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Levon Helm among stars to celebrate Amnesty International in song
The late Levon Helm, Ewan McGregor, Kris Kristofferson, Carly Simon, Marianne Faithfull, Jane Birkin, Rosanne Cash and 43 other acts feature on a new song released by Amnesty International.
Titled Toast to Freedom, the song celebrates Amnesty's 50th anniversary and is being released to mark World Press Freedom Day on Thursday. The initial recording was made at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, New York, before producer Bob Clearmountain sent it to dozens of artists – also including the Blind Boys of Alabama, Donald Fagen, Eric Burdon and Taj Mahal – to add their vocals. It was written by Carl Carlton and Larry Campbell.
...
"We came up with the idea one day in November 2010, sitting in my garden outside Dublin," Shipsey told the Observer on Sunday. "Carl Carlton came to visit me and said he wanted to do something to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International and we came up with the idea of doing a song.
"Carl was good friends with Levon Helm," Shipsey added, "so he asked Levon if we could use his studio to record the song and he kindly agreed. Most of the song was recorded in Levon's studio, then the various artists recorded their vocals in studios around the world."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/may/03/levon-helm-amnesty-international-song?newsfeed=true
Titled Toast to Freedom, the song celebrates Amnesty's 50th anniversary and is being released to mark World Press Freedom Day on Thursday. The initial recording was made at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, New York, before producer Bob Clearmountain sent it to dozens of artists – also including the Blind Boys of Alabama, Donald Fagen, Eric Burdon and Taj Mahal – to add their vocals. It was written by Carl Carlton and Larry Campbell.
...
"We came up with the idea one day in November 2010, sitting in my garden outside Dublin," Shipsey told the Observer on Sunday. "Carl Carlton came to visit me and said he wanted to do something to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International and we came up with the idea of doing a song.
"Carl was good friends with Levon Helm," Shipsey added, "so he asked Levon if we could use his studio to record the song and he kindly agreed. Most of the song was recorded in Levon's studio, then the various artists recorded their vocals in studios around the world."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/may/03/levon-helm-amnesty-international-song?newsfeed=true