Oklahoma singer/songwriter M. Lockwood Porter has shared a new single today called “What We’ve Lost” in order to raise proceeds for Feeding America’s COVID-19 Fund, and Black Mesa Records has pledged to match his donation. Originally recorded during sessions for Porter's 2019 critically acclaimed album Communion In The Ashes, the song will be available exclusively at Bandcamp for the next two weeks before hitting all other DSPs.

In an American Songwriter feature today, Porter offered, “A big theme of this song – and all of Communion in the Ashes really – is the need to rebuild a commitment to the ideas of community, interdependence, and social solidarity in order to solve the big problems we face as a society. I was mostly thinking about climate change when writing the album, but the coronavirus pandemic, unfortunately, illustrates this need as well. In order to stop the spread of the virus and address the cases that exist, we need to cooperate and think about how to protect and care for people we may not even know. It inherently contradicts the market-based logic that things will work themselves out if everyone acts in their own self-interest. And we can see how the short-sightedness of our systems, as well as the greed and self-interest of many of our leaders, has made the pandemic worse. [“What We’ve Lost”] is somewhat dark but, there’s also a sense of hope that we can get our act together. And I also get a similar sense of hope from seeing so many people’s desire to help in whatever way they can right now.”

With Bandcamp’s announcement that they will be waiving their revenue shares on Friday, May 1, fans have an opportunity to contribute the entirety of their pay-what-you-want donation to a great cause, while also receiving a surprise bonus track from an album that NPR Music fittingly deemed “a rallying cry that explores current affairs with hope and activism.”