Gavin Friday and Howie B on Allen Ginsberg tribute album

Gavin Friday and Howie B have recorded the song “Death on All Fronts (America is Falling)” for the Allen Ginsberg Tribute album The Fall of America, A 50th Anniversary Musical Tribute.

A benefit for HeadCount.Org, the album is dedicated to Hal Willner. Musically Interpreting poems from Ginsberg’s The Fall of America: Poems of these States 1965-1971, the idea behind the project dates from early 2020. The album’s co-organisers Jesse Goodman and Peter Hale say:

“We started probing around and asking Allen’s musician and artist friends how they’d feel about interpreting (them), many of which don’t easily lend themselves to song. Once we had enough people on board, the plan was to approach Hal Willner, the one man most knowledgeable of Allen’s audio archive and recording history, to help produce it.”

Hal Willner passed away in 2020, but Goodman and Hale pushed ahead.

“While there is no way we could even come close to the genius he would bring to a project, we can at least hope to try.”

TO BE RELEASED ON ALLEN GINSBERG RECORDINGS February 5, 2021, DIGITAL and June 4, 2021 on CD & LP

All proceeds from the album’s release will benefit Headcount, which promotes voter registration and participation in democracy through the power of music.

Pre-order the album here.

Digital Track Listing:
1) Scanner – Elegy for Neal Cassidy
2) Handsome Family – Hiway Poesy Painted Desert into Albuquerque
3) Shintaro Sakamoto – Manhattan Thirties Flash
4) Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo – Hum Bom
5) Aliah Rosenthal – War Profit Litany
6) Ed Sanders (The Fugs) – Memory Gardens
7) Mickey Hart – Drones Du Jour (First Party at Ken Kesey’s with Hell’s Angels)
8) ethereal_interface – An Open Window on Chicago
9) Howie B with Gavin Friday – Death on All Fronts (America is Falling)
10) Disco Pusher – A Prophecy
11) Kaya Project – Wales Visitation
12) Angelique Kidjo – Uluru Song
13) Bill Frisell – Over Laramie
14) Andrew Bird – Easter Sunday
15) Devendra Banhart – Milarepa Taste
16) Yo La Tengo – Bayonne into NYC
17) The Good Ones (Rwanda) – Falling Asleep in America
18) Steven Taylor – Continuation of a Long Poem in These States
19) Lang Lee – Pain on All Fronts
20) Social Animals – Falling Asleep In America (Roses Smell Sweet)

Vinyl track listing
Side A:
1) Scanner – Elegy for Neal Cassidy
2) Shintaro Sakamoto – Manhattan Thirties Flash
3) Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo – Hum Bom
4) Ed Sanders (The Fugs) – Memory Gardens
5) Mickey Hart – Drones Du Jour (First Party at Ken Kesey’s)
6) Howie B with Gavin Friday – Death on All Fronts (America is Falling)
7) Disco Pusher – A Prophecy
Side B:
1) Angelique Kidjo – Uluru Song
2) Bill Frisell – Over Laramie
3) Andrew Bird – Easter Sunday
4) Devendra Banhart – Milarepa Taste
5) Yo La Tengo – Bayonne into NYC
6) Lang Lee – Pain on All Fronts
Bonus download: Youth – Iron Horse (An Epic 32 Minute Auditory Journey)