(Fort Lowell Records)

www.fortlowell.blogspot.com ; www.musicagainstviolence.org

In the early ‘90s my family and I adopted Tucson - or I should say, Tucson adopted us, with the music community's embrace turning out to be particularly warm, and enduring. Though I now live on the other side of the country, the sorrow I felt following the January shootings was as genuine as if I'd been sitting in my Old Pueblo living room when the news broke.

Jan. 8 was a Saturday, and early that afternoon I happened to be in the car with NPR on the radio when a newsbreak aired the first of the still-sketchy details. I don't think it fully registered with me until I got home and pulled up the news on my computer - something about Representative Gabrielle Giffords being killed (that part turned out to be premature and untrue, luckily) by a lone gunman who was wrestled to the ground by some of the folks who had turned out for a Giffords rally/meet-and-greet at a Safeway grocery located on the northwest side of Tucson. I searched for the store on Google Maps, and the feeling was like being punched in the face: it was the same Safeway where my wife and I had frequently shopped, just a couple of miles from the house we used to live in.

"What if we had..." I couldn't even complete the thought. That night we emailed some of our friends in Tucson, and all of them said the same thing: "It's like the whole city is in shock and moving in slow motion." Even from a distance of a full decade and several thousand miles, I felt like something terrible had happened to a family member and I was helpless to do anything.

So in a very real sense, this is personal: Luz de Vida: A Compilation to Benefit the Victims of the Tucson Tragedy, a 12-song sun-bright yellow vinyl LP ) or 37-track digital album; download card included with the vinyl if that's your purchase choice), put together by local label Fort Lowell Records and the Music Against Violence organization. It is about family in the most literal sense, and the musicians who've gathered here in service of that imperative are speaking in the most universal language of all. The LP comprises all locals: from the ethereal indiepop reveries of Dead Western Plains ("People Beat") and the brisk martial crunch of La Cerca ("Swim An Ocean") to Calexico's elegant twang ‘n' strum ("Absent Afternoon"), Giant Sand's sparse, dusty tale of tears and Tucson's "collective heart" ("Recovery Mission") and a haunting, slide guitar-fueled meditation on birth, life, dreams and beyond by the late Rainer Ptacek ("The Oasis"; Ptacek passed away in '97), there's a message being sent, and that message is hope. Luz de Vida, incidentally, translates to "Light of Life."

The same sentiment is pushed forward with equal aplomb on the digital version, which brings together still more Tucson artists along with a host of nationals - some of them, including Robyn Hitchcock, Chuck Prophet and Neko Case, with close Tucson ties - including Spoon, John Vanderslice, Meat Puppets, DeVotchKa, Ozomatli, Jimmy Eat World and Rachel Flotard & Jon Rauhouse.

You need to understand: multi-artist compilations tend to be inherently flawed, with everything from the varying quality of the source tapes to the juxtapositions of artists who may or may not have anything in common with one another affecting the overall listening experience. Too, benefit projects with a local thrust typically have the unfortunate (but logical) trajectory of remaining local because, lacking a broader national "angle," the project can have a tough time gaining media traction much beyond the city limits. What's remarkable about Luz de Vida, then, is its across-the-board quality, with even free-wheeling live recordings working wonderfully beside meticulously-crafted studio tracks, and its unquestionable universal appeal, not the least of which is the universality of the message noted above.

In addition to the tracks previously described, other Tucson-centric music helping to make this such a success includes Rich Hopkins serving up a new version of his old desert-rock band the Sidewinders' "What Am I Supposed to Do"; Lenguas Largas' "Such a Thing" (lush, dreamy shoegaze); a jaw-dropping live cover of the Sam Cooke soul classic "A Change Is Gonna Come" by Chango Malo; Mariachi Luz de Luna's "Luz a la Vida" (a rousing Spanish language mariachi number); and - speaking of mariachi - Al Perry, backed up by Calexico, with the mariachi-and-pedal-steel powered "Dreaming." Meanwhile, destined for heavy rotation on your iPod are the high-profile national likes of Flotard & Rauhouse (the sweetly-rendered, Latin-flavored folk of "Hammered Light"), Meat Puppets (gnarly, thumping live waltz "Love Our Children Forever"), DeVotchKa (a sizzling, searing slice of gypsy psychedelia, "The Common Good"); Spoon (the luminous, gracefully anthemic "Vittorio E."), and Chuck Prophet (billed here as "El Depravos feat. Chuck Prophet, with an inspired bit of swamp-surf, Spaghetti Western-flavored looniness called "Vampire Requiem").

Writes Calexico's Joey Burns in the promotional materials for Luz de Vida, "Music is the thread that keeps life going when we have nowhere else to go and feel like our world has no direction. Here in this compilation... you feel the sense of community and respect that we all share for one another here. [It] brings a much needed warmth and glow into the heart of Arizona and Sonora."

Amen to that. For yours truly, all this feels like returning home after spending far too much time away.

DOWNLOAD: Chuck Prophet "Vampire Requiem"; La Cerca "Swim An Ocean"; Lenguas Largas "Such A Thing"; Rainer "The Oasis"; Giant Sand "Recovery Mission"; Spoon "Vittorio E."; DeVotchKa "The Common Good"; Chango Malo "A Change Is Gonna Come"; Calexico "Absent Afternoon" FRED MILLS

 Go here for some more details on the album and listen to a couple of audio tracks from it as well.