Playing for Change kicks off national tour at Birchmere

Playing For Change has been called a “global phenomenon” in the way it touches everyone connected with the project and audiences around the world.

The award-winning documentary ran on PBS-TV through August, the video of the group’s performance of “Stand By Me” attracted more than 20 million views on You Tube, the CD debuted on Billboard’s Top 10 chart and the band has appeared on major television news and talk shows. On Tuesday, Playing for Change launches a national tour at The Birchmere.

The improbable undertaking began in 1999 when Grammy winning producer/filmmaker Mark Johnson met Jonathan Walls, a collaborator on a history documentary for the National History Museum of Singapore and winner of an Asian TV Award for editing a reality-based series for MTV Asia.

“Our initial goal was to raise money for a film about the lives of street musicians in America,” Walls says. “We began by filming street blues singer Roger Ridley in Santa Monica performing the song ‘Stand By Me.’ Then we went to New Orleans and discovered blues singer Grandpa Elliott who added the harmony. It soon evolved into a peace project that took us overseas to film and record more than a hundred street musicians.

“In the beginning we followed our noses and began to conceptualize as we went. We traveled with light-weight digital gear and found ourselves drawn to performers in many places. For instance, we discovered Los Patricians in an open-air market in Spain by following the crowd to their exuberant music. We discovered a choir in South Africa, a cellist in Russia, a soul singer in Amsterdam, Native American drummers on a reservation and the Three Exile Brothers in Dharamshala, India, the northern tip of the country. It’s the home of Tibetan refugees and a calm, soothing place to be.”

The improbable journey took Johnson and Walls from Capetown, South Africa to Dublin, Ireland and from Katmandu, Nepal to Tel Aviv, Israel, 12 countries in all. Along the way, they filmed and recorded outdoors in cities, parks and villages and headlined England’s Glastonbury Festival.

The band resonates with all people yearning to live in “Peace Through Music.” Each performer has a story, perhaps none more unique than that of singer/harmonica player Grandpa Elliott, who had not ventured outside New Orleans in 50 years.

“We were walking in the French Quarter with our equipment when we heard his booming voice and trailed it until we found him,” Walls says. “The city is vibrant with good musicians on every corner, but he stood out. He’s now a member of our touring band that will travel this country and Canada in two large buses, one for our equipment and instruments, the other for the people. Later on, we’d like to tour Europe and South Africa and invite the musicians we filmed there to join us. We’re excited about all the possibilities ahead.”