Avett Brothers, Mountain Goats contribute to western NC relief album

(WGHP) — A musical compilation created to help contribute to ongoing recovery efforts in western North Carolina will feature a contribution from multiple famous musicians, including acts with strong ties to the state.

On Instagram on Wednesday , the official account for The Mountain Goats , a prolific indie band that calls the Durham area home, announced that they would be contributing a previously unreleased song to a benefit album for the ongoing Hurricane Helene relief.

“We’re proud to contribute an unreleased song, ‘Hand of Death,’ to ‘Cardinals at the Window,’ a compilation album benefiting North Carolina flood relief,” they wrote in the post.

“‘Cardinals at the Window’ was compiled by three North Carolina natives with deep ties to the region: musician and community organizer Libby Rodenbough, New Commute founder David Walker, and music journalist Grayson Haver Currin, with crucial support from Shirlette Ammons, Martin Anderson, Anna Morris, Cory Rayborn, and Rusty Sutton. Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn, Alli Rogers, and Asheville native Clay Blair provided free audio engineering work. The compilation is functioning in tandem with a direct-relief effort launched by musicians, artists, and Western North Carolina residents Ryan Gustafson (The Dead Tongues) and Hunter Savoy,” the post states.

“Across its 135 tracks, Cardinals at the Window features a combination of new recordings and previously-unreleased live tracks,” Consequence.net writes.

North Carolina natives The Avett Brothers have also contributed a track to the compilation, a live version of “Cheap Coffee.”

You can purchase “ Cardinals at the Window ” via Bandcamp exclusively. The $10 album features songs from acts like R.E.M., Phish , Tyler Childers and Iron and Wine.

Several of the songs are live versions from North Carolina performances, with R.E.M. sharing a 1989 recording of “King of Birds” from a Greensboro performance and Phish sharing a recording of “Sand” from Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh.

According to the X account for Phish, “100% of proceeds split evenly between Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Rural Organizing and Resilience (ROAR), and BeLoved Asheville.”

Artists like Sturgill Simpson , Luke Combs, Eric Church and Ben Folds have announced benefit concerts for the state in the wake of the devastating flooding.

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