Hey SoulTrackers.  We've been receiving multiple emails every day asking us about this year's SoulTracks Readers' Choice Awards.  As you know, the SoulTracks Awards have become an annual tradition and the leading awards celebrating independent soul music.   

Well, we've been doing a lot of soul searching here.  As you know, Detroit has had a tough past year and we're extremely tuned in to the problems our city (and a lot of other cities) are facing.  One of the biggest problems here is in the schools, where there simply aren't the resources to properly educate our kids.  Particularly hurt is arts education.  Music programs are being dropped at many schools, despite evidence showing how important it is to the full development of students.   

So we made what may be a shocking decision.  The SoulTracks Awards live stage show has been a great annual event, but is very expensive to put on.  What if we took those same financial resources and put them directly into helping kids in our community rather than into a show?   

So this year the SoulTracks Readers' Choice Awards will go on, but in a different fashion. The Awards will be presented via an online radio show on December 7, 2009, spearheaded by our good friend Jodine Dorce (host of the past two Awards shows) and broadcast on her own Jodine's Corner as well as a number of other online stations. And with the money we would have put into our live stage show, we will instead adopt Detroit's Cornerstone Schools, a series of three urban schools that have become a national model for how to education our children. 95% of Cornerstone students graduate from high school and each student begins musical training in third grade. 

Here's how we'll do it: as part of the SoulTracks Awards voting (which will occur in late October), we will donate $1.00 to Cornerstone Schools for each SoulTracker who votes. So every person who takes the time to vote among the deserving artists will also be helping a young student's education. We will also provide information on how SoulTrackers can contribute directly to Cornerstone.  Also as part of the Awards we'll be making a donation to the PhiLill Foundation, a foundation formed by music legend Phil Perry and his wife Lillian designed to advance health and wellness education in underprivileged areas.

We'll be providing you more information on the Awards, voting, radio stations, etc. over the next couple of months, but we wanted to let you know our plans for this year.  The SoulTracks Readers' Choice Awards will continue to be the gold standard for independent soul music awards, but this year will have even more of a purpose.    

Thanks for being part of SoulTracks and hanging with us as we made this decision.  If you'd like to leave us your comments about the Awards or this note, just type them in below in our Comment section. 

Chris Rizik
Publisher