For several years I've been a fan of Tremolo, introduced to them by a mutual friend who worked with Justin Dillon, the leader, in another music life.

Justin and the rest of the group have long been committed to the cause of ending modern day slavery, a blight on mankind that too many Americans don't even know about and too many people in the world simply ignore. It is estimated that there are more than 27 million people -- many of them children -- living now in forced slavery.

For the last two years Justin has been working on putting together a concert to help expose this terrible thing, but the concert turned into a movie, and the movie is about to be released. The title of it is Call + Response, and you can see a short clip of it here. On that same site, you can also find a theater where you can go see the movie, which includes performances by or interviews with Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Ashley Judd, Cornel West, Daryl Hannah, Julia Ormond, and many others, including, of course, Justin Dillon.

But knowing Justin, that is only part of the story. His note reads: "We are rolling CALL+RESPONSE out all on our own so that we can give all the profits away to those who are victims of slavery."

In other words, you can help put an end to modern day slavery, and you can help someone who has been a victim of slavery, simply by going to the movies.

Want to do more? Go the betheresponse.com, create an account, then login to see what else you can do.

I can't tell you that this will be the most entertaining film you'll ever see, but I guarantee you it will be told straight and well, and that this is something you should know about.

Thanks, Justin, for your passion, for your good music, and for putting them together to do good!

Labels: ashley judd, call+response, justin dillon, moby, rockumentary, slavery

Yeah, I know, one of the oldest lines in the music biz is, "Don't quit your day job."

These people must assume that indie artists actually have day jobs, and who knows where they'd get an idea like that, but I'm here to tell you that their well-meaning advice is, well, mean.

You want to be an artist, you need to starve a little. Not really, but you have to be hungry for the thing that is important to you. Jesus, who wants our relationship to God to be very important to us, said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness...."

Taking a cue from the Master Teacher, blessed are those indie artists who hunger and thirst after their work, too.

Are you hungry for it?

As the song says, the boys are back in town! And not a moment too soon, from the looks of the music business. Golly!

What's an indie artist to do? Where you gonna turn? Who you gonna run to? Here, of course, where you can get friendly, honest, experienced, objective advice.

And while objective advice is something we often object to, it can be very helpful when you want to know how to get better at doing what you love to do.

Oh, by the way, we don't use our objectivity to crush your dreams or pull the rug out from under you, we use it to build you up, make you stronger, and help you do good. Isn't that why you do music, after all?