It all began when founder Mark Johnson recorded Santa Monica street singer Roger Ridley performing Ben E. King's "Stand By Me," and then went to New Orleans to add harmonies by Grandpa Elliot.
Traveling the world, Ridley recorded and filmed dozens of musicians adding their parts to the song. The result can be seen and heard in the song's video:
Since then, Playing for Change has been everywhere from "World News Tonight" to "The Colbert Report" to "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" and has even spawned a PBS documentary. The videos have garnered tens of millions of views.
The record, "Songs Around the World" has sold more than 115,000 copies and debuted on the Billboard Top 200 chart in the top 10.
The band -- which includes Grandpa Elliot and musicians from around the globe -- is on the road and comes to Milwaukee for a Wednesday, Nov. 4 gig at The Pabst Theater.
Tickets are $35.50 and showtime is 7 p.m.
Some other gigs on tap this week include:
Los Angeles acoustic rocker Joe Firstman -- for a number of year the leader of the house band on NBC's "Last Call with Carson Daly" -- has struck out on his own in advance of the 2010 release of his new CD.
His lengthy tour includes a stop this week at the Art Bar in Riverwest. Firstman plays two sets there on Wednesday, Oct. 28.
Also in town advancing a new record is Forever the Sickest Kids, whose "The Weekend: Friday" CD hits shops Nov. 17. Paris Hilton tweeted about these guys during the summer while the band was on the Vans Warped Tour. You can see 'em here on Friday, Oct. 30 at The Rave.
Also on the bill for The Cheap Date tour are The Rocket Summer, Sing It Loud, Vita and My Favorite Highway. The latter has been getting some notice lately for its disc, "How to Call a Bluff." MTV.com called the band "buzzworthy," iTunes dubbed the group a "next big thing" and AOL's Popeater predicted My Favorite Highway is "about to pop."
New Found Glory -- which needs no introduction -- plays The Rave on Saturday with Now You Have Audio, Title Fight and Fallen from the Sky.
You could also choose to witness the return of a regular visitor to Milwaukee -- Matisyahu -- at The Pabst on Saturday. The reggae-influenced New York singer's latest disc, "Light," debuted in the top 20 of Billboard's Top 200 album chart.
You may say, "who?," but some, apparently, consider Tiësto to be the world's biggest DJ. His fourth disc, "Kaleidoscope," arrived in late July and is only solidifying that position, thanks to duets with the likes of Nelly Furtado, Priscilla Ahn, and Tegan and Sara. If you know him -- or if you want to know more -- he hits The Rave on Sunday, Nov. 1.
Of course these are not all the gigs in Milwaukee this week, so check out the OnMilwaukee.com event calendar.
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.
