Austin-based musician Jenn Hartmann Luck reveals the new release date of her upcoming album Raise Your Voices (Songs Celebrating the Kids Who Are Changing the World) for Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. “Raise Your Voices” is an inspiring collection of music featuring songs celebrating the real kids, both from Austin, Texas, and elsewhere, who are changing the world. There will be an album release celebration for “Raise Your Voices” at Austin’s children’s museum, the Thinkery, on Sunday, Nov. 14. Doors open at 1 p.m. and the concert begins at 3:30 p.m. The celebration will feature live and in-person activations from the children who performed on and inspired the record before the live performance, as well as various online and in-person events leading up to the release date. For more information on Thinkery and to stay tuned on tickets, see here. Masks will be required. For more information on Jenn Hartmann Luck, see here.
“I don’t think I could be any more excited about the release of my new record, ‘Raise Your Voices,’” said Jenn Hartmann Luck. “Not only am I so proud of these songs and blown away by the artistry represented on this album by young people and adults alike, but when I think of the kids who inspired me to write them – I get incredibly emotional. I look at my own children and the kids growing up inside these very difficult times, and all I want to do is to celebrate the resilience and passion found inside them.”
Activities leading up to the release event will include an interactive board at Thinkery that will ask kids “How Might You ‘Make A Difference’ in your Community?” Kids will be able to write or draw on the board, which will live at Thinkery the weeks leading up to the event on Nov. 14. Additionally, blog posts will roll out on the Thinkery website.
“The final track on the record is called ‘Listen to the Children,’” said Luck. “It is my love-letter to all the kids who are standing up and demanding that we adults start listening. And now, with the launch of The Raise Your Voices Project, I hope to inspire other young people to ask how they might also make a difference in their communities. And to have the support of Thinkery as we release this album into the world is a dream come true. Their dedication to supporting young people as creative problem solvers has always been remarkable and I can’t wait to celebrate in person, in their space!”
Luck also announces upcoming releases of singles from the album before its release, including “Through My Eyes,” with SaulPaul, featuring Miranda Koenig and Lucky Cantu; “VOICES (Raise Them),” featuring NYC-based Jolie Rose Wasserman and Scarlett London Diviney (along with NYC PIX11 Reporter, Rebecca Solomon); and “Lead the Way (The Changemaker Song)” featuring Kids From the Andy Roddick Foundation Summer Program.
Luck’s new record features eight children from the Austin, Texas area as well as six kids from other parts of the country including New York City, California, and more. Themes on the album, ranging from helping the fight against hunger to keeping the oceans clean, were inspired by kids who have done something in their community (or world!) to give back, make a difference, or simply make the world a better place. Luck invited many of the Austin-based children on the album to join her at the Ice Cream Factory Studio in Austin to participate in singing along in the actual recording, which adds their own personal voices to the tracks. And for those out of state, many were able to contribute on their own songs virtually.
“We are so excited to have a song that captures our friendship and how we see each other, but more importantly celebrates kindness and advocacy for friendship for all,” said Lucky Cantu and Miranda Koenig, the inspirations behind “Through My Eyes.” “Being together in the studio was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Getting to rock out to our own song was so special… and hearing SaulPaul on the track made it even more amazing!”
Raise Your Voices (Songs Celebrating the Kids Who Are Changing the World) was produced by Jenn Hartmann Luck with co-producers Antonio Delgado, Adam Dorfman, and Trapper Felides, and is being released by Lucky Hart Records. The record was engineered by Antonio Delgado in Austin and Adam Dorfman in Boston and was mastered by Todd Pipes. The album features support vocals by Echo Deva Picone, Kaylin Hedges, Adam Dorfman, and Isabel Stein, as well as almost all the kids who are being celebrated. All songs written by Jenn Hartmann Luck.
Luck has released two singles from the record so far which feature a variety of inspiring young people from Austin and around the country, ranging from eight to 17-years-old. Her latest track “Lemonade” was premiered with Austin Woman Magazine and can be viewed here. “Lemonade” was inspired by and features Olivia Ohlson, a 14-year-old Evanston, Illinois teen who has raised $9,600 for NorthShore University HealthSystem’s Kellogg Cancer Center and was awarded the Daily Point of Light Award in 2020 for her service to the north shore community. 15% of each download of “Lemonade” will also go to the NorthShore Kellogg Cancer Center. To download the song, see here.
The first single from the record, “Kids Can Save Animals,” was premiered by KUTX’s Spare the Rock Spoil the Child, which can be streamed here. The track features Kate Gilman Williams, the young founder of Kids Can Save Animals, whose story and advocacy inspired Luck to create this track. Luck held a single release party for the single at Antone’s on June 22.
The tracklist for “Raise Your Voices” is as follows:
- Lead The Way (The Changemaker Song) – Kids From the Andy Roddick Foundation Summer Program and was created with fourth-graders from the Foundation, of which a few are featured on the recording; this song will support the Andy Roddick Foundation.
- Voices (Raise Them) – Jolie Rose Wasserman, Scarlett London Diviney of “Voices to End Hunger” in New York City, and Rebecca Solomon; the track will support “Voices to End Hunger.”
- Lemonade – inspired by Olivia Ohlson of Evanston, Illinois, which will support the Northshore Kellogg Cancer Center in Evanston, IL.
- With Love – Lotus Reed, from Austin. This song will support her initiative With Love From A Little Girl, which creates and distributes homeless packages throughout Austin, Texas.
- Skip the Plastic Straw – inspired by Chloe Mei and Ella Lin Espinosa, sisters from Newport Beach, This song will support their organization, Skip the Plastic Straw.
- Through My Eyes – feat. SaulPaul, as well as Lucky Cantu and Miranda Koenig from Austin; SaulPaul co-wrote the track, which supports CPATH: Cerebral Palsy Awareness Transition
- Grow (Keep It Alive) – inspired by Ian McKenna of Austin, this song supports Katie’s
- Make A Difference – feat. Lucy Luck from Austin and Oh Antonio! and the Invisible Friends, this song supports Austin Pets
- We Are So Beautiful – feat. Echo Deva Picone, and inspired by Ashley Nevison of Scottsdale, AZ; this song supports Sargeant’s
- Kids Can Save Animals – feat. Kate Gilman Williams, and in support of Re:Wild.
- Listen to the Children – a love letter back to all the kids from Jenn. Many of the children are featured on the track, but it is not inspired by one individual young person.
“You can’t wait for tomorrow to make a difference, to make a difference you have to do something today,” said Jolie Rose Wasserman and Scarlet Diviney, the inspirations behind “Voices (Raise Them).” “We are not the type of people who can sit and watch the world take down those in need. We raised our voices for the hungry because the food lines were so long. Being interviewed by Jenn for a song meant we were able to reach so many more people and make them aware of those suffering from the food crisis.”
As a singer/songwriter, arts educator, and accomplished creator of new musical theatre (including “Gretel! The Musical,” and most recently, “The Battlefields of Clara Barton” at the Paramount, which will soon be opening in Evanston, Illinois with the American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University in October 2021), Jenn Hartmann Luck was inspired to create an album for family audiences, with a variety of songs featuring inspiring young people who are making a difference.
ABOUT JENN HARTMANN LUCK (WRITER / PERFORMER):
Jenn Hartmann Luck is a singer, songwriter, performer, arts educator, and an accomplished creator of new musical theatre. Notably, she is composer and co-lyricist of Gretel! The Musical, co-written with award-winning playwright Suzan Zeder. Gretel! premiered at Austin’s Paramount Theatre in 2019, was produced by First Stage Milwaukee in 2020, and is available for licensing through Dramatic Publishing. Also with Zeder, Jenn is the composer and co-lyricist of the new musical The Battlefields of Clara Barton, currently in development with the American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University. The pair additionally received a Kennedy Center commission in 2020 for their short piece The New Next-door Neighbor. Jenn’s other musical theatre workshops as composer/lyricist include You Can’t Win and Footprints: An Eco-Musical. Jenn most recently served as Director of Partnerships and Programming for Education at the Paramount Theatre, on the Board of the International Association for Performing Arts for Youth, and as a Lecturer in the Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds a BA in Theatre from Arizona State University and an MFA in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities from The University of Texas. Jenn’s credits also include two original solo albums, “I Admit” and “Silly Urban Girl,” and her one-woman show “Not a Chorus Girl,” which played to audiences in both New York and Los Angeles. She was beyond proud to be invited by the White House to sing the National Anthem for President Obama in 2014 and is equally as proud to adapt children’s stories into songs with the Paramount Story Wranglers. Jenn lives in Austin with her husband and her two children, Lucy and Wyatt.
ABOUT THINKERY:
We’re a STEAM engine to power kids’ imagination, creativity, and love of learning. Thinkery is where Austin’s children and their families come to enjoy play-based, inquiry-rich, hands-on learning experiences. In 1983, a group of Austin parents and educators created a space to provide innovative new educational and cultural opportunities to local children. Over the next three decades and rooted deeply in its commitment to supporting a thriving Austin community, the Austin Children’s Museum would grow and evolve into Thinkery, which today offers 40,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor activities for children and families to learn through play. Through a variety of hands-on, interactive STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) exhibits and programs, Thinkery encourages physical, emotional and cognitive development for young learners and fosters joyful curiosity for all ages. Our target ages are newborns through eleven years old, but our interactive experiences are designed to engage learners of all ages!