I wanted to share a recent project I worked on that I’m really proud of with an awesome client, The Grammy’s! Many award shows are just about that ONE night. The Grammy’s have made an effort the past two years to showcase events leading up to The Grammys that are relevant to those in the music community. This year, I worked with SocialPeople on digital strategy and blogger outreach to promote an invite-only event called Show Me The Green Light: A Conversation About Greening The Music Industry.

Between spending five years in LA (lord I miss that place), working and heavily volunteering in the green space, I had a huge list of names of friends, contacts and peers I wanted to invite to the event. I would have attended myself but I had a previous commitment to be in New Orleans last weekend and hard as I try, I just can’t be in two places at once!

I was thrilled to see so many blogs posts, tweets and status updates about the event. I am really excited when my digital work comes together with my passion for sustainability..and music!

Here’s an excerpt from the official press release:

The Recording Academy will partner with Waste Management — the official recycling partner of The Academy and 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards — to present Show Me The Green Light: A Conversation About Greening The Music Industry as part of GRAMMY Week. The event will focus on the incorporation of a reduce, reuse and recycle philosophy and its emerging presence in an ever-changing industrial climate.

At the celebration of The Recording Academy’s 50 years as the most recognizable brand in music in 2008 — the GRAMMY Awards — the organization set a goal for the next 50 years to have a positive cultural and social impact, with a focus on its environmental impact.

This year The Academy is working to balance its carbon footprint during the production of the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center in Los Angeles For example, we have been balancing our carbon footprint during the production of the GRAMMY Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles through the purchase of solar and wind power, and investing in sustainable energy initiatives through the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, an entrepreneurial nonprofit that creates and markets innovative solutions to energy and water issues.

Waste Management — the official recycling partner of The Recording Academy and 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards — has strengthened The Academy’s green initiatives by providing recycling receptacles at the GRAMMY Celebration, The Academy’s official after-party, which will divert an average of 6 tons of waste from landfills. Additionally, the Natural Resources Defense Council has provided consultation to determine the best greening practices for The Academy, both during the annual GRAMMY Awards and throughout the year.

Made out of recycled plastic water bottles, the GRAMMY red carpet has lived a second, third and fourth life over the course of the last few years. As a result, The Academy has diverted thousands of bottles from landfills (where they would have lived lesser lives, never having touched the soles of music elites).

I like information small and bite-sized and I know most people feel the same. With so much information out there nowadays how are we to find the good stuff? I’m taking a page from Rachael Ray’s Take 5 Ingredients to give you a series I’m calling “Take 5″ but instead of recipes (baby steps people, baby steps) it’s going to include five examples of websites, newsletters, nonprofits, places, people, things (you get the point right lovlies?) that I think rock and get IT right.

This does two things. One, let’s face it, I’m not called “ever-observant” for nothing. I’m always consuming information and it brings me great joy to share what I find. Second, I can’t write posts on each of these things individually – or I could but it would just about break me since there is so much great information to share. So in my quest for stronger and more cohesive content to bring you I’m starting with a topic that I happen to know a lot about. Email newsletters. I get more than the average bear and sorting through them I’m looking for information that tells me something, provides more information about that topic and is designed well (which can be a very simple design, don’t confuse simplicity for lacking in style). I’ll write more at another juncture about what I’ve learned makes a good newsletter, a topic I learned an intense and exhastive amount about this past year running NOLAlicious but until then, let’s start simple.

MY 5 FAVORITE (AND BTW FREE) EMAIL NEWSLETTERS:

1. Startup Digest – Self-designated members of the “email mafia” this newsletter calls itself “the insider’s guide to the startup world.” It is curated by city and provides the best in startup events, what you need to read and jobs at top startups in your city. I subscribe to three editions; New Orleans, New York and Pittsburgh – I could easily find more of interest but these three are a good swatch of what is going on in those cities. Their lists are rapidly growing, they host a pancake breakfast in different markets around the country to meet subscribers and have an awesome blog sharing tips about enewsletters. All around win.

2. Jauntsetter – Every week this enewsletter introduces me to somwhere new I want to go, a hotel to stay at, and a fellow traveller who shares their greatest travel tips and recommandations. They archive and keep everything on their website, but the weekly enewsletter is where it’s at. While aimed at New York travel-lovers, I’ve gotten it practically since they launched and it’s by no means only for New Yorkers. The editors are totally that person you want to sit next to in an airplane and exchange travel stories. Their simple layout helps me with ideas for upcoming trips and this summer when on a whim we ended up in New Paltz without a place to stay, Taylor was looking up places on Google and I went straight to Jauntsetter’s website on my iPhone and found the incredibly affordable and awesome Clove Cottages which was exactly what we were looking for. Curated content beats a google search anyday of the week.

3. Listings Project – This weekly email provides living and workspace for rent, sublet, swap, and sale focused around the arts community of New York and is curated by Stephanie Diamond. What I love about this is the options it provides. It’s like a curated Craigslist and has short and long term options for people looking for a place in New York. From temporary to permanent, art space to brownstone apartment, I browse through and find I’ve learned a lot about neighborhoods, about pricing in different places and it’s just a guilty pleasure to dream about living in one of these awesome places in New York. This enewsletter was recently written up in The New York Times, something that might catapult it past the very grassroots feel it has now, I just hope it keeps the same integrity of listings.

4. The Hired Guns Gig Alerts – The Hired Guns is a recruiting firm that focuses on the digital space. What better way to get the word out about your clients and also increase traffic to your website for job seekers than an enewsletter! The gig alerts are listings of the jobs they have available, networking events and courses they have at The Hired Guns Academy. I like this newsletter first because the copy rocks. Seriously, they write some of the best copy I’ve ever seen. Second, while they don’t say who their client is, it’s very interesting to look and see who might be hiring and what types of jobs are out there. I use this for conversation with friends at agencies and in the digital space and in general to keep me hip about what’s happening. I’m also dying to attend one of their workshops which look awesome (How to get a literary agent for one) and think it’s savvy marketing to combine workshops and a newsletter to an industry where you help place people in companies.

5. New Music Tipsheet – Scott Perry is like the cool rock n’ roll older brother of a friend where you want to break into his room and look at his record collection and dig through his box of concert stubs. New Music Tipsheet gives everyone, from someone like me who is a lifelong music fan to industry insiders, a look at the entire music industry including upcoming releases, TV listings, news, and headlines from today’s top music blogs. I’ll see what’s new, might check it against some of the music blogs, samples a few tracks while I’m working and slowly work my way down the Tipsheet during the week listening to new music and checking out who’s on tour and might be coming to a city near me (since I’m always on the move) and then rinse and repeat the next week. I like that it’s not editorialized, it’s straight information and I can decide for myself what I want to buy and what new artists I want to hear more of.

Well there you have it. A “Take 5″ look at email newsletters in my inbox. Are these new to you? Are you going to sign up for them? What are some of your favorite newsletters? Leave a comment and I’ll look to include feedback I get into an upcoming “Take 5.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

I saw this video originally on my friend Drew’s blog and I was immediately reminded of one dear friend who had a dream to walk across America. And I believe one day he will (to quench his desire for a journey, he biked across America instead).

But when I saw the video on Drew’s blog all clean and shiny – yeah – I mean it’s awesome. Let’s face it. The final version always looks pretty good. It’s the nitty gritty daily grind of life that is hard. And so when I clicked on the Walk Across America YouTube page and then saw the map of where they traveled, I got lost for a few minutes in thoughts of my own journey.

Sometimes it’s clear to me, it’s a Temper Trap song perfecly in sync with my every step.

But often it’s not. It’s messy. It’s undefined. It’s life smack in front of you every day. It’s an internal back and forth to be who I want to be and match who people think I should be or who I think I have to be for people. It’s giving and getting. It’s searching and being utterly lost and becoming found again.

I’m in a battle. And the next steps are shiny, but I can’t quite see them yet through the fog and the early morning haze that layers the horizon and clouds my thoughts. I don’t need a big bright rainbow, but a moment of clarity would be nice. That’s what I’m working towards in my “behind the scenes” version of my own life. Working towards that sparkling nice final copy. I don’t always know where it’s all going but I’ll tell you this, it’s a damn good book to be writing. Thank you for coming along on the journey.

To close, a little something special to leave you with on this Friday morning…

Click here to view the embedded video.

*****

Photo Credit Kris Krug / Static Photography. View more photos from TEDxOil Spill Expedition on Flickr.

As I sit here writing this, up to 100 million gallons of oil has spewed into the gulf and as it continues to do so, it is destroying our fragile ecosystem and people’s livelihoods. We cannot just sit, watch the news and continue to say, “This is horrible!” and, “How could this happen?” without some action to back it up. This problem is our problem now and we need to stand up and help where ever and however we can.

WHO IS HELPING THE GULF COAST REGION?

There are so many groups doing amazing work along the Gulf coastlines.  After days of due diligence and research, our co-producer Sloane Berrent came back to the group with multiple nonprofits to partner with and options but we all narrowed in on the Gulf Restoration Network’s new initiative, Gulf Future, because we all thought it reflected our mission. Support the coastal and fishing communities, restore the marine and costal environments and, maybe most important, make people aware and responsible for what has happened in the Gulf so history does not repeat itself in the future.

HOW ARE WE RAISING MONEY?

Naturally owning The Roxy in Los Angeles, I thought we should throw a benefit concert, but then wondering how to make it really have an impact, it came to me, what if we reached out to our neighbor businesses to see if we could all work together and really take something as simple as a benefit concert and turn it into a wave of action. I then reached out to Casey Phillips, who I knew as a true New Orleans man and someone who had a real “on the ground” pulse of what was happening. Not only was he a native of the area but also the talent buyer for multiple clubs including our own Sunset Strip neighbor, The Viper Room. Casey echoed my same thoughts and went into action immediately bringing in Sloane Berrent and The Roxy’s Megan Jacobs along with a team of people who knew something had to be done now. Three weeks and a couple of thousands emails later, we now have over 50 independent music venues and over 100 bands fighting for the cause.

All the venues will send their gate revenues from these shows directly to Gulf Restoration Network within 72 hours of our shows.  Also, our donation widget send funds directly to the Gulf Restoration Network’s account so we don’t ever touch the donations and they all go directly to the nonprofit partner. We’re making sure it gets into the hands of community groups like Bayou Grace and St. Bernard Community Center within weeks and we’ll be sharing that with those who made donations both online and through attending events through social networks and follow up blog posts with our partners.

WE HAVE VENUES, NOW WE NEED TALENT….

The Roxy, The Viper Room, The Comedy Store and Tipitinas are among dozens of the nations best clubs and music venues that are coming together in solidarity to fundraise for gulf oil spill communities on July, 1st. Plus individuals have planned smaller events to support our efforts across 11 countries, it’s pretty incredible!

This is our call to action as it is for all the bands that our participating in this national one day event and we’ve gotten such incredible talent including:

Rebelution / Galactic / Kaki King / Mickey Avalon / Ben Lee / Guitar Shorty / Iglu & Hartly / Ivan Neville / Cisco & Shwayze / Walter Wolfman Washington  / Sarah Borges / Coco Robicheaux / Beardo / Wicker / Lost Bayou Ramblers / Rotary Downs / Daryl Hannah / Dave Faustino/ Ed Begley Jr

Although I’m unsatisfied with the clean up and the support that the fisherman have received so far, I am inspired to know that all over the world people are signing up and either giving their time and effort or donating money to make a difference in the spill zone. That gives me great hope that when we look to our neighbors, no matter how close or far away they may be, we will always come together to help the ones in need, that is what our great country is best at. What we have put together is only the beginning of a long line of projects that others will continue to do until every drop of oil is cleaned up, every bird and fish healthy and every person who has been directly affected by this has been compensated. We can only accept yelling at the TV after we have done something to make difference so please get involved anyway you can. The time is now!

This is the beginning of a blog post that I am seeing coming flying into my google alerts and into my inbox. It’s the start of a groundswell for tomorrow night’s Gulf Coast Benefit concerts.

Current stand is 60 Meetups, about 45 which are music venues and the rest are awareness get-togethers. It’s grown to 5 countries too (shout out to the Montreal and Paris contingent in particular)! 100% of online donations and the ticket price at venues is going to Gulf Restoration Network. Those who know me, know that I look to inspire others to find ways to give back and this benefit series is speaking to the passionate resolve we all have to help others in times of need.

How can you get involved? Make a donation, whatever amount you can give. Every dollar counts. Then, how about asking 5 friends to match you? Send an email or post to your Facebook wall and say something like:

I just donated $10 to support Gulf Benefit Concerts, will you match my donation?

You can attend. Full listing of venues is on the Meetup Everywhere page.

You can blog about the events. This takes our message to your fans, supporters and friends. A blog post goes a long way! An article in your local paper helps tell more people about what we’re up to. To give you inspiration, here are links to some of the most recent press we’ve gotten. (And huge thanks to everyone below).

• Antiquiet Interview with Co-organizer Casey Phillips:
  

  New Orleans has been in a fight for survival for the past decade. In terms of the deep musical spirit of the area, what’s the general atmosphere among local artists in relation to this crisis?
  
  The strength of the NOLA musical community is a force that some may have doubted before Katrina, but few question anymore. They have lead by example these past 5 years by refusing to let our musical heritage disappear. To me they represent pillars of strength for others to draw inspiration from. The cajun culture of the bayou regions is as important to Louisiana’s heritage as jelly-roll jazz. Right now the future for the fishing communities looks bleak, however, but I can say with certainty that the cajuns are proud people, and the backbone of Louisiana – we will not let them down.

• Live Earth
  

  “We know through music and the generosity of people that we can help make a difference in the Gulf Coast.” Adler says. “We hope this inspires others to make a donation, attend an event and get involved.”

• Fayetteville Flyer

Mountain of Venus, Matt Stell & the Crashers, Bent Grass Green, Black Pearl, Tiffany Christopher and Sarah Hughes will play the show on Thursday at George’s. The suggested donation is $10, and 100% off the door from the show will be donated to the cause.

“We tried to book a diverse group of music, from different genres to try and get all kinds of folks to come out,” said Mountain of Venus’s Tanya Shylock, one of the organizers of the local benefit at George’s.

• Surfer Mag
  

  Rebelution sells out nearly EVERY venue they play in southern California, so this is bound to be a fantastic event!

• Fusicology
  

  Many of our fellow Americans in the foreseeable future will have no livelihood, they’re preparing to leave their homes, and are now lining up for food handouts. The wetlands and wildlife are in desperate need of our attention now and can’t wait for BP to start the clean up process. With hurricane season on the horizon there is reason for great concern and it’s crucial the affected communities be prepared for the worst.

Hoping for much more press, good will, donations and attendance to come. And if you want to get involved, what are you waiting for? Do it! And let me know how I can help.

Update: Full Press List for Gulf Coast Benefits:

• Mashable
• CNN iReport
• Huffington Post
• Huffington Post: The Skinny
• Case Foundation’s Social Citizens
• LAist
• What Gives
• Socialbrite
• Antiquiet
• Live Earth
• Fayetteville Flyer
• Surfer Mag
• Fusicology
• Washington Post Online
• Guide to Portsmouth, New Hampshire
• NOLA.com
• The Gambit
• Paisley Petunia
• Taylor Davidson

Radio/TV

• KROQ Radio
• WWOZ New Orleans Music Show with George Ingmire
• WWL appearance July 1st

What to help and GET INVOLVED? Read more or skip to the get involved part!

Along with Nic Adler, owner of The Roxy on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, CA; Megan Jacobs of The Roxy, Casey Phillips, talent buyer for venues including Tipitina’s in New Orleans and Viper Room & The Mint in Los Angeles, and a terrific support team, we have over 25 venues on board nationally to support this effort with 100% of proceeds going DIRECTLY to the Gulf Restoration Network (@healthygulf on Twitter) and their community-based effort called Gulf Future.

Daryl Hannah, Dave Faustino, Ed Begley Jr., Rebelution, Nicky Avalon and venues like The Roxy, Viper Room, Spaceland, The Echo, The Mint, Fais Do Do, The Comedy Store, Tipitina’s, Press Room and more are involved have enlisted their efforts to help! Volunteers in each city and music industry heavy-hitters are jumping in. Now it’s YOUR TURN!

Is it ambitious to gather music venues around the country to donate ticket sales on July 1st and create an online giving platform that encourages donations to the relief efforts? You betcha. But the people, wildlife and wetlands affected need our support and we’ve combined efforts and networks to make this successful and meaningful for those in the Gulf Coast.

Revenues from ticket sales will be donated to help the fishermen and their families along the Gulf Coast cope with this disaster and aid wildlife and wetlands restoration for the Gulf Coast. Over 25 venues have been confirmed and more are being added every day. Artists performing include national as well as local acts across the US.

“We know through music and the generosity of people that we can help make a difference in the Gulf Coast.” Adler says. “We hope this inspires others to make a donation, attend an event and get involved.”

The wetlands and wildlife are in desperate need of our attention now and we can’t wait for BP to take care of those in need. Many of our fellow Americans will have no livelihood, are preparing to leave their homes and are now lining up for food handouts. With hurricane season on the horizon, there is reason for great concern and it’s crucial the affected communities be prepared for the worst.

What YOU can do!
1) Make a donation! We’re using a WhatGives donation widget where 100% of donations go to Gulf Restoration Network. GRN is distributing the funds directly to community groups after July 1st. You can also put this donation widget on YOUR site!

2) Attend one of the 25+ shows around the country on July 1st! The venue lineup is almost complete. The website and Meetup Everywhere widget are being updated daily. Or go DIRECTLY to the venue’s website and buy tickets. Invite your friends. Have them buy tickets. 100% of proceeds from the door are being donated. Venues from LA to Kansas City and Portsmouth to Aspen are participating. Don’t see a venue in your city? Plan an event of your own on Meetup Everywhere or make a straight donation!

3) Follow @gulfbenefit on Twitter and friend us on Facebook. Put our Twibbon on your Facebook and Twitter profile!

Stay involved! Post the following message:

#RockTheSpill with @GulfBenefit on July 1st at a venue near you! http://bit.ly/gulfbenefit #oilspill #gulf #bp

4) Blog about it! Email your friends! Tell your press and PR contacts that this is an awesome story to cover. You can use copy from our online press release or from this blog post. Every little bit helps.

5) Join the Google Group! We’re creating conversation about what people can do to help – yes for these concerts but beyond this as well. Join TODAY and enter our conversation about more ways to help.

There is a lot of work to be done between now and July 1st. I’m tireless and fearless when it comes to lending a hand and helping others. Are you? Questions, comments, feedback – I welcome them all!

Email me at sloane@thecausemopolitan.com or contact me via Twitter through @sloane.

To a better tomorrow than we have today,
Sloane

Ok Go couldn’t have said it better as I work to get over my growing pains. This Too Shall Pass. But what I take away even more than the name of the song is this kick ass video above. Ready for this? My friends (including The Freshness) over at Mindshare, with their Labs division now called Synn Labs made it.

What’s more is the story that developed last week when OK Go left their label, EMI, in a dispute over how to dispense and share their new video with their fans. You remember their first viral video “Here It Goes Again” on the treadmills? 50 million views! EMI, not getting any revenue from youTube and struggling to find ways to reinvent the music industry decided not to allow the next video to be embedded. Which means you can only watch it on YouTube. THAT defeats the purpose of what a viral video needs to do. It needs to be spread and put on blogs and shown around the web. It’s meant to be shared.

OK Go got this, and the fans want it, but EMI said no. And so in a bold and brave move, OK Go has left their label and announced that they’re starting their own.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Damian Kulash, the lead singer of OK Go wrote an op-ed for The New York Times, “WhoseTube” where he talked about the embed issues with his label and the art of the viral video. A quote from his piece is below:

Embedded videos — those hosted by YouTube but streamed on blogs and other Web sites — don’t generate any revenue for record companies, so EMI disabled the embedding feature. Now we can’t post the YouTube versions of our videos on our own site, nor can our fans post them on theirs. If you want to watch them, you have to do so on YouTube.

But this isn’t how the Internet works. Viral content doesn’t spread just from primary sources like YouTube or Flickr. Blogs, Web sites and video aggregators serve as cultural curators, daily collecting the items that will interest their audiences the most. By ignoring the power of these tastemakers, our record company is cutting off its nose to spite its face.

The numbers are shocking: When EMI disabled the embedding feature, views of our treadmill video dropped 90 percent, from about 10,000 per day to just over 1,000. Our last royalty statement from the label, which covered six months of streams, shows a whopping $27.77 credit to our account.

As I’ve been following this story, I also caught a video of my friend Shira Lazar interviewing Damian Kulash for CBS News Online, here is the interview:

I’ve loved OK Go’s music for years, first seeing them at The Roxy in Los Angeles in 2005 (before the treadmill video) when Damian jumped onto an amp and sung a song at the top of his lungs without a microphone. I thought “that’s an artist” and they don’t make them like that anymore. I love them all the more – not for sticking it to the man – but for sticking up for what they believe in, questioning the status quo, but doing it in a way that makes you think without having to make you mad. It’s a real argument going on across digital media industries, how to monetize, how to make sense of what’s going on in the convergence between new and traditional ways of sharing content. It’s a debate that’s been alive for years, but as we see from this recent incarnation of artist vs. label, the final word is still very much uncertain.

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Three Exciting Announcements
The Causemopolitan’s First Birthday

LA Tech in 2009

Well friends, SXSW is here! It’s hard to believe a year has gone by since the last one. Before I move forward talking about all the goodness and goodies in store for this year, I thought I would first highlight my posts from last year’s SXSW. You know, reflecting back before I move forward. Here we go.

SXSW Core Conversation: How LA Has Built A Sucessful Tech Community

Los Angeles has become a hub for tech startups with new ones popping up every day. Relationships are being formed and VCs are paying attention. Universities are showcasing developer opportunities unique to the city. So how did this happen? Welcome to networking 2.0. From Lunch 2.0 to Interactive Community Coalitions, BarCamp to Twiistup, LA is a great case study of how to build a successful tech community in your city. Join the organizers of the city’s most popular networking events for tips, advice, the how to’s and what-not-to-do’s to make your city’s community pop.

SXSW Fan Girl

Life just doesn’t really get much better than those 9 days in Austin each year when your mind is blown, your heart is full and your feet ache from exploration.

The Cause-Filled Life: A Socialbrite Interview

Click here to view the embedded video.

Five Tips on How to Rawk SXSW Music

3) PROXIMITY

Proximity from one venue to the next is HUGE. Next year I’d like to think I’ll scoot out to Scoot Inn, Continental Club, Playboy Party, Fader Fort…but the truth is, I can’t guarantee that. I’m not going to sacrifice hours to get to a party too far away from the main strip. Even La Zona Rosa becomes a trek by the last day. The pedi-cabs are awesome and if my friends had bikes we could roll that way too. Be aware of where each place is you want to go. Some days I created an almost circle going from one place to the next.

Music Monday: The SXSW Edition

Click here to view the embedded video.

And then shortly thereafter…

• My Love Letter to New Orleans
• Come Hear Me Speak @Net2NO Tonight

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Joining the Social Media Revolution
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“Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you’ve never been hurt and live like it’s heaven on Earth.” – Mark Twain

I captured the video above while at The Saint, a truly terrific dive bar in the Lower Garden District, on the final stop of an epic New Year’s Eve here in New Orleans with my friends. And while yes, at the time, I was really amused with the carefree way this guy was dancing after many many libations, when I got home and was looking at videos the next day, I couldn’t help but think…carefree or not, drunk or sober, aware of your surroundings or totally oblivious there is something to be said for living in the moment. Because moments come and go, and we are always looking back and remembering or looking forward and anticipating but if I can take one piece of 2009 with me into 2010 it will be this: Live in the moment.

Oh, and dance more myself.

You can see more of my videos by subscribing to my YouTube page here.

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Vote for Derek Tabb - CNN Hero of the Year!

Roots of Music are marching forth to help their teacher, Derrick Tabb, become the next CNN Hero of the Year! Vote NOW, voting closes 6AM so do it NOW!

A native New Orleanian and snare drummer for popular Rebirth Brass Band, Derrick Tabb and friend, Alison Rheinheart, created New Orleans’ only non-profit music program that provides free instruments, music education, supplementary tutoring, hot meals and transportation to more than 100 at-risk youth.

I was fortunate enough to meet them both this past spring when I was in New Orleans and volunteer for Roots of Music. I’ve been a big fan ever since and am really excited to see this incredibly organization getting the national recognition it deserves.

The Roots of Music program instills structure and discipline in its program participants, 85 percent of which have seen grade increases of at least one letter grade in at least one class. To date, the Roots of Music program has more than 400 children waiting to join the program.

“The students of the Root of Music have been working incredibly hard to help their mentor win,” says Allison Reinhardt, Co-Founder and Program Director of the Roots of Music. “Over the past few weeks, they have been going out to music venues, conferences, local colleges, and coffee shops all over the city, handing out flyers and asking people to vote for Derrick.”

“Voting for Derrick is really voting for the kids of the Roots of Music,” says Reinhardt. “I see it in their eyes everyday; these kids are the real heroes.”

Voting ends at 6:00 a.m. EST, November 19. Selected as a finalist out of more than 9,000 nominees, Derrick Tabb and the Roots of Music program could win a much-needed $100,000 if he wins the prestigious CNN Hero of the Year award. Find out on Thanksgiving, 9 pm EST, if Derrick will become the next CNN Hero of the Year.

For more information:
Learn more about Roots of Music including how they will spend the $100,000.
See photos from their performance at Voodoo Fest 2009

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