The Charm City folk group and Philadelphia-based non-profit label Human Kindness Overflowing have come together to help raise money and awareness for communities in need.
In a city whose music scene is about as diverse as diverse gets, Baltimore’s Soft Cat carefully craft a beautiful blend of delicate, woodsy folk music that shines on their sophomore effort Lost No Labor, which was released just last week. An album three years in the making, it was released via Human Kindness Overflowing, a unique label based in Philadelphia that partners with artists to help raise money and food for those in need. All of the proceeds from the album will be going towards Whitelock Community Farms in Baltimore, MD.
Soft Cat was once the experimental bedroom project of Neil Sanzgiri. In 2010, Sanzgiri released his debut album Wildspace on local label Friends Records. It focused on the abandoned, forgotten areas in cities that are often overlooked, yet where communities continue to grow. Sanzgiri, then a recent transplant to Baltimore, wrote and recorded almost the entirety of the release, enlisting the talents of other musical friends to help perform it.
Fast forward to 2013, and the core of Soft Cat has grown to include Kate Barutha and Brendan Sullivan, maturing into a well-developed group full of lush, complex, songwriting and delicate melodies. The band’s lineup also includes a rotating cast of members from other notable acts, including Secret Mountains, Weekends, Small Sur, Strange Fur, and Wing Dam. Lost No Labor reflects these collaborations, showcasing a certain organic warmth that allows each song on the release to bask and resonate before leading you to the next.
To help give back to the community that they call home, Soft Cat partnered up with Human Kindness Overflowing to raise money for a local farm located on an abandoned lot in the Reservoir Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, named Whitelock Community Farms.
The farm supports the city’s community through sustainably fresh farmed foods from their lot. 100% of the proceeds raised from Lost No Labor will be donated to the farm. The album is currently available through Human Kindness Overflowing’s Bandcamp, along with their previous releases.
