Country artist Zac Brown contributes to a collective message of strength in the new track “I Know What Love Is,” teaming up with Taylor Guitars and 50-plus Taylor artists to benefit MusiCares COVID-19 fund.
Envisioned as an inspiring “Hey Jude”-meets-“We Are the World” anthem, the uplifting track features an acoustic-pop sound and a massive harmony chorus, written by Good Old War’s Keith Goodwin and co-produced with Jay Parkin of Taylor Guitars, and audio engineer Gabriel O’Brien. Goodwin wrote the tune thinking about how music is the one thing that has the power to bring people together when they’re forced to be apart, and then sent up the bat signal to get his fellow artists involved.
“During lockdown one of the most challenging things for me was trying to adapt to not having my friends around to play music with,” said Goodwin. “This project really helped keep me focused on making music when everything else in life had changed so drastically. I’m grateful for this opportunity to connect and collaborate with such great artists and for a good cause. We are all lucky to be able to share our love of music together.”
Zac Brown, Jason Mraz, KT Tunstall, Chris Conley (Saves the Day), Alana Springsteen and 49 others all recorded parts of the song and submitted via email, adding up to more than 200 tracks that came in from Los Angeles and Nashville to Tokyo. Each member also filmed a video of themselves, and that, too, was stitched together to create a resilient message of solidarity — and a reminder of how good it will feel to finally get through this pandemic.
The song is also helping as many people in the music industry get to that point as possible, with 100 percent of net proceeds going to MusiCares COVID-19 fund. That charity arm of the Recording Academy (who run the Grammy Awards) is aimed at helping everyone from the musicians themselves, to the live sound engineers, tour pros and venue staff who are all effected by the stoppage of live concerts everywhere.
“I Know What Love Is” is available to stream and download on major music platforms Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and more. For more information, please visit www.iknowwhatloveis.com.