World famous singer and proud North Carolinian, James Taylor, has just announced that he will play five free concerts in Charlotte, Asheville, Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Wilmington to help support Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Obama has received oodles of celebrity endorsements and Taylor hopes that his influence might help the swing state vote democratric this election – something that hasn’t happened in over 30 years.

“I’ve always been proud of my North Carolina roots,” says Taylor. “As this crucial election approaches I am honored to join the efforts of the Obama Campaign here in my beloved Tar Heel home. It thrills me that North Carolina has become a ‘battleground state’ and that we might lead the nation toward the change we so urgently need. With a victory here in November, we will embody the awakening of a new American spirit of engagement and responsibility.”

One-stop voting begins this Thursday and the free concerts start on Sunday. Now get out there and do your thing, North Carolina!

via: huffingtonpost.com

Rolling Stone has a great new interview

On how rising energy has made him prepare for a more local existence:

“I have the sense that energy will become more and more expensive, and people will need to exist in a more local way,” he says. “And I feel sort of like a citizen of New England. I like living here and working here, so it may just be that my efforts are more and more sort of locally focused as time goes by.”

On having children making him more mindful of the need for a sustainable future:

“When you have young kids, you sort of re-up your commitment to the future. And I can’t seem to stop thinking about sustainability and about human activity on the Earth and whether or not what we’re doing can continue. It can’t. The thing I fear is that we’ll have a collapse — and that will finally get people’s attention.”

Check out the rest of the interview here.

The mission of the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation is to improve U.S. education for underserved kids.They do this through over ten different projects, including scholarships and the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy.