Ve’ahavta’s Outreach Driver Sings about the Homeless

Leighton Bain was born and raised in Windsor, Ontario. Later, he spent two years in Korea teaching English as a Second Language and playing music. Recently Leighton relocated to Toronto to join the thriving music scene and has appeared at such music venues as Lee’s Palace, The Supermarket, and Mill Street Brewery.

Leighton began working as one of Ve’ahavta’s outreach workers on our van in the summer of 2007. His philosophy when assisting the homeless through the Mobile Jewish Response to the Homeless Program is to create constant dialogue between volunteers and those living on the street. “I want to make sure that we can put a smile on the faces of people living on the street, to help them through a difficult situation.”

This song titled Getaway (Down on Yonge Street) is a fictional look at the life and times of someone forced on to the streets at a young age.

“The sidewalk was busy, thirty odd floors of three piece suits – I’m thinking that the downtown never cared about me at all.” That was something that Leighton noticed when he works on the streets; that three, four, of five guys would be sitting on the grates or the pavement in front of huge banks and investment places and a huge disconnect exists between the haves and have-nots. Getaway is not about relocation or finding a new place to live, but about somehow discovering a way to overcome a difficult circumstance.

For more information on Leighton’s band, The Good Run, and his solo project, see http://www.myspace.com/thegoodrun and http://www.myspace.com/leightonbain.

“Don’t complicate the facts. You will somehow get away.”

– Leighton Bain