Every year, right around Thanksgiving, Nashville singer-songwriter, Tim Easton releases a benefit song to raise awareness and funds for THE SOUTHERN ALLIANCE FOR PEOPLE & ANIMAL WELFARE, aka SAFPAW, which is a non-profit that provides outreach assistance to the unhoused and their pets in East Nashville and Madison, Tennessee. I believe this is the eleventh year. The project started with Easton gathering East Nashville artists to cover a different Bob Dylan song, and now features a new Easton original each year, with all proceeds benefiting SAFPAW. This venture began a few years back with a song called “Delores” written by Tim Easton and Oliver Wood. It was about a dog. That tradition continues this year with the new one, “Joni’s Song.”
Easton explains: “There have been way too many dogs and cats passing in my family and friend’s lives recently. I wanted to honor that with a song written about the passing of our rescued & beloved Akita. Yes, she was named after Joni Mitchell, who’s spirit certainly inhabits this song.”
Recorded solo at his home studio in Nashville and mixed by Leeroy Stagger from Neighborhood Recorders in BC, Canada, “Joni’s Song” features a four string, tenor guitar that was purchased in Alaska and restored at East Nashville’s Fanny Mae’s House of Music.
Easton adds “thanks for sharing this song with your dog loving friends who may be interested in this amazing non-profit that does the work that is difficult for most of us to do.”
SAFPAW is a grassroots, boots on the ground, 501(c )(3) non-profit, run by Laurie Green, who is out on the streets every day tending to the lives of Nashville’s citizens and their pets, who are facing hard times. Laurie also has a weekly meal delivery service for those in need. She has some volunteers who graciously help with meal prep and deliveries each week, but otherwise, she is a one-person operation.
The video features the beloved pets of Easton’s friends and family that have passed on.
The song is available at Tim Easton’s Bandcamp page: https://timeaston1.bandcamp.com/track/jonis-song All proceeds go to the Southern Alliance for People and Animal Welfare, SAFPAW.
