A while back I shot some PR photos for my friend Kevin Moyer. Some years ago Kevin was waiting outside a show for friends, when a street musician caught his ear. Kevin remembers that “He was better than the band we had just seen and all of these ‘music fans’ were leaving the show with their $20 t-shirt merch purchases tucked under their arms and not paying any attention to this guy playing at their feet for free.”
The chance encounter inspired Kevin to go into his attic studio to create Live From Nowhere Near You, a compilation album featuring collaboration between Kevin, street musicians, and artists such as Spoon, Members of Pearl Jam, Stars, Gus Van Sant, Five Fingers of Funk, and more. All of the proceeds from the album benefitted Outside In, who help homeless youth receive the medical and other health services they need.
As if that weren’t ambitious enough, now Kevin has come out with volume two of the series. It is a sprawling three disk set that features previously unreleased tracks from Bright Eyes, The Helio Sequence, Britt Daniel of Spoon, James Mercer of the Shins, Eddie Vedder, Corin Tucker, The Strokes, Daniel Johnston, Modest Mouse, The Dandy Warhols, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Wilco, members of Pink Martini and much much more.
Probably the coolest story about the album is that it contains an unreleased Elliott Smith track, titled The Real Estate. Kevin went to high school with Smith, and he and Larry Crane, the owner of Jackpot recording studio, happened to come across the lost song while Kevin was visiting his studio. If you’re an Elliott Smith fan this makes the album a must as it is the only place you can find this song.
You can buy the album here. Volume one is available here, and if you want to like them on facebook you can do that here. If you want to listen before you buy, Under The Radar magazine is streaming it here. You should check it out.
