[Album artwork courtesy of James Madison Mitchell]

By Julia Weber, Editorial Director

Musicians spanning all areas of the independent landscape have teamed up to compile a benefit album aiming to raise funds for flood recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Cardinals At The Window is out today via Bandcamp and features 136 tracks with a total runtime of 10 hours. Some of the artists on the release include R.E.M., Tyler Childers, Waxahatchee, Jason Isbell, Jeff Tweedy, Karly Hartzman, MJ Lenderman and Phish, among many others.

According to the Bandcamp listing, 100% of proceeds from the release support Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Rural Organizing and Resilience and BeLoved Asheville.

Rusty Sutton, Manager and Tour Director for The Glow Management, wrote in the album description that his family has lived in the affected community for multiple generations and he sees this release as a way of supporting people on the ground doing impactful restoration work.

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“Give what you can,” Sutton wrote. “Hug your friends and family. Use our experience to illuminate what, unfortunately, this new future will be like for us all: always on the precipice of climate disaster. It’s a stark, cold reality, and we’ll only get through it together.”

“A friend of mine who stayed behind to spearhead aid efforts in his neighborhood shared these words earlier, and I think they’ll live with me forever: ‘Our terrain wasn’t meant to handle this storm, but our community was built for the aftermath,’” Sutton added.

While artists from many places contributed to this project, many involved have direct connections to Asheville, North Carolina, a community known for its strong art presence that was hit hard by the hurricane.

Indigo De Souza, an Asheville-based artist whose home was severely damaged in the hurricane, is one of many contributors. In a post to her Instagram story, she wrote: “Please consider buying these amazing songs from many many amazing folks who contributed.”

Eric Slick, another contributor, wrote in an Instagram post: “i lived in Asheville for one year, but the friends i made there and the creative life it gave me will last a lifetime.”