Who doesn’t have a song that’s made a special impact on their life? The Curbside Chronicle reached out to musicians from across the US, as well as a few of their own street paper vendors, to weigh in on the tracks that have changed the way they look at the world.

After working with inmates at Glasgow’s Barlinnie prison for some years, musician Jill Brown sought to establish a way for exceptional talent uncovered behind bars to release their music. The result is Conviction Records, a record label and social enterprise for ex-offenders. With backing from major music A&R Eric MacLellan, Brown hopes the outreach to former prison inmates and the songs created with them will help bring convicted criminals back from the fringes of society.

“Homelessness is a crime. It’s almost a war crime,” says guitarist Tom Morello, formerly of Rage Against the Machine and now rocking again with supergroup Prophets of Rage. They spoke to street paper vendor Ronald Dudley (a.k.a. rapper Pookanu) before the first show of their Make America Rage Again tour.