proud to bring the message of Peter Gabriel's 'Biko' back to the forefront, 40 years after its initial release. Inspired by the death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko while in police custody, this song's relevance still holds true with the unfortunate police brutality that continues to take place in the USA, Nigeria and many places around the world. More than 25 musicians from seven countries join Gabriel for this global rendition to share a message of unity, peace, and hope, including Beninese vocalist and activist Angélique Kidjo, Silkroad's Yo-Yo Ma, and bass legend Meshell Ndegeocello.

The eyes of the world are watching... Let each of us lead with love and let that love ripple throughout the universe.

Produced by Sebastian Robertson and Mark Johnson"

See the previous Song Around the World/Playing for Change video for The Band's "The Weight" here and Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks" here.

Learn more about Song Around the World on the Playing For Change website -- and check out all those other videos!

Beton - "Kyiv Calling" (official cover version of "London Calling" by The Clash)

"Beton’s band members, Bohdan Hrynko, Oleg Hula and Andriy Zholob, recorded 'Kyiv Calling' in a studio in Lviv last Thursday and Friday [March 17 & 18]. A video for the track features footage shot by the band’s friends, family, colleagues and volunteers, and captures some of the recent attacks in towns and cities, from Kharkiv to Kyiv.

The musicians are now also playing a part in the war effort. Zholob, the guitarist and vocalist, also works as an orthopaedic doctor, and is treating war victims and soldiers, while Hrynko, the drummer and vocalist, and the bassist and vocalist, Hula, are part of the territorial defence and are ready to join the resistance when called upon. In normal times Hrynko is an architect and Hula the co-owner of a company that supplies sound and lighting kit for concerts and festivals."

Courtesy of The Guardian

Ukraine

Mona Shafer Edwards
February 28, 2022

"When The Levee Breaks" featuring John Paul Jones - Song Around the World/Playing for Change

From Rollingstone.com (February 18, 2022):

John Paul Jones has re-recorded the 1971 Led Zeppelin classic "When The Levee Breaks" with help from 17 musicians from around the globe, including guitarist Derek Trucks, drummer Stephen Perkins, harmonica player Ben Lee, singer Susan Tedeschi, singer Elle Márjá Eira, slide guitarist Keith Secola, and vocalist Mihirangi.

Sebastian Robertson (who also plays guitar on the song) and Mark Johnson produced the video and new version as part of Playing for Change’s Song Around the World initiative. All funds generated from the song will benefit the charity partners of Peace Through Music, including Conservation International, American Rivers, WWF, Reverb and the Playing For Change Foundation.

"When The Levee Breaks" was written by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie two years after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.

See the previous Song Around the World/Playing for Change video for The Band's "The Weight" here.

"Rise Up" and "Stand Up For Something" Featuring Andra Day, Common, and the Cardinal Shehan School Choir