Farm Aid 20th Anniversary Concert (2008)

The Setlist:

1) I Love You (Martina McBride)

2) Broken Wing (Martina McBride)

3) Independence Day (Martina McBride)

4) China Grove (Doobie Brothers)

5) Black Water (Doobie Brothers)

6) Long Train (Doobie Brothers)

7) Everyday (Dave Matthews)

8) All Along the Watchtower (Dave Matthews)

9) R.O.C.K. in the USA (John Mellencamp)

10) Pink Houses (John Mellencamp)

11) Don't Cry No Tears (Neil Young)

12) When I Hold You In My Arms (Neil Young)

13) Whiskey River (Willie Nelson)

14) Stay All Night (Willie Nelson)

15) Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys (Willie Nelson)

16) Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Everyone)

17) Amazing Grace (Everyone)

Special Features include:

* Farm Aid featurette

* Farm Aid background

* DVD-ROM Link to Farm Aid website

Nearly Three Hours of Organic, Sustainable Music

The recently released "Farm Aid 20th Anniversary" DVD is nearly three hours of music, starring Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Kenny Chesney, Arlo Guthrie, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Guy and John Mayer, Los Lonely Boys, and More! More! More! Even a brief guest appearance by Illinois Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama, introducing local favorites Wilco (Chicago local favorites Widespread Panic also perform). This DVD catches a live 2005 concert-- the 20th anniversary concert -- at the Tweeter Center,outside Chicago. The sold-out concert featured, as you can see, a great diversity in music. The DVD comes to us in a wide screen, high definition, surround sound stereo format. And, oh, the music it delivers: high-energy performances from some of rock's - and country's - greatest. The album's really a gourmet treat.

Nelson, Young, and Mellencamp organized the first Farm Aid concert in 1985, to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land. They have been members of the board ever since. Matthews joined the Board of Directors in 2001. Farm Aid has raised more than $28 million to support programs that strengthen family farming. A portion of the proceeds from sales of this album benefit its parent organization.

Arlo Guthrie, now a greybeard, gray-haired, much tanned man, wearing shades, delivers a tart, amusing update of his greatest hit from 40 years ago, "Alice's Restaurant;" his reminiscences of meeting the draft board, at New York's Whitehall, legendary in its time among young men of appropriate age, are certainly still resonant. Buddy Guy, an experienced Chicago-style bluesman, ably backed on guitar by John Mayer, who has gone far since this '05 concert, gives us a smoking "What Kind of Woman."Los Lonely Boys give us their own, Latin-pulsed "My Way." Susan Tedeschi and Kathleen Edwards show us that the country category includes young women, and what some of them have been up to; Emmylou Harris reprises her signature "Red Dirt Girl." We then get a popcorn intermission, helpful brief documentary on Farm Aid, before the bigger guns come on.

Kenny Chesney, a hard bodied handsome young guy, gives us some hard-rocking music, including the song "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy." Well yes, I'd have to say I do, can't be surprised at his growing popularity, either. Dave Matthews, no slouch himself in the hard bodied, handsome young department, gives us a couple of the more thoughtful songs for which he's known - that still rock - "Gravedigger, and "Ants Marching." Remarkably enough, he's playing without his amazing band, just one man, his voice and his guitar, holding the attention of the 25,000+ audience. His set is definitely one of the musical highlights of the show, and we'd have to say that it's no surprise that his career has been on the rise since `05 either.

John Mellencamp has been around - remember when it was John Cougar Mellencamp, and don't you forget it-- - but he's still a high-energy guy, nowhere near his "sell-by" date yet. He presents what seemed to me to be the longest set, muscular, and sweaty. The grizzled, Canadian-born Neil Young, has, of course, been around, too. We find him in a thoughtful mood, using his extraordinary voice, backed by a choir, on a churchy "When God Made Me." He's joined by Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris on the meditative "This Old Guitar."

The veteran Willie Nelson's evening-capping set consisted of five/six songs, played medley-style, all together, on a quick roll. I could have done with more. Then again, the show began at 1 P.M., ran eleven hours, and wrapped after midnight, when he finally came on. But his polyphonic, rocking approach to such standards as "Whiskey River," "Crazy," "Night Life," and "On the Road Again" kept them tasty, hot and fresh.

Get the DVD -- and it's good any hour of the day or night.


April 25, 2008

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