Ever since the George Floyd video surfaced in May and the protests started, James Tritten has been a little on edge. He wanted to do something to show his support for the Black Lives Matter movement, but he wasn’t sure what.
“I had been aggressively meditating because of all this anxiety, trying to get my head around it,” said Tritten, who lives in downtown Wilmington with his wife, the musician Tracy Shedd.
Then, on June 3, while he was meditating, “It hit me: I’ve done this before,” Tritten said. “I can curate this wonderful collection of indie rock bands and have it be for a good cause.”
Tritten, who runs the indie label Fort Lowell Records with his wife, had helped release a musical compilation in 2011 to benefit victims of a mass shooting in Arizona, where he and Shedd lived at the time.
Later this summer or by early fall, Tritten said, Fort Lowell will release “GROW: A Compilation in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter.” Comprised of songs by current and former Wilmington indie rock bands -- and including one act making its debut -- proceeds from the sale and streaming of the record will benefit the New Hanover County chapter of the NAACP.
Hours after he came up with the idea for “GROW” on the morning of June 3, Tritten said, he had $15,000 in donations from manufacturers who will be producing the vinyl version. “GROW” will also be on streaming services and available for download.
The album’s 12-band lineup reads like a who’s who from the annals of Wilmington indie rock history (and/or its future). All of the songs are new releases.
Two bands, The Rosebuds and The Love Language, got their starts in Wilmington before moving on to record albums for Durham’s Merge Records label.
The Rosebuds, formed in Wilmington 20 years ago by then-married couple Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp, are releasing their first song since breaking up a few years ago, a remix of an existing track.
“Kelly is tickled pink” to release the song, Tritten said, adding that the all-Wilmington compilation gave the band the perfect excuse to drop the tune.
Other acts on the compilation include a mix of veteran acts (Shedd, Sean Thomas Gerard of Onward, Soldiers); seldom-seen old-school heroes (Summer Set, The Majestic Twelve, Life of Saturdays); current acts (Kicking Bird, Lauds, Pinky Verde, Team Player); and one brand-new band called Neon Belly.
The list of local partners is lengthy, and there’s also a visual art element to “GROW,” with James Williams (cover), Trevor Van Meter (jacket), Chet Childress (vinyl) and the students of DREAMS of Wilmington (liner notes) providing work for the project.
Liner notes will be written by Wilmington’s Third Person Project, which delves into often unknown or covered-up aspects of Wilmington’s history in regards to race.
Tritten and Shedd are from Florida, and from 2006 to 2013 they lived in Tuscon. That’s where Fort Lowell started, and where they released “Luz De Vida,” a compilation created by the Music Against Violence group that benefited the victims of a mass shooting that included Congresswomen Gabbi Giffords.
They’ve been in Wilmington for just the past two years, but their local roots run deep. Tritten first played here with his former band, Audio Explorations, in 1996 for the old WE Fest, and Shedd’s music was featured on locally shot hit shows “Dawson’ Creek” and “One Tree Hill.”
He and Shedd also host Manic Monday, a monthly alt-rock and indie pop DJ night that, before the pandemic, was held at downtown bar The Opera Room.
Tritten’s day job is as sales manager for KWIPPED, a locally based, online equipment-procurement marketplace. But he said the community nature of the “GROW” project “gets to why we even have a record label in the first place.”
Tritten said the minimum donation for the compilation when it comes out will be $30, to benefit the NAACP’s get-out-the-vote efforts. At least 1,000 vinyl copies of “GROW” will be pressed, he said, and will be available locally at Gravity Records, Modern Legend and elsewhere.
Contact John Staton at 910-343-2343 or John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com.
