Playing for Change Band Comes to Iowa

Sunday February 19, 2012

From The Des Moines Register

Playing for Change Band Comes to Iowa
By: Michael Morain

The project started simply enough.

A filmmaker aimed his video camera at a blues singer’s rendition of “Stand By Me” on a sidewalk in Santa Monica, Calif. The recording made its way to New Orleans, where another musician harmonized with it for another video.

And it just kept going. Filmmaker Mark Johnson eventually crisscrossed the globe, recording more than 100 musicians singing the same song in parks, on crowded city streets and village squares tucked away in the mountains. Each singer added a new layer, another voice to back up Johnson’s vision of a world connected through music.

The video went viral on YouTube, and many of the musicians eventually gathered for live performances. Their so-called Playing For Change band has appeared twice on “The Tonight Show,” and their album cracked the Top 10 on Billboard magazine’s pop chart.

The group’s current tour swings through Cedar Rapids on Thursday, with New Orleans’ street singer Grandpa Elliott and Stevie Wonder bassist Roger Ridley leading the charge. They’ll have help from, among others, a singer from Suriname and the Netherlands, a drummer and guitarist from South Africa, and a smattering of Americans on harmonica, keyboards and steel guitar.

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Higher Ground	4:46	Playing For Change
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Stand By Me	6:04	Playing For Change

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