Here's all the latest and greatest:

1.  A few weeks ago, in July, we hosted the first annual Deep Roots Music Project workshop and conference at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. The goals of the weeklong workshop were to provide interested educators and social workers from throughout the country with the specific skills and knowledge they'll need in order to establish new Deep Roots sites in their communities.  We also worked to develop strategies to help make the Deep Roots program even better for students and more sustainable for schools and social institutions.

Educators from Oregon, Massachusetts, Washington D.C., and California joined program founder Chris Gragg, and also Portland musicians Sattie Clark, John Henry Bourke, Dave Fleschner, and Madgesdiq, for an intense week of writing, examining song lyrics, and recording music.

The other particiapnts were; Tara Julian (Boston, MA), Dina Varsalone (Boston, MA), Chris Stroffolino (Oakland, CA), Richard Brown (Roosevelt H.S. -Portland, OR), Shannon MCCarl (Reynolds High School - Portland, OR), Nann Alleman (Scapoose H.S. - Oregon), Chuck Laiti (Tigard H.S. - Oregon), Catherine Malinis (Girls Inc. - Portland, OR), Jill Silk (Girls Inc. - Portland, OR), Shyree Mezick (a former Deep Roots student participant who now lives in Washington, D.C.), and Anna York (Franklin H.S. - Portland, OR).

By staying in close correspondence and organizing monthly meetings in Portland, the workshop participants will continue to work together to share Deep Roots with young people throughout America.

2.  The Deep Roots licensing agreement with Rumblefish has finally been completed.  The agreement includes 34 songs from the first eight years of The Deep Roots Music Project. 

Thanks to all of the musicians and lyricists who agreed to participate, and to Portland entertainment lawyer Jeff Brown, as well as Matt P., Whitney, and Paul at Rumblefish, each of whom played an important role in making the deal possible.  We hope to add additional songs to the Rumblefish catalogue in the near future.

3.  Webtrends, a web analytics company based in Portland, Oregon, has given The Deep Roots Music Project a gift of $1,000 to pay for the production of a ten-year anniversary CD.  We're hoping to release the Deep Roots Anthology, featuring favorite songs from each year of Deep Roots, sometime before the holidays.