Singer/songwriter/producer Mike Zito has teamed up with Nick Moss to raise money for out of work Blues musicians who find themselves in severe financial hardship as a result of all of their tours getting cancelled because of the coronavirus.
The project that they have set up is called Paying The Blues Forward – all artists involved will record a song and make it available to the public for FREE. In exchange, they ask for everyone’s support because every small contribution helps.
Mike posts regular updates on their GoFundMe page and lists the artists who have received money, and who has signed up to receive the next amount raised, he hopes to give each band $1,000 to help feed their families. If you can spare a few dollars then they’d be extremely grateful.
This is also the first track from Mike Zito’s quarantine-recorded album Quarantine Blues – he has been in total lockdown and self-isolation for 14 days now following a cancelled tour and he wrote and recorded this during those days to help support his own band members and their families. The GoFundMe link to directly help Mike Zito and band is here.
“This recording will not be available via distribution, or on iTunes or Amazon, it will only be available through my website for download or cd. Every dollar you give to this project will go directly to myself and my band members: Matt Johnson, Doug Byrkit and Lewis Stephens. It is solely to offset the loss of our current tour and make creative use of our quarantine. This process will begin Monday, March 16th and be completed on March 30th for your listening pleasure. I will post live videos of the process and let you share in the experience. We will offer some very special opportunities for those who can give more and give this music to the world in return. We know it’s crazy right now and we don’t feel right begging for your assistance when those in more need may require help. So we wanted to offer you something special for your support. Something that is real and right now. We are musicians and that’s what we do, we create and perform music, so we will make music for you and anything in return will be much appreciated. God bless and please be safe!” said Mike.
The following statement is from Mike & Nicks GoFundMe page…
Many of my musician friends are out of work during this pandemic. Not just a little out of work, completely out of work.
Not everyone is comfortable asking for assistance or maybe tech-savvy to do online shows or streaming. This is all VERY new to everyone.
I started a “Quarantine Blues” recording project to help feed my family and truly help my band members who were coming home with nothing after a large cancelled tour. The band and I have committed 10 original songs available for FREE to the world and in return, we were given much-needed support from our fans and the Blues community.
Now, we are extending this campaign to our large Blues community.
We are asking artists that are in need of assistance to contribute a song for this project and in return we are going to try and raise $1000 each for the artist and their band members. We feel this is a time of need,
but we want to give back with what we do best – music.
We have a list of musicians and bands that are in serious need right now and they are each going to contribute new music to the project.
We will announce an artist and band in need and once the amount of money has been reached, we will then announce a new artist and band…and so on.
PLEASE if you are a working, professional Blues genre musician that is out of work and in need and would be interested – please contact Mike Zito or Nick Moss to get on the list.
PLEASE if you can share – share what you can – if you cannot share financially, please share the campaign with your family and friends.
We are hopeful that the end result here will be hours of new and wonderful music that can help us all come closer and ease some
anxiety and give a little hope.
Sincerely,
Mike Zito and Nick Moss
The GoFundMe page link for Blues musicians is here.
The GoFundMe link to directly help Mike Zito and band is here.
