Ready for Download! "Grooving Forward: Vol. 1"

Andrea Coller

In 2008, The SAMFund established the Andrea Coller Memorial Award in memory of a beloved SAMFund friend and singer/songwriter from western Massachusetts. We were honored to have Andrea's magical talent as a part of a SAMFund fundraiser in 2007. We joined the musician community in mourning when she passed away in 2008, after years of battling cancer. Her award-winning essay in Glamour Magazine's 2008 Non-fiction Contest remains an amazing read.

Move forward to 2012. We are beyond thrilled to introduce the result of a very special musical collaboration spearheaded by our community-building friends at Tribal Mischief Productions..

"Grooving Forward: Vol. 1" is the result of track donations that embody the spirit of Andrea, the inspiration of the artists who bring these songs to life, and the mission of The SAMFund.

As Tribal Mischief Productions founders Ethan Scott Baird and Jake Bush describe it, "Grooving Forward brings together many things about which we care deeply ... our memories of Andrea, our longtime friendship with Samantha and remembering her battles with cancer, and our passion for music. We believe that this a way to carry on Andrea's memory and legacy, provide ongoing support for the Memorial Award and The SAMFund, provide exposure to new fans for our artist friends and artists we truly enjoy, and expose music fans to great new artists. It's really a win on so many fronts, and we hope for this to be the first volume of many."

"Grooving Forward: Vol. 1" includes five artists who contributed unreleased tracks or tracks from upcoming albums, including Marc Cohn (“Silver Thunderbird”, live), Christian McNeill (“Manhattan Rose”), Ryan Fitzsimmons (“Vacation”), Caitlin Canty (“Still Here”) and Jared Salvatore (“Learned My Lesson”). Other artists include: Tim Gearan, Adam Ezra Group, Kingsley Flood, Jimmy Ryan, Eric Royer, Baker Thomas Band, Pesky J. Nixon, Danielle Miraglia, Greg Klyma and Brothers McCann. Thank you to this incredible group of dedicated artists for your time, talent and donations!