Before Seattle-musician John Spalding passed away Sunday evening, he finished a solo album, The Beautiful Truth, under the guise LoveLand. Many of John's friends appeared on the record, it's a genuine work of love, and you can hear some of the songs on LoveLand's MySpace page.

Now, to celebrate John's life and music, friends are rallying together to make sure the album gets the official release it deserves. Here's more info, if you, like me, spent many teenage years listening to John's music and want to contribute to their efforts. From Matt Bayles, who helped produce the album:

Hey everyone,

As many of you know, John’s record, "The Beautiful Truth," has been finished for a few weeks now. John spent so much time over the last couple of years finishing it, and we want to make sure it gets it into stores.

Our goal is to raise money to get a first pressing made. Because John meant so much to so many, I am hoping that no single person will have to donate more than $50 to make this happen. If $20 is all you can afford, that still is a tremendous help.

I am in the process of opening a separate trust account dedicated to the release of "The Beautiful Truth." Of course 100% of any money made from sales of the record, as well as any excess money left in the CD release fund, will be sent to the medical trust fund. As soon as I have opened the account I will let everyone know what the exact name of the fund is so they can donate.

Plans are also in the works for a digital release as soon as possible. Our goal is to get the CD in local stores by Christmas.

Please forward this information to anyone else who may want to contribute.

Thank you,

Matt

We'll post more donation information as soon as everything is set up. Friends have also set up a fund to help his wife Jody pay for all medical bills—visit any Bank of America branch and tell them you'd like to contribute to the John D. Spalding Medical Fund.