The Playing for Change Band

From the virtual to the real

by James M. Manheim

posted 10/29/2009

At the beginning it's ordinary--a video of a Santa Monica street musician, a bluesman named Robert Ridley, singing the Ben E. King evergreen "Stand By Me" with a few words of inspiring introduction. Then, an idea that's perfectly simple, yet that nobody had ever thought of before: a producer takes the recording to other musicians around the world, who hear it on

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