On January 12, 2010, I was in my home studio recording a demo of my song “Calling All The Saints” when the news broke out about the Haiti Earthquake – this is what led me to immediately release my demo recording of the song and dedicate it to the people of Haiti who were left to deal with the most devastating earthquake to strike in over 200 years!
I still find it hard to comprehend that an estimated 300,000 people were killed and more than 1.5 million were left without homes – that’s pretty much the size of the whole population of the state of South Australia where I come from!
You can’t help but feel kind of helpless in these situations. It feels like there’s not much you can do other than donate to a credible organization that has the resources in place to actively help on the ground and make a difference – which is what most of us did around the world, and because of that there has been much progress made.
“Calling All The Saints” was initially released as a free download to anyone who made a pledge to donate to the American Red Cross (who also provided the images that were used in the video). Then in 2013, the song was re-released as part of Reverb Nation’s “Music For Good” initiative where it became the number one most downloaded song with proceeds supporting Oxfam America’s ongoing work in Haiti.