Many Hands: Family Music from Haiti is, for many reasons, the most intriguing and audacious release in the family music world this year, bar none. It benefits the Haitian People's Support Project and is being put together by Dean Jones on Bill Childs' new Spare the Rock Records label.

One reason I say "audacious" is the list of benefit concerts. One is certainly common, two is definitely not unusual, but six (thus far)? That's, like, Live Aid territory. If you are in the areas below, you are hereby commanded (as much as a random guy on the internet can in fact command) to clear off your calendar and attend one or more of the shows below. (And, yeah, if the birdie who's been talking to me is correct, the possible special guests on the 26th are indeed pretty special...)

Sunday August 15: Dog on Fleas, Grenadilla, Uncle Rock (Rosendale Theater, Rosendale, NY)
Friday, August 20: Elizabeth Mitchell & Family and Frances England (Mill Valley Library, Mill Valley, CA)
Saturday, August 21: Dog on Fleas, Lunch Money, Randy Kaplan, Deedle Deedle Dees (Armory, Boston, MA)
Saturday, September 11, 11:00: Randy Kaplan, Johnny Bregar, and Recess Monkey (Multnomah Arts Center, Portland, OR, presented by A Child’s Time to Rock!)
Saturday, September 11: Deedle Deedle Dees, Gustafer Yellowgold, Dog on Fleas (Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY)
Sunday, September 26: Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, Deedle Deedle Dees, and very special other artists TBA (Pines Theater, Look Park, Northampton, MA)