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music heals

You're a songwriter; an instrumentalist; a vocalist; a composer.
You're in a baby band, a bar band, a jazz combo, or a classical symphony.
You're a one-hit wonder.
You have hepatitis C.
Your tour van crashed.
You have a brain tumor. You're old.
Your rent is months overdue.
Your bank balance is $3.04.
You have eight potatoes, period.

You can use some Sweet Relief.

Sweet Relief provides assistance to all types of career musicians who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems.

Music's most precious resource - - the artist - - sometimes needs protection.

Established in 1994, Sweet Relief has helped preserve our most profound art by becoming music's most compassionate and generous charity. Chances are, we have touched the life of someone you know.


Sweet Relief provides financial assistance to musicians of all kinds for medical expenses, alternative therapies, prescriptions, and living expenses if the artist is unable to work. Sweet Relief also provides grants for retired or semi-retired older musicians, which helps pay living expenses. For further information or to read eligibility criteria, please see How to Apply.

Sweet Relief was founded by Victoria Williams, and is guided by a board of directors comprised of members of the music industry. It is funded by the music community and a variety of individual donors, as well as through benefit concerts, auctions and albums.

When Victoria was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1992, she, like most musicians, had no health insurance to help defray the mounting cost of her illness. Consequently, she faced the possibility of not getting adequate treatment. to maintain her health. Her predicament did not go unnoticed however, and as word of her condition spread, the music community responded with an unprecedented flow of support.

An impressive array of Victoria's friends and fans volunteered their talents and performed at benefit concerts in New York and Los Angeles. The concerts raised over $20,000 and inspired Williams' admirers to assemble the Sweet Relief album, which features fourteen versions of Victoria's compositions.

Encouraged by the overwhelming support of the music community, Williams founded Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, to which a portion of the album's proceeds are donated. The fund was established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and its first grants were paid out in late 1994. Since then, we have steadily helped support artists in need.

The second Sweet Relief album (though the first to wholly benefit the Fund), Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, The Songs of Vic Chesnutt, features performances by Garbage, R.E.M., Nanci Griffith and Hootie & the Blowfish, Soul Asylum, dog's eye view, LIVE, The Smashing Pumpkins and Red, Red, Meat, Sparklehorse, Joe Henry and Madonna, Kristen Hersh, Cracker, Indigo Girls, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Vic Chesnutt and Victoria Williams.

Since the second album was released we have relied solely on contributions from musicians, fans, and the members of the music industry. We are extremely grateful to everyone who helps, and are especially flattered when music lovers acknowledge the importance of music in our lives by giving back to the artists who provide such meaning and pleasure to our lives. Thank you!