The fourth of December, 2005 was a magical night.
With next to no notice, Michael Iott, also known as Medicine Crow was asked by the Rainbow Emergency Management Assembly (REMA) to set up a benefit show in hopes of aiding remaining relief and clean up efforts in the gulf coast regions destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Calling on his longtime friend and occasional fellow Medicine Crow band member Miko Fossum, he set up a concert at her Lansing, Michigan establishment, Magdelana's Teahouse and started preparations for the event. Looking to his fellow Illegible Records label mates for support, Michael called out a general invitation to his new friends to participate in the show.
One by one, they responded, some enthusiastically - some nervously. Illegible Records founder Eric Blades, for one, had never played out live in his musical career. "After watching practically all of the label's artists jump on board for this," he says, calmly "I didn't feel anything but compelled to perform." The stage at the tea house was warmed by the talents of other Illegible Records artists Nicole Good Pierce, Perry McDonald, Shelby Blades, Ghetto Gas John and Chara Love all sharing their time and talent for charity.
A few hundred dollars were raised but more importantly, a new glow was seen in Lansing that evening...
Videographer Dave Collins, currently assembling material for a Illegible Records documentary, brought out a fleet of cameras to capture everything while Eric brought along a large chunk of his studio equipment to record the night for a double CD to be released August 31st. The artists at the original show will return for a new show in tandem with the album coming out and will be joined by new Illegible members as well.
