We have a special blog post dedicated to all of our PFC members!
Check out this playlist created by our co-founder, Mark Johnson, to honor #blackhistorymonth, with a special introduction to each song. Turn the music up and see the world through the lens of music!
1) Africa Mokili Mobimba
This Song Around The World began in Kinshasa, Congo, with Franco's TPOK Jazz band, and traveled its way to Congo Square, New Orleans with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band performing all the horn parts— Reunited with music.
2) Get Up Stand Up (New Version with Skip and Cedella + MLK)
This Song Around The World was updated for our 2020 PTM Global Event for Social Justice and includes new vocals from Cedell and Skip Marley, with an excerpt from an MLK Speech. Bob Marley and Martin Luther King Jr. together in a song for the people from the people.
3) Skin Deep
This Song Across America was written and performed by the Legendary Buddy Guy and includes Tom Morello and the Chicago Children's Choir. As the song says, "Skin deep, underneath we're all the same."
4) Queen Bee
This song is one of my all-time favorites, written and performed by Taj Mahal, with a little help from Ben Harper, Rosanne Cash and Paula Fuga. Legends from across five continents show how well we get along when the music plays.
5) Toyeba Yo - TPOK Jazz Band
TPOK Jazz band was the backing band of the Congolese Legend, Franco, and till this day if you ever visit Kinshasa, Congo, you can see them performing with so much soul. Check out this song performed Live Outside from the heart of Africa.
6) Down by the Riverside
This Song Around The World started with Grandpa Elliott playing on the streets of New Orleans and made its way everywhere, from Serbia to the Congo.
7) Higher Ground
This Song Around The World was updated for our 2020 PTM Global Event for Social Justice and includes new additions on banjo from both Bela Fleck and Rhiannon Giddens, as well as new vocals from Aloe Blacc and the amazing drumming of Sheila E.
8) Biko
This song was exclusive to our 2020 PTM Global Event for Social Justice and started with Peter Gabriel, a gospel choir in South Africa and Taiko drummers from Japan, and grew into an epic collaboration of musicians all over the world standing up for the legacy of Stephen Biko.
9) Walking BluesWe started this song while on tour with the PFC Band in Argentina, and had dueling guitar parts from Roberto Luti and Nico Bereciartua while in Patagonia, and then added Keb' Mo, Chris Pierce and a backing band from around the world.
10) Congo to the MississippiThis Song Around The World was written by my brother, Greg Johnson, along with Mermans Mosengo and Jason Tamba. We started it off in Jason's hometown village of Lukala, Congo. Someday we will all be free, until then "MUSIC is our Ammunition."
