Give US Your Poor

Bruce Springsteen (Performer), Madeleine Peyroux (Performer), Pete Seeger (Performer), Dan Zanes (Performer), Jon Bon Jovi (Performer), Buffalo Tom (Performer), Mario Frangoulis (Performer), Danny Glover (Performer), Jewel (Performer), Sonya Kitchell (Performer), Natalie Merchant (Performer), Mighty Sam McClain (Performer), Keb' Mo' (Performer), Bonnie Raitt (Performer), Tim Robbins (Performer), John Sebastian (Performer), Michelle Shocked (Performer), Sweet Honey in the Rock (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 25, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Appleseed Records
• ASIN: B000U1ZJ1E
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,133 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This compilation that spans genres and generations shines its spotlight on homelessness, showing that the problem remains as pervasive as ever, though it has been supplanted by other crises as the issue du jour. In collaboration with the Give Us Your Poor organization at the University of Massachusetts Boston, the Appleseed folk label has paired artists like Jon Bon Jovi with the down-home soul of Mighty Sam McClain, Bruce Springsteen with Pete Seeger (the seminal influence on Springsteen's recent Seeger Sessions) and Michelle Shocked with Michael Sullivan, her longtime friend and a formerly homeless Vietnam vet. Natalie Merchant, Bonnie Raitt, and Dan Zanes are among the other artists who team with singers who are or have been homeless, while actors Danny Glover and Tim Robbins provide spoken-word testimony. The songs of Randy Newman inspire very different treatments, with Madeleine Peyroux investing "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" with a piano-ballad intimacy, and Mario Frangoulis giving "Feels Like Home" an operatic grandeur. With the essays and extensive annotation accompanying these recordings, almost all of them previously unreleased, no one who encounters this package is likely to remain unmoved. --Don McLeese

Product Description

Part of a national fund- and awareness-raising campaign, this terrific CD contains songs mostly about the plight of the homeless. With the exception of two songs, the tracks are all-new and previously unreleased. Give US Your Poor artfully teams celebrity artists with homeless or previosly indigent musicians. Some of the songs were even written by homeless people. Featured artists include Jon Bon Jovi, Natalie Merchant, Michelle Shocked, Bonnie Raitt, Danny Glover, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Jewel, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, Madeleine Peyroux, Keb' Mo' and more.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Give Them Your Support October 5, 2007

By Soulboogiealex

Format:Audio CD

Give Us Your Poor is an album which proceeds go to the direct benefit of the homeless. That noble cause alone could be reason enough to reason enough to but this wonderful CD. If that's not enough than the music on this CD will be. Jim Musselman from the folk label Appleseed has managed to interest some legendary blues men and folkies for this project and got them to team up with some impressive names. Most notably Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen. The first teams up with the Migty Sam McClain on the first Bon Jovi recording that really touched me, the second does a duet with the legendary activist and musician Peete Seeger on Hobo's Lullaby. Bonnie Rait and Keb' Mo' are among the other notable contributers.

Intersected with the songs are the stories of the homeless. Real people explaining how they became homeless or the stories of homeless told by famous actors as Tim Robbins, painting a picture of the dilemma that is as complex as the reality out there. Shocking stories of families, working men and children who live out on the streets of America were set to music. These stories are as captivating as the songs duets on this album.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? - The Real Story Of Homelessness In Song May 7, 2010

By Alfred Johnson

Format:Audio CD

Sure, I have been homeless. Oh, not the desperate, day in, day out, year in, year old homelessness that drives the stories in this compilation of musical and storytelling artistic efforts to get people who are not homeless, have never been homeless, and hope never to be homeless to pay attention. And not just walk away, around, or over the problem. I have been homeless enough though , and in dire enough straits at times to have a pretty good sense that the streets are not for dreaming, or for living in, and are definitely to be avoided at all costs. Those are mean streets out there, brothers and sisters. And asking for the occasional spare change, spare cigarette, spare anything is just the tip of the iceberg.

But, hell, let some real folks tell the story. And that is what they do here, interspersed with some celebrity performances, by some people that Appleseed Records (and U/Mass-Boston) has been fortunate enough to garner in and who, in their own ways, give a damn. Especially give a listen to "Land of 10,000 Homeless" -Minnesota" and the story that brother has to tell and Danny Glover's recitation of "My Name Is Not "Those People"'. For those who are moved by celebrity, listen to Bonnie Raitt and Weepin' Willie Robinson on "Walking The Dog" and Sweet Honey In The Rock on "Stranger Blues". And for those who want to get mist eyed about the romance of the road- hobo style, at least vicariously, give a listen to Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger on a song made famous (although not written by) Woody Guthrie, "Hobo's Lullaby".

Let me finish with this little thought. I grew up dirt-poor and it was a long time before I knew, for real, that there was some other condition. One of the virtues, and maybe the only one, of being poor is that the vicissitudes, the ups and downs, of the world economy kind of pass me by, personally. However, I have elected, and rightly so, to fight so that poor is a word that is placed in the archives of human history through the struggle for our communist future where being homeless will be merely a relic of a barbaric age. But just in case, I will keep myself in shape. Brother (sister), can you spare a dime?

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars revealing and moving portrait of the homeless December 17, 2007

By Barbara Jackson VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Since most Americans consider themselves only two paychecks from sharing the plight of these people , you would think that the problem would garner more attention from local and state offices. This album makes the homeless real, attaching faces and voices to a reality too often ignored. The music is also very well done.