photo: Danny Clinch/EsquireEsquire magazine's Third Annual Songwriting Challenge will hit newsstands April 24, in the May issue, and this year's batch of participants is impressive, ranging from Grammy-winning soul star Anthony Hamilton, to indie darlings Craig Finn (of the Hold Steady) and Rhett Miller (of the Old 97's Rhett Miller), to multiplatinum Canadian rocker Sam Roberts, to "American Idol" star Chris Daughtry.
The five diverse singer-songwriters accepted Esquire's challenge to compose, perform, and record an original tune inspired by "Pacific Standard Time," the title of their Esquire fashion portfolio shot by world-famous photographer Danny Clinch in the Coachella Valley. The result was five new original songs--Chris Daughtry's "4:00 A.M.," Anthony Hamilton's "Home By Five," Craig Finn's "Respective Coasts," Sam Roberts' "Faultline Blues," and Rhett Miller's "Cassandra"--the iTunes sales of which will benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America. Hearst Magazines will be matching all donations up to $10,000.
The five full songs are available now (and through May 31) exclusively in the iTunes store for $1.29 each, but before you head over to iTunes to buy them, check out the Danny Clinch-directed video for Chris Daughtry's lovely Esquire original, "4 A.M.," exclusively on Yahoo! Music.
Buy all five Esquire Songwriting Challenge tracks on iTunes
Hear more exclusive new songs, save more lives
More about the Challenge
More Esquire music content:
The best songs of 2012 so far
Essential albums of all time
Meet John Legend's sexy fiancée