Songwriting fundraiser podcast “Rise and Shine TV” has announced the release of a compilation album, “Breakfast With Inspiration.” Rise and Shine” incorporates audience ideas into the daily writing of a song, and uses the proceeds from selling the songs to support music-related charities.

The brainchild of award-winning podcaster Dean Whitbread, Rise and Shine gathers the talent of musicians, composers, and the input of their audience, to write and perform an original song in three hours’ time.

Participants make use of several different Internet media in order to work together. Viewers watch the songwriters and musicians via live streaming video, and lob ideas back and forth with them in chat. Song topics are typically taken from the morning’s headlines, and almost always take unexpected turns before the piece is finished.

When Rise and Shine is in session the daily project begins at 6h GMT (1am here in the Midwestern US), and the rough draft of the finished song is performed on streaming Internet video around 9h. A more polished version of the song is posted to the website later in the day.

The album features the best of the songs written during the project’s three “seasons,” a week each in February, March, and at Christmastime last year. Explains Whitbread, the extemporaneous songs “were written by our dedicated team of writers in a little over a month, who laid their reputation on the line, exposed their writing processes to intimate scrutiny, turned on the cameras and the microphones, and let the audience into their inspiration and their craft. ”

The “Rise and Shine – Breakfast With Inspiration” CD can be mail-ordered for £15.00, and the studio-quality hi-fi DVD will set you back £18.00 (plus postage). Ordering information is here. All proceeds from album & DVD sales go to BuskAid, which gives music training to South African township children.