From the Introduction on the CD's Liner Notes:

This album was born of our desire to bridge the gaps between different ethnic communities in a post-9/11 America. Since the events of that day, the number of ethnic hate-crimes in America has increased dramatically and many minority groups have reacted by becoming increasingly introspective. We hoped to create a common vision of political and cultural community and, thanks to the Potrero Nuevo Fund Prize, we were able to commission poets and musicians to compose pieces that would do just that.

The past year has been an incredible adventure as the album blossomed in exciting, and often unexpected, directions and we became caught up in the energy of the artists around us. As the months unfolded, we found ourselves comparing our legends and our languages, our histories and our metaphors, our instruments and our musical scales.

And underneath them all was the Blues. The blues of immigration and struggle, the blues of sadness, but also of joy. It was as if, irrespective of artistic genre or ethnicity, we had all converged on the same place, via our own blue histories. As producers, we are honored to have had the opportunity to explore the bridge between them.