“What I Like About Miami,” Charity Single, Benefits Direct Relief
Targets Aid to Florida and the Islands in the Wake of Hurricane Irma
Charlie Pickett, the South Florida roots punk icon, releases “What I Like About Miami” today to benefit relief efforts in his home state of Florida and the islands battered by Hurricane Irma. The churning blues-groove features lead guitar from artistic co-conspirator Pete Buck.
“Watching the storm approach, I wanted to do something to raise spirits as much as money,” Pickett says. “This song has been a celebration in our shows, and it’s a song that rallies around what makes South Florida what it is.
“When I started working on my first new album in years, ‘What I Like About Miami’ cried out for something more, something special, so I called Peter. He not only agreed to play on the track, but what he added just burns. So when I wanted to do something to help, dropping this track right now seemed to be the right thing to do.”
Teaming with Bloodshot Records, the Chicago indie label who’d released the Pickett anthology Bar Band Americanus, “What I Like About Miami” is available today worldwide on BandCamp, iTunes, Amazon and other digital outlets. The three minute churner toasts the lifestyle, the culture and the reasons to stay in South Florida – no matter what – and it stirs the same frenzy generated by Pickett’s songs “If This Is Love (Can I Get My Money Back),” “Marlboro Country” and “American Travelust.”
Direct Relief is a humanitarian aid organization with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies. Nonsectarian, nongovernmental and not-for-profit, its roots reach back to 1948 and helping Eastern Europeans rebuild their lives after World War Two – and continues its mission to provide health-driven aid to areas most at risk or struck by catastrophe. 100% of both label and artist profits from this single will be donated to Direct Relief’s Hurricane Irma campaign.
“Having lived in Florida my entire life,” Pickett says, “the real work and real need comes during the rebuilding in the months after the storm. That’s when the news has moved on, but the problems remain. To me, this is where giving begins.”
More information here: https://www.bloodshotrecords.com/album/what-i-about-miami-digital-single