Indie Music For Life is fighting cancer one song at a time. Founder, singer-songwriter, event coordinator and cancer survivor Vicki Blankenship of Wilmington, NC, works with like-minded indie artists to produce compilation CDs and present fund-raising concerts up and down the eastern seaboard. The money raised by Indie Music For Life concerts and CD sales is donated to cancer research centers.

It began in 2004 when Blankenship organized Music For Life, a two-part fundraising effort comprised of a compilation CD and concerts in NC that would benefit the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life program. Earlier that year she had found singer-songwriters Danielle Miraglia of Boston, Allison Tartalia from NYC and Patti Witten, of Ithaca, NY through Indiegrrl, a 1600 member international organization for women in the independent music industry.

With their own personal stories to tell, each one's life had been touched by cancer. They each donated songs for the "2004 Music For Life Vol. One" compilation CD, the first of several compilations Blankenship planned to make. They also planned a series of benefit concerts. Hundreds of volunteer hours went into the shows in Wilmington, New Bern and Clayton, NC, held on three consecutive nights in August, 2004. Local business sponsors and personalities were enlisted for help, like Colleen Maloney, WCTI Channel 12 TV News Anchor Woman, who emcee'd the 2004 Music For Life concert at the Sheraton Grand Hotel Inn & Marina in New Bern, NC. "That was one of the more fun community appearances I've done," said Maloney. "The raffle prizes were excellent and the format of the concert was great." Since then Music For Life has grown into to Indie Music For Life with a new CD and a new tour.

The just-released "Indie Music For Life Vol. Two" is a two-disc set with donated songs from no less than 30 indie artists, among them some well known names such as Jamie Anderson, Tracy Stark, Kevin So, Project Mercury, and Indiegrrl founder Holly Figueroa.

This spring Blakenship will travel north to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts to play a series of concerts with some of the artists on the new CD. A CD release party was held on March 15, 2005 in New York City at The Knitting Factory. The show featured Meghann Robinson, Kevin So, Keyth Lawrence, Sacha Sacket, Vicki Blankenship, Sonya Heller, Danielle Miraglia, Tom Bianchi, Allison Tartalia and Denise Barbarita.

More shows are being added as the artists organize events in their own communities.

To make donations, get pictures, see tour dates, read press and more information, go to indiemusicforlife.org