My Morning Jacket Members, Sam Bush, Will Oldham & More Share ‘Lift Up Louisville’ Single

Jim James and Patrick Hallahan of My Morning Jacket, Sam Bush, Will Oldham (Bonnie “Prince” Billy) and several other members of the Louisville music community shared a new single entitled “Lift Up Louisville.” The collaborative project was led by Louisville Orchestra conductor Teddy Abrams who was asked by Mayor Greg Fischer to take part in the city’s Lift Up Lou initiative in response to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 29 sheltering-in-place musicians participated in creating “Lift Up Louisville,” which was produced by Kevin Ratterman and issued by the Louisville-based label sonaBLAST! Records. The song was constructed from a piano track Abrams created that the other musicians recorded additional parts for, which were then combined by co-producer Ben Sollee. The lyrics were written by James, Oldham, Scott Carney of Wax Fang and .

“This is a document of this time,” Abrams told PBS. “We are all experiencing this, obviously, simultaneously as a world. And I think we’ve always looked to our artists to put down the markers that we then use to understand history. And if we can represent the city in some way and say, ‘here’s how Louisville dealt with it and here’s what we were thinking at this time,’ then, that will have been its important accomplishment.”

Also performing on the track were Michael Cleveland, Danny Kiely, Carly Johnson, Jason Clayborn, Sharron Sales, Dani Markham, Daniel Martin Moore, Cheyenne Marie Mize, Scott T. Smith, Rayul Beatbox, Brigid Kaelin, Gabriel Lefkowitz, Julia Noone, Kathy Karr, Matthew Karr, Andre Levine and Jacob Duncan, among others. Proceeds from the sale of “Lift Up Louisville” will go to the One Louisville: COVID-19 Response Fund. Watch the video and listen to the single here: