Avery, Who Received Widespread Critical Acclaim And Airplay With Her Recent Debut Album ‘The Way You Hold Me’, Is Deeply Devoted To Animal Rescue As Well As The Work Of Environmental And Human Rights Organizations Like Amnesty International, The Southern Poverty Law Center,
Heart To Heart And The Nature Conservancy

With the release of her sweeping and inspiring new single, Miami based singer/songwriter Robin Avery is breaking into the American consciousness with one simple mission: to “Light The Way” for concerned Americans who are committed to righting social injustices and respecting the environment by protecting it from the ravages of irresponsible behavior and harmful government policies.

Perfectly capturing and defining the rallying cry, hopes and aspirations of several generations, the multi-talented performer (www.robinavery.com) urges us to “Protect the earth we live in/Choose wisely/See beyond today/Create a world of lasting prosperity/Join together and light the way.” Overcoming all cynicism that we can collectively achieve our goals, the bridge she wrote with her longtime collaborator and producer Paul Banman—also one of her partners in the newly formed ICQ Productions—reassures all who will hear, “Daylight is dawning with tradition and choice.”

No message can be effective if it doesn’t reach the masses, and the entrepreneurial Avery is already in gear on several key fronts. For the week of August 1, “Light The Way” was included as part of the TM Jones Hit Disc that also had cuts from superstars Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney and Natalie Cole as well as singer/comedian Wayne Brady and Dutch sax sensation Candy Dulfer. TM Studios distributes these discs to over 5,400 stations worldwide, as well as satellite and internet networks, websites and the Armed Forces Radio Network.

Avery’s cool cover version of The Cars’ “Drive,” which featured top smooth jazz saxman Warren Hill and was the featured single on her debut album The Way You Hold Me, recently received airplay on over 50 smooth jazz stations nationwide. Building on the goodwill of that genre, she recently signed on with the popular website www.smoothjazz.com for a four month promotion, which will include playing “Light The Way” several times a day and a link to YouTube, where Avery is posting the stunning video she recently created for the song. The clip features images geared at reminding the viewer about the magnificence of the planet put in our charge. It was directed by veteran film director and MTV pioneer Ken Ross of Cyclone Pictures, Inc., who has shot over 60 music videos for everyone from Keith Richards and The Smiths to Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, Patti Smith and Rosanne Cash.

The smooth jazz community can’t stop raving. Sandy Shore of smoothjazz.com said of Avery’s debut: “slick, crisp production, fresh and cool vocal tunes…create a fantastic listening experience from the beginning to the final track. Radio & Records’ smooth jazz editor Carol Archer adds, “Avery’s a new artist to me - a damned good one, too.”

This newfound national attention is an exciting extension of the popularity and acclaim that Avery has received locally in recent years. She’s performed at numerous city events in Hollywood, Florida as well as major festivals like the Hollywood International Music and Arts Festival, the Abacoa Music And Arts Festival , the Miami International Book Fair and SunFest, the largest outdoor music festival in South Florida. The past four New Year’s Eves, she and her band have also held court at the historic Las Olas Riverfront Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale.

Avery, who has a Ph.D. in psychology and a Masters Degree in social work, was inspired to write “Light The Way” when she began reading about the environmentally progressive work being done around the world by major corporations like Coca-Cola, Nike and Aveda. This includes partnering with small villages in Africa, Europe and Asia to help maintain their indigenous cultures and traditions while helping them develop their natural resources, all with an eye towards creating self-sufficient wealth and prosperity. She learned that these companies are members of Ceres, a national network of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups working with companies and investors to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. Their mission is integrating sustainability into capital markets for the health of the planet and its people.

“These companies give so much money and time to environmental research and the goal of finding alternative fuels,” she says. “I immediately felt compelled to create music that would go along with some of the products they sell to raise funds for these causes. My goal is to contribute a portion of the proceeds I earn from the single to them. While the songs on The Way You Hold Me chronicle the rise and fall of a romantic relationship and the personal hope we feel when we find love again, ‘Light The Way’ offers a more universal socially conscious message.

“When I decide to write a song like this outside myself,” she adds, “I love to do research, and I was excited to learn how Aveda raises funds for grassroots organizations that protect biodiversity and address environmental issues around the world. Also, how little villages were working with companies like Nike that fund community-based programs and help young people create their own communities, and about Coca-Cola's corporate responsibility commitment, which has a major project in South Africa devoted to clean drinking water. I wanted to write a song in the spirit of the incredible work they are doing and use my talents wisely to play even a small part in the healing of our planet.”

As her fascinating, diverse and longtime resume of public service to her community of South Florida attests, Avery hardly limits her contributions to the recording studio and the airwaves. She is a longtime animal rights activist whose home is filled with over 20 cats (and two dogs) that she rescued. Working with Amnesty International, she is constantly at local events collecting signatures to help fight human rights violations around the globe. In addition to offering financial contributions to the Southern Poverty Law Center—which battles hate crime and aims to teach tolerance in schools—Avery is involved with Heart to Heart International which sends out doctors and much-needed medical supplies to cities and countries in the U.S. and around the world that have experienced natural catastrophe.

Obsessed with nature from the time she was a little girl growing up in Miami Beach, she is also devoted to her beautiful home garden and contributes her time and money to the Nature Conservancy, a private organization that buys land internationally to protect natural habitats from government intervention and destruction. She has volunteered her time in Jupiter, Florida at a nature preserve, makeshift “machete” in hand, cleaning out Australian pine and Brazilian pepper plants that were planted but which destroy the area’s native plants. And when she has some spare time, she’s bringing gift baskets to the elderly on Christmas, Easter and Passover.

“For me, my involvement starts locally, because if I allow myself to think about the vast needs on a larger, more universal scale, it could be very overwhelming,” Avery says. “When people think like that, it becomes very paralyzing, like ‘what’s the use? What difference can I make?’ But if I start in my own backyard, helping the elderly, saving stray animals, collecting signatures right here, and even recording ‘Light The Way,’ I have something beautiful to build on.”

Avery’s lifelong sense of compassion and social justice grew out of being raised in a traditional Orthodox Jewish home. Her late father, a concentration camp survivor who was best friends with political activist and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, would sing songs from his childhood in Romania and tell hard recollections of being a prisoner of the Nazis. He would also talk of his father, Robin’s grandfather, a cantor who was invited every year to lead a synagogue in song in Philadelphia. His fear of traveling to the U.S. kept him grounded, however, and he ultimately wound up in a concentration camp, where he perished.

“But my father survived,” Avery says, “and brought that musical spirit with him when he moved to America. Hearing all those stories impressed on me the gross injustices that happen in the world and the ultimate importance of the need to be kind to humanity to fight them. In many ways, I feel that my grandfather wasn’t given the opportunity to fully express his musical soul, and so to me, even beyond its sociopolitical and environmental messages, ‘Light The Way’ is a song dedicated to the great legacy he left me and my family.”