David Cassidy on the Web
Cassidy sing-along to help Kosovo kids
May 19, 1999
www.lasvegassun.com
Thursday night Las Vegas residents will have a chance to make a record with David Cassidy in John Lennon's bus and help children in Kosovo.
Is this a great town or what?
"You don't have to be a good singer. That doesn't matter," said Sue Shifrin-Cassidy, David's wife and creator of the event. "It's a show of care."
The Cassidys arranged for the John Lennon Foundation's bus -- a regular rolling recording studio -- to travel to the Mirage, where the annual EAT'M music showcase for emerging bands is happening.
At midnight, they will commence a recording session in which residents will sing "Message to the World," a song co-written by the Cassidys.
The Las Vegas couple wrote the song a long time ago but never did anything with it, Shifrin-Cassidy said. They wanted to use it to raise money for War Child, a charity that benefits children in war-torn Kosovo. But they didn't know how to go about it.
Then Shifrin-Cassidy spotted the Lennon bus during an event in New York City's Central Park last week. She figured with the mobile recording studio, they could record people singing across the country.
It's like a chain letter to music. She calls the project "Voices Across America."
"We're making it up as we go along," Shifrin-Cassidy said. "People can come out and invent it with us."
After Las Vegas, the bus goes to California then heads East, stopping in towns along the way to add voices. The recording should be finished by the time the bus reaches its destination at Woodstock.
People can hear the latest version on the Internet by plugging into www.eat.m.com. The lyrics are there too, although copies will be available at the Mirage Thursday.
Shifrin-Cassidy said she hopes to line up bands to record songs so "Voices Across America" can be a full-length CD when it's released sometime in June. All proceeds will go to War Child.
"It's a huge dream and vision, and the only way it's going to happen is if people come out and sing," Shifrin-Cassidy said.
