‘Voice of the Homeless’ Is an Album of Humanity : Music: Talented street musicians inspired Rex Neilson’s project, which has produced life-changing results.

At times while Rex Neilson was putting together “Voice of the Homeless,” an album of songs performed by homeless people, he wondered if the effort was worth it.

“When I met Lewis (Thomas), he was doing crack cocaine,” says Neilson, 44, speaking by phone from his office in San Diego. “I paid him (for the song), and I’ve since learned that the money was in his pocket a half an hour before he smoked it up.”

But the audition inspired him to get off drugs and pursue a longstanding interest in music, Thomas says.

“I said, ‘I would be a fool to miss this opportunity,’ ” says Thomas, 35, who contributed a song titled “Oh Oh My P.M.A. (Positive Mental Attitude) Is Coming” to the album. “I didn’t want to be left behind. Here was a man who not only said beautiful things, he put his money where his mouth is.”

So strong was Thomas’ positive attitude that Neilson hired Thomas full time to help promote “Voice of the Homeless.”

The experience of making the album not only changed the singers--25 of the 27 are no longer homeless, Neilson says--it changed Neilson himself as well. “I had thought homeless people were lazy and should get jobs,” he says.

It was watching talented street musicians in Washington D.C. that changed his mind.

“It occurred to me that homeless people, at least those homeless people, were willing to work,” says Neilson. “So sitting in Denny’s, deciding what to do with the rest of my life, I had an idea.”

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In November, 1992, Neilson put some of the money he had made selling the car dealership he owned into founding M.A.G. Records to produce and release the album.

Having written and played music for most of his life as a hobby, Neilson knew he wanted to produce an album featuring homeless singers, and he began to informally “audition” street musicians with a hand-held tape recorder. He held four formal auditions during the beginning of the next year and started recording the album with professional Los Angeles session musicians in June.

The resulting album, which was released in January, is surprisingly good, if a little uneven. “Voice of the Homeless” includes rock, folk, country and rap songs, all of which are given a professional shine by studio musicians and co-producers Neilson and Wayne Nelson, a former member of the Little River Band.

Perhaps the album’s best song is “Catman Jim,” a plaintive, emotionally charged countryish song about the plight of Vietnam veterans, sung by Leo Porter, himself a Vietnam vet who had been homeless for six months. Another standout is “They Don’t Make Love Like They Used To,” a jazzy track that spotlights the voice of Crystal Goff singing lyrics about romantic disillusionment.

And though these and some of the other songs resonate with heartfelt alienation, not all of the songs on “Voice of the Homeless” are so bittersweet. Thomas’ track is a funky rock song he wrote about his determination to improve his life.

“It was a gas,” Neilson says of his experience overseeing the recording of the album, adding that he’d like to do follow-up recordings.

Neilson has already held auditions in San Diego and Denver for singers for a second album he hopes to have in stores next spring. In the future, he says, he’d like to produce more albums by homeless singers, but he hopes to leave the promotion to a major label. He’s also toying with the idea of doing further work with some of the more talented singers on “Voice of the Homeless,” especially Porter and Goff, who is now taking voice lessons at his expense.

Right now though, Neilson says, he’s back in the business world he left a few years ago, trying to get radio airplay for tracks from the album and organizing concerts for the homeless singers.

Neilson estimates “Voice of the Homeless” has sold about 6,000 copies, mostly in Tower Records stores and through a door-to-door sales force of homeless people organized by Porter. Few radio stations are playing tracks from the album though.

Neilson is counting on publicity and word-of-mouth to generate more interest in the album, which he hopes will eventually sell about 25,000 copies. The money he makes will go toward future M.A.G. Records projects involving the homeless, and most of the singers are donating their royalties to homeless shelters.

But regardless of album sales, Neilson says the project is already a success in that it got homeless people involved in improving their lives.

“This isn’t a thing where guys come in and sing the song and wait at home for the royalty check,” Neilson says.