Last November I told you about the kids from MPS' Hayes Bilingual School, 2431 S. 10th St., who wrote and recorded a song in a Downtown Milwaukee recording studio with visiting Philadelphia rock band The Great Unknown.
The ASCAP Songwriter Residency @ America SCORES project that paired the band with local kids around the country, including here, took place during the group's U.S. tour, and was sponsored by America SCORES and ASCAP music publishing company.
Spending a couple days with the kids here, The Great Unknown then brought those kids to Tanner Monagle Studio to record their collaboration, "The Ballad of David Hayes Hammer."
Now, that track, along with other such collaboration recorded with kids in Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Boston and New York City, are on the band's latest CD, "Other Voices, Other Rooms."
"We believe these kids have important voices that need to be heard and we wanted to tell them that," said The Great Unknown's Todd Henkin.
"With all of the cuts in arts programs at schools across the country we felt it was great timing to get involved. These songs, and the work and excitement these kids readily offered us, is proof of how important it is for them to have this kind of creative outlet. We had an incredibly enriching experience with the kids in each community."
The disc will be released on July 19 and buyers can name their own price, but know that all online sales benefit the ASCAP Songwriter Residency @ America SCORES program, so it's fine to err on the side of overpaying rather than underpaying.
You can hear the Hayes' kids track at the link above. Another song, "Decomposers and Producers," is available for download here.
Pre-order the CD at The Great Unknown's website.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
