Last year, Every Mother Counts released a compilation CD in partnership with Starbucks, inspired by director Christy Turlington Burns’ documentary No Woman, No Cry.

Featuring Martha Wainwright, Madonna, Carla Bruni and others, it was a CD of mothers’ songs to raise awareness of maternal health and mortality issues.

This year, Every Mother Counts 2012 has opened its arms to men as well, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’ contribution, Mother, has premiered over at Spinner.

The only song on the album written from the perspective of a child, it’s a slow, serious rendition of a poem Alex Ebert (lead singer of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and solo artist in his own right) penned to his own mother last year.

“I wanted to explain to her that taking her for granted for so much of my life was less a function of my admitted selfishness and more a function of her unwavering love for me. Her unflinching steadiness I took to be immovable fact—I took her for ‘granite,’ as the poem goes, to make my stand upon.”

The song is sparse so we can focus on the lyrics, and the effect is profoundly moving.

Ebert is proud Mother emerged the way it did, and is glad to see it in the company of other mother-lovers.

“It is one of my favourite pieces of ours, and I am very grateful that it has found a place to live and give in this album.”

Artists to feature this year include David Bowie, Coldplay, Sade, Sting, Diana Krall and many more.

The album will be available from May 1–29, exclusively through Starbucks.