Album Notes

Shawna Baer's musical background includes, in addition to many self-taught musical skills, a formal education through the jazz program of Toronto's Humber College. In addition to teaching music, extensive performance and touring with The Penny Merchants, and numerous studio sessions and appearances with other artists, she has completed two previous album projects of her own, showcasing not only her silky vocal stylings but also her thoughtfully poetic writing style.

It has long been her dream to engage others in her goal to reach out to orphaned and homeless boys from the streets of Lusaka, Zambia. Shawna has spent several years looking for a way to achieve this through music. With the creation of her latest project, MUST BE LOVE, the goal has been realized and proceeds from every sale of the new album will go directly to rescue, to rehabilitate, and to reintegrate these kids into society and into family life.

Having experienced on two previous occasions the work being done by The Lazarus Project, just outside Lusaka, and experiencing first hand the struggle that these kids face every day, Shawna decided to incorporate the voices of these boys into a new album project about love. She contacted her dad, record producer Howard Baer, to share her vision. Plans were made and together they traveled to this beautiful and desperate African city, befriending the boys, telling them about the project, teaching them several songs and eventually recording their voices in anticipation of the process to follow.