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• Playing for change is a project that aims to inspire and connect people around the world to work for peace through music. Film maker Mark Johnson had a stroke of genius back in 2005 when he saw an old man playing Stand By Me on a Santa Monica steet corner. He came back the next day with a camera and a recording unit and filmed the man singing and playing. Then he took the tapes around the country and around the world and had other street musicians jam along. The result was a truly remakable piece of music and a very inspiring film. Since then, Mr. Johnson has traveled around and had street performers jam on other songs, such as Bob Marley’s, One World. He has produced two award winning documentaries and established the Playing For Change Foundation, which funds music education and refugee programs around the world. I saw Mark Johnson on Bill Moyers Journal a couple months ago, and it is one of the coolest things I have ever seen on television. It’s just an incredibly inspiring story.

  I have played on the streets from time to time myself, and I have always been a fan of street musicians. I was lucky enough to see the great Ted Hawkins on the street in Venice just before he was rediscovered, and I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for cats who have the dedication to their art to make a living on such a dificult path.

  Check out their website here: http:://www.playingforchange.com

  See the Bill Moyers story HERE

  And view a youtube video HERE

  Peace!

  EZFolk contributor Archie Logsdon is a gigging songwriter from California’s Souther Sierra region who performs as Lost Hills…

  Lost Hills on EZFolk

  Lost Hills at Myspace

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Original song performed at Mama Hillybeans Coffee And Community in Tehahachapi, California, on 11/28/08..

A few years ago, when I lived on the back side of Mount Palomar, I had both of my vehicles broken down in two different places, and I was hitch-hiking back and forth through the back country trying to get one of them running so that I could get to work on Monday. It was a long wait between cars at times, and I had lots of time to think about things. I began to realize that we are all on the same journey, and that our individual journies all have the same destination.

peace