West Chester-based Appleseed Recordings recently celebrated its 21st anniversary with a star-studded, three-CD set entitled Appleseed’s 21st Anniversary: Roots and Branches, writes Larry LeBlanc for CelebrityAccess.com.

The recording label was started by longtime activist Jim Musselman. His mission was “sowing the seeds of social justice through music and exploring the roots and branches of folk and world music.”

Musselman was inspired after he visited Belfast in Northern Ireland in 1995. He produced a version of Pete Seeger’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” that accompanied the peace negotiations between Northern Ireland and England.

“When I worked on the peace negotiations there, we had the kids outside singing the song,” he said.

This was a transformational experience for Musselman, and since then, his label has released 160 albums. The latest has 57 tracks combining the label’s new recordings with tracks from its rich history. Among the album’s contributors are Bruce Springsteen, Tim Robbins, and Jackson Browne.

While his recordings have won several Grammys over the years, it’s not the awards that are the most important thing for Musselman.

“It’s that these songs were used for positive social change,” he said.

Read more about Appleseed Recordings from CelebrityAccess.com here.

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