Hostess Brands, Inc. — formerly Interstate Bakeries Corporation (IBC) — is the largest wholesale baker and distributor of fresh^{[citation needed]} bakery products in the United States, and is the owner of the Hostess, Wonder Bread, Nature's Pride, Dolly Madison, Butternut Breads, and Drake's brands. For many years it was based at 12 East Armour Boulevard, Kansas City, Missouri. After it emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 it moved to Irving, Texas.^[2] It declared Chapter 11 again in 2012.^[3]

History[link]

Former headquarters on Armour Boulevard in Kansas City (which is now the operations center).

Ralph Leroy Nafziger founded Interstate in 1930 in Kansas City as a wholesaler selling bread loaves wrapped in gingham wrapping to grocery stores. In 1937 Interstate merged with the Chicago baker Schulze Baking Company.^[4]

In 1943 it acquired Supreme Baking Company in Los Angeles. In 1950 it bought O'Rourke Baking Company of Buffalo, New York.

In the 1950s and early 1960s purchases included Ambrosia Cake Company, the Remar Baking Company, the Butter Cream Baking Company, Campbell-Sell Baking Company, the Kingston Cake Bakery, Cobb's Sunlit Bakery, Schall Tasty Baking Company, Sweetheart Bread Company, and Hart's Bakeries.^[4]

Interstate Brands[link]

In the late 1960s it acquired Millbrook Bread, Baker Canning Company, Shawano Farms, Inc. and the Shawano Canning Company.

In 1969 it changed its name to Interstate Brands. Its signature brands were Butternut and Blue Seal breads, and Dolly Madison cakes. Butternut Breads was a manufacturer of bread products that had been in business since 1902.

DPF[link]

In 1975 it was acquired by Data Processing Financial and General Corporation, known as DPF, a computer leasing company, that ran into difficulties with IBM during the period of the IBM antitrust battles. As a result, DPF was interested in changing business models, and using its cash to take over a low-tech company. The merged company, with headquarters in Hartsdale, New York, took the name, "DPF," until the divestiture of the remaining technology assets. At that point, it changed the company name back to Interstate.

During the DPF era, the company invested heavily in its plants and also acquired Silver Loaf Baking Company, Eddy Bakeries, and Mrs. Cubbison's Foods, Inc.^[4]

Interstate Bakeries[link]

In 1981 DPF completed the sale of its remaining computer systems and renamed the company back to its original Interstate Bakeries and moved its headquarters back to Kansas City.

In 1986 it acquired Purity Baking Company and Stewart Sandwiches followed in 1987 by Landshire Food Products.

IBC Holdings[link]

In 1987 management took the company private and it bought the Merita/Cotton's Bakeries division of the American Bakeries Company.

Interstate Bakeries[link]

In 1991 the company changed back to Interstate Bakeries and went public again.

Continental Baking merger[link]

In January 1995, it acquired Continental Baking Company, for US$330 million and 16.9 million shares of Interstate stock from Ralston Purina. Among the divisions brought into the fold were Wonder Bread (which made bread products) and Hostess brands which concentrated on cakes such as Twinkies which had been created in 1933.^[5] It also bought San Francisco French Bread Company, John J. Nissen Baking Company, Drake's, and My Bread Company.^[4]

Under ex-Merita Baking head Charles Sullivan, Butternut and Wonder Bread operated with different cultures: Butternut was unregimented and each bakery was a self-contained profit center; Wonder Bread was very "procedural and by-the-book." This caused some problems early on. In both cultures, snack cakes were more profitable due to economy of scale and logistics. When extended-shelf-life enzymes were developed for bread, the hope was to convert the system of many small inefficient bakeries into an efficient network of a relatively few giant bakeries like their snack cakes operation. However, the recipe using the new enzymes caused the bread to have a different taste and texture,^[6] and other market forces like a resurrection of the Atkins diet and competitor Krispy Kreme doughnuts affected pricing and sales volume.

Among the companies that came over from Continental was the Hostess brand that originally was started by Taggart Bakeries in Indianapolis, Indiana (whose initial product was Wonder Bread) in 1921. Continental acquired Taggart in 1925.^[7]

2004 Bankruptcy[link]

On September 22, 2004, Interstate Bakeries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company also named a new chief executive. James R. Elsessor, who had taken over as CEO for Charles Sullivan, was replaced by Tony Alvarez. Interstate Bakery's stock, which had been at one time $34/share, fell to $2.05/share as they declared bankruptcy. At the time it was the longest bankruptcy in U.S. history. During that time, it fought a 2007 bid from Mexican baked goods giant Grupo Bimbo and Ron Burkle of the Yucaipa Companies ^[8]
With the leadership of Craig Jung, the company emerged from bankruptcy as a private company on February 3, 2009.^[9] The plan included a 50 percent equity stake by Ripplewood Holdings and lines/loans by General Electric Capital and GE Capital Markets, Silver Point Finance and Monarch Master Funding. Interstate's union workers made contract concessions in exchange for equity.^[10]

Since declaring bankruptcy in 2009, Interstate closed nine of its 54 bakeries and more than 300 outlet stores. It also reduced its work force from 32,000 to 22,000 people and pulled out of some markets. In 2009, Hostess Brands did not renew their agreement to produce Sunbeam Bread for the northeastern U.S. LePage Baker's of Auburn, Maine assumed the contract to produce Sunbeam Bread for that region.^[10]

Hostess Brands, Inc.[link]

Effective November 2, 2009, the company was renamed Hostess Brands, Inc. after the cake division that featured Twinkies and Cupcakes although it continues its bread line including Wonder Bread.^[11]

2012 Bankruptcy[link]

By December 2011 it was reported that Hostess Brands was on the verge of filing for bankruptcy a second time after it suspended payments for union pensions and was struggling to remain current on its $700 million loan.^[12]

On January 10, 2012 Hostess Brands filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy for the second time. In a statement in its filing, the company said it "is not competitive, primarily due to legacy pension and medical benefit obligations and restrictive work rules." The company said it employs 19,000 people and carries more than $860 million in debt. The company said it would continue to operate with $75 million debtor-in-possession financing from Monarch Alternative Capital, Silver Point Capital and other investors.^[3]

Brands[link]

In the United States, these include:

Other brands manufactured by Hostess Brands[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Hostess Brands corporate website

Sarah McLachlan
Sarah McLachlan after a performance at JFK Airport, July 2010
Background information
Birth name	Sarah Ann McLachlan
Born	(1968-01-28) January 28, 1968 (age 44) Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Genres	Pop, soft rock, adult contemporary
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, painter, executive producer
Instruments	Vocals, piano, keyboard, guitar, banjo, harp[1]
Years active	1988–present
Labels	RCA Records, Arista, Nettwerk
Website	sarahmclachlan.com

Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter.^[2] Known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range,^[3] as of 2009, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide.^[4][5] McLachlan's best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards (out of four nominations) and four Juno Awards. In addition to her personal artistic efforts, she founded the Lilith Fair tour, which showcased female musicians. The Lilith Fair concert tours took place from 1997 to 1999, and resumed in the summer of 2010. Since 2006 she has also been known as a highly visible supporter of the ASPCA, as well as various other charities.

Biography[link]

Sarah McLachlan was born on January 28, 1968, and adopted in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. As a child, she took voice lessons, along with studies in classical piano and guitar. When she was 17 years old and still a student at Queen Elizabeth High School, she fronted a short-lived rock band called The October Game. One of the band's songs, "Grind", credited as a group composition, can be found on the independent Flamingo Records release Out of the Fog and the CD Out of the Fog Too. It has yet to be released elsewhere. Her high school yearbook predicted that she was "destined to become a famous rock star."

Following The October Game's first concert at Dalhousie University opening for Moev, McLachlan was offered a recording contract with Vancouver-based independent record label Nettwerk by Moev's Mark Jowett. McLachlan's parents insisted she finish high school and complete one year of studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before moving to Vancouver and embarking on a new life as a recording artist, and McLachlan finally signed to Nettwerk two years later before having written a single song.

In 1994 McLachlan became the target of a lawsuit, when she was sued by Uwe Vandrei, an obsessed fan from Ottawa, who alleged that his letters to her had been the basis of the single "Possession." The lawsuit was also challenging for the Canadian legal system—Vandrei was a self-admitted stalker whose self-acknowledged goal in filing the lawsuit was to be near McLachlan physically. Consequently, special precautions were planned to ensure McLachlan's safety if at any time she had to be in the same location as Vandrei. The lawsuit never came to trial, however, as Vandrei was found dead in an apparent suicide before the trial began. This topic was explored at length in Canadian author Judith Fitzgerald's book, Building a Mystery: The Story of Sarah McLachlan & Lilith Fair.

In 1997, Sarah McLachlan married her drummer, Ashwin Sood, in Jamaica. McLachlan lost her mother to cancer in December 2001, while McLachlan herself was pregnant. McLachlan gave birth to a daughter, named India Ann Sushil Sood, on April 6, 2002, in Vancouver. By this time, McLachlan had already completed three-quarters of the production on her next record, Afterglow. On June 22, 2007, she gave birth to her second daughter, named Taja Summer Sood, in Vancouver. McLachlan announced her separation from Ashwin Sood in September 2008.^[6]

Sarah McLachlan currently resides in Vancouver.

Musical career[link]

[edit] Touch and Solace

The signing with Nettwerk prompted McLachlan to move to Vancouver, British Columbia. There she recorded the first of her albums, Touch, in 1988, which received both critical and commercial success and included the hit song "Vox". During this period she also contributed to an album by Manufacture, and embarked on her first national concert tour as an opening act for The Grapes of Wrath.^[7][8]

Her 1991 album, Solace, was her mainstream breakthrough in Canada, spawning the hit singles "The Path of Thorns (Terms)" and "Into the Fire". Solace also marked the beginning of her partnership with Pierre Marchand. Marchand and McLachlan have been collaborators ever since, with Marchand producing many of McLachlan's albums and occasionally co-writing songs.^[9]

[edit] Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, and Surfacing

McLachlan at a 1993 benefit for Clayoquot Sound

1993's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was an immediate hit in Canada. From her Nettwerk connection, her piano version of the song "Possession" was included on the first Due South soundtrack in 1996. Over the next two years, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy quietly became McLachlan's international breakthrough as well, scaling the charts in a number of countries.

In 1993, Darryl Neudorf filed a lawsuit against McLachlan and her label, Nettwerk, alleging that he had made a significant and uncredited contribution to the songwriting on Touch, and alleging that he wasn't paid properly for work done on Solace. The judge in this suit eventually ruled in McLachlan's favour on the songs; though Neudorf may have contributed to the songwriting, neither regarded each other as joint authors. The judge ruled in Neudorf's favour on the payment issue.

Following the success from Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, McLachlan returned in 1997 with Surfacing, her best-selling album to date. Earning her two Grammy Awards and four Juno Awards, the album has since sold over 11 million copies worldwide and brought her much international success. Still in the spotlight from the album, McLachlan launched the highly popular Lilith Fair tour. Her song "Angel"—inspired by the fatal overdose of Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin—made sales skyrocket. In Spring 1998, the motion picture City of Angels featured "Angel". It became the No. 1 album on the Billboard chart. More than five months after the movie disappeared from the theatres, City of Angels: Music from the Motion Picture remained firmly entrenched among Billboard's top 40 albums. This soundtrack earned quadruple-platinum status.^[10]

Lilith Fair[link]

In 1996 McLachlan became frustrated with concert promoters and radio stations that refused to feature two female musicians in a row.^[11] Bucking conventional industry wisdom, she booked a successful tour for herself and Paula Cole. At least one of their appearances together – in McLachlan's home town, on September 14, 1996 – went by the name "Lilith Fair" and included performances by McLachlan, Cole, Lisa Loeb and Michelle McAdorey, formerly of Crash Vegas.

The next year, McLachlan founded the Lilith Fair tour, taking Lilith from the medieval Jewish legend that Lilith was Adam's first wife.^[12]

In 1997, Lilith Fair, featuring McLachlan as one of the headlining acts, garnered a $16 million gross, making it the top-grossing of any touring festival.^[11] Among all concert tours for that year, it was the 16th highest grossing.^[11] Lilith Fair tour brought together 2 million people over its three-year history and raised more than $7 million for charities. It was the most successful all-female music festival in history, one of the biggest music festivals of the 1990s, and helped launch the careers of several well-known female artists. Subsequent Lilith Fairs followed in 1998 and 1999 before the tour was discontinued.

Nettwerk CEO and Lilith Fair co-founder Terry McBride announced that the all-female festival would make its return in summer 2010.

Hiatus[link]

McLachlan performing for Good Morning America in 1998

In 1998, in addition to performing her own set, she performed a cover of "Sad Lisa" with rock band Phish at the annual Bridge School Benefit concert in California, hosted by Neil Young, after which McLachlan began an extended period away from recording or touring. Six years elapsed between the release of Surfacing and that of her next studio album, Afterglow.

However, she did release a live album in 1999, entitled Mirrorball. The album's singles included a new live version of her earlier doubles "I Will Remember You", a studio recording of which had previously been released on The Brothers McMullen soundtrack as well as Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff.

Also that year, McLachlan (in the singing voice of "Jessie") recorded the Randy Newman song "When She Loved Me" on the Toy Story 2 soundtrack. This song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song in 2000, and McLachlan performed it at the awards ceremony, but the award went to "You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan, written and recorded by Phil Collins.

In 1997, McLachlan co-wrote and provided guest vocals on the Delerium song "Silence" for their album Karma. This song achieved a massive amount of US top 40 airplay when released as a single in late 2000 and also featured on the soundtrack for the movie Brokedown Palace. In 2001, McLachlan provided background vocals, guitar, and piano on the closing track "Love Is" from Stevie Nicks' eighth solo album, Trouble in Shangri-La, in addition to drawing the dragon used for the "S" in Stevie's name on the album cover. In May 2002, her duet with Bryan Adams was released on the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron soundtrack. She sang harmonies and played the piano on the song "Don't Let Go" while Sood did the drum work.

McLachlan also participated in several concerts during her break, such as Sheryl Crow's Live from Central Park in 1999, the Arista Records twenty-fifth anniversary celebration in 2000, as well as the 2002 British Columbia Cancer Foundation Benefit Concert in memory of cancer victim Michele Bourbonnais. She participated along with four other Canadian artists: Bryan Adams, Jann Arden, Barenaked Ladies, and Chantal Kreviazuk.

[edit] Afterglow

McLachlan in Menlo Park, California, USA

McLachlan returned to public life and touring with her 2003 album release, Afterglow, which contained the singles "Fallen", "Stupid", and "World On Fire". Rather than shoot a conventional music video for "World On Fire", McLachlan donated all but $15 of the $150,000 budget to various charitable causes around the world and then used the video to explain how it benefited the communities that received the money.

Another live album, Afterglow Live, was released in late 2004. The CD consisted of several tracks from a full-length concert, which was included in its entirety on a DVD, as well as the three music videos from Afterglow.

In 2004, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels, who credits McLachlan and her music for lifting him from a period of depression, invited her to join him on a track from his solo album. Although the album was not released until early 2006, remixes of the song "Just Like Me" were included on a number of compilations in 2005.

In 2007, McLachlan's song "Answer" featured in The Brave One starring Jodie Foster.

[edit] Wintersong

In October 2006, McLachlan released a Christmas album called Wintersong. The album included 11 new recordings, featuring covers of Joni Mitchell's "River", Gordon Lightfoot's "Song for a Winter's Night", and John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", which she recorded with her outreach children and youth choir, and seasonal favourites: "Christmas Time Is Here", "O Little Town of Bethlehem", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", "Silent Night", "The First Noel", and "Greensleeves (What Child Is This?)", among others. The title track is an original work of McLachlan's.

Wintersong debuted at No. 42 on the Billboard 200 album chart the week ending 4 November 2006. It peaked at #7. For the week of 5 December 2006, it was the #1 album on iTunes. Worldwide the album has sold over 1.1 million copies to date. It has been certified Platinum in the U.S. and 2x Platinum in Canada.

Wintersong was nominated for both a Grammy Award, in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category, as well as for a Juno Award, for Pop Album of the Year.

Guest appearances[link]

In November 2006, McLachlan performed the song "Ordinary Miracle" for that year's feature film, Charlotte's Web. The song was written by Glen Ballard and David A. Stewart of Eurythmics. McLachlan was the subject of rumours of an Oscar nomination for the song, but in the end was not nominated. She helped to promote the song and movie by performing it on The Oprah Winfrey Show as well as during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. She also performed the song during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in her hometown of Vancouver, in front of an estimated 3 billion television viewers worldwide.

In early 2007, she sang on Dave Stewart's Go Green, alongside Nadirah X, Imogen Heap, Natalie Imbruglia, and others.^[13]

McLachlan also appeared on Annie Lennox's album, Songs of Mass Destruction. Together with Madonna, Céline Dion, Pink, Sugababes, Angélique Kidjo, k.d. lang, Faith Hill, Fergie, Melissa Etheridge, Bonnie Raitt, Shakira, Anastacia, Joss Stone, Dido, and KT Tunstall, she performed on the song "Sing".

In 2010, McLachlan appeared as herself on the television series Life Unexpected and performed. On September 8, 2010, McLachlan performed and sang "Forgiveness" from her 2010 album Laws of Illusion on a semi-final show of America's Got Talent; she did so again on the Tonight Show, two days later.

Sarah appeared alongside Aimee Mann on the IFC series Portlandia, as a pinata and a yard maintenance person.

On November 22, 2010, McLachlan again performed and sang "Forgiveness" this time on the Regis and Kelly show.

On September 10, 2011, she performed I Will Remember You and Angel at a ceremony in Stonycreek, Pennsylvania, commemorating the passengers and crew of hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 who fought the hijackers and brought down their airplane on September 11, 2001. The event marked the dedication of the Flight 93 National Memorial and was attended by U.S. President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, President Bill Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker John Boehner.^[14]

[edit] Rereleases, Rarities Vol 2, and Greatest Hits

On October 3, 2006, the live album Mirrorball was re-released as Mirrorball: The Complete Concert. This release contains 2 discs that were compiled from 2 concerts performed on consecutive nights in April 1998 at the Rose Garden arena in Portland, Oregon.

On April 29, 2008, Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff Volume 2 was released. The tracklist includes McLachlan's recent covers of Joni Mitchell's "River" and Dave Stewart's "Ordinary Miracle", as well as collaborations throughout her career with The Perishers, Cyndi Lauper and Bryan Adams, among others.

On August 5, 2008, the 15th anniversary 3-disc edition of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was released. The set includes the original re-mastered album, The Freedom Sessions and a DVD that includes live performances, music videos and more. The album was released by Legacy Recordings.

McLachlan released a greatest hits album, Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan, on October 7, 2008. On August 12, 2008, she released a new song from the album, "U want me 2", a mid-tempo contemplative love song, as a digital single on iTunes; also accompanied with a video performance. McLachlan also admitted the song was inspired by the dissolution of her marriage, which she announced in September 2008, during initial promotion. Being quietly released as a single on 3 February 2009 the other new song found on the album, "Don't Give Up on Us", signalled a wrap.

[edit] 2010 Winter Olympics, Laws of Illusion and Lilith Fair 2010

A new single, "One Dream," was released on September 29, 2009 and was the official theme song of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.^[15] McLachlan's first studio album of original material in seven years, Laws of Illusion, was released on June 15, 2010. New York Times music critic John Pareles says about Laws of Illusion - "It’s a kindly, enveloping sound that Ms. McLachlan has long used to conjure passion and empathy laced with melancholy. But now it encompasses a new anguish, deeper and sharper than what she hinted at with Afterglow in 2003." It features 10 new songs in addition to the previously released tracks "U Want Me 2" and "Don't Give Up on Us," as well as various bonus tracks. Previews of the tracks and bonus materials were made available on iTunes and Amazon.com for listening and viewing on May 26, 2010. Lilith Fair kicked off in Calgary, AB on June 27, 2010. In anticipation of the album and the summer's tour, McLachlan appeared on the WNYC-produced radio show Soundcheck. During the wide-ranging interview, McLachlan discussed with host John Schaefer the last eleven years of her life and how she has changed, especially as a working mother of two.

Guitars and equipment[link]

For years, Sarah McLachlan's main stage guitar has been a late-'70s Larrivée C-10 with rosewood back and sides, a spruce top, and a Florentine cutaway. The guitar is amplified with a Fishman Rare Earth Blend (which combines a magnetic pickup and an internal mic), running through a Radial JDV Mk3 active DI. She has also performed with Canadian-made Morgan guitars, and at the time of the interview, she was trying out Taylor models with Expression System electronics.

McLachlan strings her guitars with phosphor-bronze or vintage bronze Dean Markleys. She uses medium-lights (.012–.054) for her guitars in E A D G A D and D A D G A D tunings. Sometimes she uses lights (.011–.046) and raises E A D G A D a whole step so her capo positions can be two frets lower. For instance, in the past she played "Building a Mystery" in E A D G A D with a capo at the seventh fret, but now she tunes to F# B E A B E and capoes at the fifth fret. McLachlan's capo of choice is a Dunlop C-Four.^[16]

Awards and achievements[link]

McLachlan has been nominated for twenty-one Juno Awards and awarded eight. In 1992, her video for "Into the Fire" was selected as best music video. In 1998, she won Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year (along with Pierre Marchand), Single of the Year for "Building a Mystery", and Album of the Year for Surfacing. In 2000, she won an International Achievement award and in 2004, won Pop Album of the Year for Afterglow and again shared the Songwriter of the Year award with Pierre Marchand for the singles "Fallen", "World on Fire", and "Stupid."

She has also won three Grammy Awards. She was awarded Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1997 for "Building a Mystery" and again in 1999 for the live version of "I Will Remember You." She also scored Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1997 for "Last Dance." Among these, she is credited for various nominations.

Her song "Building A Mystery" came in at 91 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s.^[17]

McLachlan has been extensively profiled by media including cover stories for Rolling Stone, Time magazine, Entertainment Weekly and Flare, a Canadian fashion magazine.

Through her career, she has also received many awards, primarily in recognition of her efforts in launching Lilith Fair. She was awarded the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Visionary Award in 1998 for advancing the careers of women in music. In 1999, she was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada by then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson in recognition of her successful recording career, her role in Lilith Fair, and the charitable donations she made to women's shelters across Canada. In 2001, she was inducted to the Order of British Columbia.

On February 12, 2010, McLachlan performed her song "Ordinary Miracle" at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

On June 15, 2011, she was recognized with an honorary degree from Simon Fraser University.^[18]

Philanthropy[link]

McLachlan contributed the track "Hold On" to the 1993 AIDS-Benefit Album No Alternative produced by the Red Hot Organization. She also performed at the Leonard Peltier Defense Fund Benefit Concert on February 12, 1997 and went on to release a haunting cover version of Unchained Melody created as part of her support for Peltier and later included on the album Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff Volume 2.^[19]

In early 2005, McLachlan took part in a star-studded tsunami disaster relief telethon on NBC. On 29 January McLachlan was a headliner for a benefit concert in Vancouver along with other Canadian superstars such as Avril Lavigne and Bryan Adams. The show also featured a performance by the Sarah McLachlan Musical Outreach Choir & Percussion Ensemble, a children's choir and percussion band from the aforementioned Vancouver outreach program. In addition to her own headliner show she also joined Delerium live on stage for their first-ever performance of 'Silence'. The concert was titled One World: The Concert for Tsunami Relief, and raised approximately $3.6 million for several Canadian aid agencies working in south and southeast Asia. The show was the brainchild of McLachlan's manager, Terry McBride, CEO of Nettwerk. It ran for four hours and aired live on CTV across Canada.

She is an avid supporter of the ASPCA and animal welfare. She filmed a two-minute advertisement for the organization which featured her song "Angel".^[20] The advertisement's imagery of shelter animals mixed with the soundtrack and McLachlan's simple appeal for donations has raised $30 million for the ASPCA since it began to air in 2006, which allowed the organization to air appeals in higher profile prime-time cable ad slots; subsequently the organization produced a new ad for the 2008 holiday season featuring McLachlan appealing for the ASPCA over her Wintersong performance of "Silent Night", and a new ad with her was released in January 2009 featuring the song "Answer".^[20] In 2012, McLachlan wrote a letter on behalf of PETA to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, protesting that country's annual seal hunt.^[21]

In 2008, she donated a song to Aid Still Required's CD to assist with the restoration of the devastation done to Southeast Asia from the 2004 Tsunami.

On July 2, 2005, McLachlan participated in the Philadelphia installment of the Live 8 concerts, where she performed her hit "Angel" with Josh Groban. These concerts, which were held simultaneously in nine major cities around the world, were intended to coincide with the G8 summit to put pressure on the leaders of the world's richest nations to fight poverty in Africa by cancelling debt.

McLachlan also funds an outreach program in Vancouver that provides music education for inner city children. In 2007, the provincial government announced $500,000 in funding for the outreach program.^[22]

For raising millions of dollars for causes including women's charities, AIDS sufferers and inner-city kids, Simon Fraser University conferred Sarah McLachlan the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa on June 13, 2011.^[23]

Discography[link]

• 1988: Touch
• 1991: Solace
• 1992: Sarah McLachlan Live EP
• 1993: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
• 1995: The Freedom Sessions
• 1996: Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff
• 1997: Surfacing
• 1999: Mirrorball
• 2001: Remixed
• 2003: Afterglow
• 2005: Bloom: Remix Album
• 2006: Wintersong
• 2008: Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff Volume 2
• 2008: Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan
• 2010: Laws of Illusion

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sarah McLachlan

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sarah McLachlan

• Official website
• Sarah McLachlan at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Sarah McLachlan