Wells for Zoe: Water for Life / Various

Featuring: Sinead O'Connor, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Paul Brady, the Duhks, Karine Polwart, Crooked Still, the Alison Brown Quartet, Dougie MacLean, Maura O'Connell, Tim O'Brien, John Doyle, Michael McGoldrick, Eamonn Coyne & Kris Drever and Heidi Talbot. "What Wells for Zoe is doing in Malawi amazes me. It proves that, even on a grassroots level, good work done by caring people can change our world. I'm very proud to be a supporter of the W4Z and hope others will join the cause." Alison Brown. An admired group of Celtic and Folk musicians have donated tracks to assist Wells for Zoe, an Irish based privately funded development organization, founded for the purpose of aiding the local population of Northern Malawi in accessing fresh water and creating a sustainable living environment. Putting their motto, "A hand up, not a hand out" into practice, Wells for Zoe founders John and Mary Coyne (parents of tenor banjo player Iamonn Coyne) have assembled a top notch collection of musicians to join them in raising funds to supply pumps, tools, irrigation and training to local villagers in order to enable communities to establish commercial organic vegetable cooperatives which eventually repay the cost of the pump and materials. New tracks from Irish pop icon Sinead O'Connor and Scottish Borders based singer Karine Polwart along with previously unreleased tracks from singer/songwriters Paul Brady and Dougie MacLean grace the album alongside a new version of an Alison Brown Quartet favorite and a genre crossing version of the Eurythmics "Sisters are Doing it for Themselves" by Irish folk singer Maura O'Connell and Canadian folk band, the Duhks along with Tim O'Brien and John Doyle.