Christian album is Bono-fied

When Bono speaks, Christian musicians listen.

That’s the short explanation for “In the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa,” an album due in January featuring U2 songs recorded by Christian pop acts, with part of the proceeds going to fight AIDS in Africa.

U2’s singer has been a passionate voice urging Western nations to put some of their resources into stemming the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

So last December, in conjunction with World AIDS Day, Bono went on tour in the South and Midwest -- not on stage in concert halls and sports arenas but to low-key gatherings in hotels and convention centers.

He particularly urged Christians to reach out to the 42 million people worldwide that the United Nations estimates are living with HIV/AIDS, 70% of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa.

“It bewilders me that anyone can call themselves followers of Christ and not see that AIDS is the leprosy spoken about in the New Testament,” he told a group in Iowa. “God is at work here.”

And while in Kentucky he told an audience, “I’m not here as a do-gooder. This is not a cause; it’s an emergency.” That’s one reason the singer helped establish the DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) organization.

In Nashville, he caught the ears of Christian musicians and record executives based there, leading to the “In the Name of Love” project.

It’s due Jan. 27 from Sparrow Records and includes treatments of U2 material by Jars of Clay, Audio Adrenaline, Sixpence None the Richer, Tait, Chris Tomlin, Pillar, Grits, Sanctus Real, tobyMac and others. All the tracks were newly recorded for this album, except for one existing track for which licensing is being negotiated.

U2 has long incorporated Christian beliefs into its music, although the band members have frequently distanced themselves from organized religion. But their viewpoints have created a strong following among Christian fans and musicians.

“There aren’t many bands who can say they weren’t influenced by U2,” Audio Adrenaline bassist Will McGinniss says. “That said, once the notion came around of doing a U2 tribute record we were on board hook, line and sinker.”

The Nashville-based quartet’s selection, “Gloria,” from U2’s 1981 album, “October,” “was not a song we probably would have picked,” McGinniss says, noting that Sparrow execs decided who would record which songs. “But in high school it was one I totally loved. I’m a bass player, and that’s one of the first bass solos I ever learned. So it was a pretty cool thing for me to be able to put that on a tribute record.”

He sees the project as much more than a tip of the hat to U2.

“If it had been just another U2 album with no one to gain from it, we probably would have passed,” McGinniss says. “But since we do feel there’s a direct link to helping people, we said yes.”

“The record itself does not have any direct correlation to Bono or U2,” notes Sparrow media marketing director Caren Joy Lantz. “The idea came from artists who attended that meeting and got excited about using their platform as artists in the Christian music community to get members of the church, the evangelical church specifically, involved in helping.”

Sparrow hopes the album will have an appeal that extends beyond the traditional Christian pop audience.

Consequently, it will be promoted to the Christian audience by Sparrow’s regular distributor, Chordant Distribution, and to secular listeners by EMI’s distribution. Lantz said the percentage of proceeds earmarked for AIDS relief efforts is being determined.

“The level of interest among the Christian artist community for a project like this has been strong for several years,” Lantz says. “These artists have a voice to a very specific audience, an audience wary of outsiders, but with vast financial and spiritual resources that will make a difference in the lives of the millions of men, women and children on the continent of Africa affected by the AIDS crisis.”

A new hemisphere of influence?

Anne McCUE, the Australian singer-songwriter-guitarist who counts such tastemakers as Lucinda Williams, Richard Thompson and Dave Alvin among her fans, will get her shot at a wider following come February with her first U.S. album release, “Roll.”

McCue moved to L.A. to work on the record with musician-producer Dusty Wakeman (Williams, Dwight Yoakam). Although her songs have gained her the admiration of the previously mentioned writers, she’s also turning heads with her guitar playing. The album, slated for Feb. 24 release on Messenger Records, will feature McCue primarily in a power trio setting and will include an extended version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Machine Gun.”

Small faces

* Esteemed Texas singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver will turn up in two films next year. A documentary on his life, “Portrait of Billy Joe,” by Luciana Pedraza, Robert Duvall’s longtime companion, will be making the rounds at film festivals in the spring. Then in the fall, he’ll have a part as a clergyman in “The Wendell Baker Story,” alongside Kris Kristofferson, Harry Dean Stanton and others. Shaver, composer of songs including “Old Five & Dimers Like Me” and “(Just Because) You Ask Me To,” made his movie debut in Duvall’s 1997 film “The Apostle.”

* Somebody feed that boy: Justin Timberlake has become a partner in the Hollywood restaurant and nightclub Chi. His partners are L.A. bar owners Art and Allan Davis. The business-related food streak doesn’t end there. The sponsor for his latest tour? McDonald’s.

* British band Starsailor, whose forthcoming album “Silence Is Easy” includes two tracks produced by Phil Spector, will start a North American tour on Jan. 15 in Detroit. The album, which was released in September in the United Kingdom, is due Jan. 27 in the U.S.