Billboard’s annual list of top green singers always catches headlines. Topping their recent charts of performers who offset their carbon footprint, donate to environmental charities, and drive around in biofueled vehicles are, not shockingly, Jack Johnson, John Legend, Willie Nelson, Cake, Feist, and Radiohead. To that list, we’d like to add a few artists you may not have heard of – yet.
Singer-songwriter Alyssa released a soulful new album, Within, in 2008, whose folksy tracks express reverence and worry for the natural world. Her CD’s jacket is recycled and plastic-free.
Feliciano dos Santos, the front man of Mozambique’s Massukos, sings lively Afro-pop in a language called Nyanja. He won the 2008 Goldman Environmental Prize in recognition of his advocacy for clean water.
Jenny Morgan’s album of children’s music, Nature Needs Kids and Kids Need Nature, includes songs with lyrics extolling the joys of being outdoors; one upbeat tune is called “Leave No Child Inside.”
The acoustic guitar pieces of Mike Zampi incorporate nature sounds like crickets and rolling thunder, are inspired by years of hiking the U.S. national parks, and are sold at many NPS gift stores.
Country crooner Adrienne Young has a down-home musical style and a passion for sustainable agriculture that runs so deep that her debut CD, Plow to the End of the Row, included a packet of seeds. Her music is abundant with farming references, her Web site links to the local-food organizations with whom she partners, and she’s often found performing at planting festivals and nature symposiums.
If alternative rock is more your speed, check out the gravelly, dark-but-vulnerable sounds of Hypnogaja, whose songs "Lucy" and "Kill the Humans" are about environmentalism. Their newest album, Truth Decay, is themed around an apocalyptic end of the Earth.
--Avital Binshtock
Don't forget Neko Case.
Posted by: Charen | July 15, 2009 at 09:59 AM
Be sure that "Cloud Cult", a fantastic Minneapolis indie rock group, is added to your list of vocal environmentalists!
Posted by: Margery | July 15, 2009 at 12:59 PM
How about the Dixie Chicks?
Posted by: Marilyn Escobar | July 16, 2009 at 10:59 PM
How about Ani Difranco? I know that Babeville, her recording studio/performance hall, was designed with eco-features, such as a geothermal heating system. And her indie record label, Righteous Babe Records, seems to produce CDs packaged in environmentally-conscious ways.
Posted by: runrgrl | July 17, 2009 at 11:53 AM