Where do I start?

It's been more than a year since the Deep Roots blog was last updated. That certainly doesn't mean that there hasn't been plenty to report.

I'll begin with some sad news. Reynolds High School, where the Deep Roots Music Project first sprouted, has had to discontinue their Deep Roots program after 11 years. The Reynolds School District has been dealing with severe budget issues even before the recent national recession. The current economic conditions simply made it impossible for the program to continue at its original school. We hope that Deep Roots at Reynolds will be revived someday soon. A big thanks to Shannon McCarl and Zeke Goodrick and everyone else who helped keep the program going during the past several years.

Now, the good news:

Thanks to the hard work of Deep Roots facilitators like Richard Brown and Jill Silk, The Deep Roots Music Project continues to bring student writers and local musicians together in creative collaboration at Roosevelt High School and Girls Inc. in Portland, Oregon.

Roosevelt's new Deep Roots CD, their third, was completed in May, and combines ten great new songs with beautiful student artwork and photography. This year's Roosevelt Deep Roots CD is the first to focus on a unifying theme. The student writers spent the entire year studying the American Civil Rights Movement, and even traveled as a group to Alabama and Georgia on a Civil Rights tour.

Girls Inc.'s CD came out in May also, and it has ten new songs too. Liv Warfield, Morgan Grace, Kate Mann, Breanna Paletta, and several others compose the musical cast for that one.

Within the next week, we'll have both new CDs available through our on-line retailer, www.cdbaby.com, and we'll let you know when those are available.

This is going to be a critical year for Deep Roots. The recession has hit many non-profit entities hard, and Deep Roots has not dodged that reality. In order to keep things going at Roosevelt and Reynolds, we'll need new sponsors to step forward, and we'll need your support.

That's all for now. Remember, the best way to support The Deep Roots Music Project is to purchase a Deep Roots CD. Our 10-year Deep Roots Anthology is available for $10 at http://cdbaby.com/cd/deeproots11 

Thanks!