Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, 'Mother' -- Song Premiere

Originally posted on Spinner

Every Mother Counts is an organization dedicated to increasing education and support around the issue of maternal mortality. This year, they are releasing their second collaboration CD with Starbucks, featuring the talents of Eddie Vedder, Beck, Bono and the Edge, David Bowie, Faith Hill, Lauryn Hill and many others. The CD will be available from May 1-29, but today Spinner is premiering Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros' contribution to the compilation.

"We heard that a few members of the band were about to become parents so we reached out and invited them to contribute," Every Mother Counts' founder Christy Turlington Burns tells Spinner. "I was blown away when Alex [Ebert, the group's singer] sent the MP3 of 'Mother.' It's one of my favorites on the CD because it is so personal. His is the only track that was written from the perspective of a child."

Every Mother Counts

Listen to "Mother"

"'Mother' the song sprang from 'Mother' the poem, a poem I wrote about a year ago to my mother," Ebert explains to Spinner. "I wanted to explain to her that taking her for granted for so much of my life was less a function of my admitted selfishness and more a function of her unwavering love for me. Her unflinching steadiness I took to be immovable fact -- I took her for 'granite,' as the poem goes, to make my stand upon.

"A simple piece of music, more a landscape for the poem to live in, would do. And keeping the poem entirely intact, without addition or subtraction, without chorus or bridge, would only do. And so I wrote and demo'd the song 'Mother,' and then nearly forgot about it (perhaps taking even the song for granted) until Christy asked us if we would contribute a song to Every Mother Counts. As it stands it is one of my favorite pieces of ours, and I am very grateful that it has found a place to live and give in this album."