MJ Lenderman, R.E.M., Waxahatchee, and Dozens More Contribute to North Carolina Benefit Compilation: Listen

Artists including R.E.M., Waxahatchee, and MJ Lenderman have banded together for a 135-song compilation of unreleased recordings benefitting Hurricane Helene victims in Western North Carolina. Cardinals at the Window is out today, with funds going to Rural Organizing and Resilience, BeLoved Asheville, and the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina. You can buy the album for $10 at Bandcamp.

Three North Carolina natives organized the compilation: musician Libby Rodenbough, New Commute founder David Walker, and journalist (and Pitchfork contributor) Grayson Haver Currin. As well as Lenderman, several artists contributed original, unreleased songs to the compilation. Among them are Sharon Van Etten, the Mountain Goats, Hotline TNT, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, the Go-Betweens, Sylvan Esso, Lonnie Holley, Geologist, and Real Estate.

Others contributing covers, live recordings, and more include Fleet Foxes, Jeff Tweedy (collaborating with Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman), Helado Negro, the War on Drugs, Angel Olsen, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Jason Isbell, Feist, Yasmin Williams, Mary Lattimore, William Tyler, Bill Orcutt, Les Savy Fav, Tyler Childers, the Decemberists, Drive-By Truckers, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and Phish.

Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn and Asheville native Clay Blair provided free audio engineering work for the compilation. The fundraising efforts are running in tandem with a direct-relief effort launched by members of the North Carolina arts community.

Organizer Libby Rodenbough, who was on tour with the Dead Tongues when the storm hit her home, said in a press release, “In the aftermath of a ‘natural disaster,’ it’s important to situate this manifestation of ecological collapse within a history of inequitable exploitation of land and people. This is a region that has suffered in the name of human progress for a long time. I hope we’re going to take this opportunity to start building a different kind of world in Western North Carolina and beyond.”