{"id":13562,"date":"2022-10-03T10:47:38","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T15:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=13562"},"modified":"2022-10-03T10:47:38","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T15:47:38","slug":"growing-hope-for-america-an-anniversary-revisit-to-the-25th-farm-aid-in-milwaukee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=13562","title":{"rendered":"Growing Hope for America: An anniversary revisit to the 25th Farm Aid in Milwaukee"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/p>\n

It’s one day removed from the date but I am honoring the anniversary of a great concert in Milwaukee history by posting my review of Farm Aim 25,\u00a0 at Miller Park on October 2, 2010. <\/strong><\/p>\n

October 2, 2010\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Farm Aid 25 Does Heavy Hauling for America\u2019s Family Farmers<\/strong><\/p>\n

MILWAUKEE — It took a quarter of a century for the players in this farm system to make it to the majors.<\/p>\n

But Farm Aid 25 proved it ain\u2019t no game though, heck, it was at least as fun as any Brewers outing, to judge from the 35,000 who rocked Miller Park Saturday, along with the many dedicated musicians who filled the ten-hour event.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Farm Aid 25 at Miller Park. Courtesy Onmilwaukee.com<\/em><\/p>\n

The first Farm Aid drew 78,000 in Champaign, Illinois in 1985. Today it\u2019s the longest-running concert benefit in the U.S, having raised $37 million over those years. And co-founders Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp \u2013 who all performed Saturday with style and passion \u2013 have been stars for decades. So the event\u2019s 25th<\/sup> anniversary in its first major league stadium only served to remind people of a team effort as heroic as a two-outs, walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth.<\/p>\n

The hero\u2019s stance is somewhat different now. Farm Aid now does heavy work on the promotional tractor hauling the local sustainable food movement to public awareness. They\u2019re helping push for organized family farming and healthy food choices as refurbished tools for economic revitalization of America through \u201cfamily farm food systems\u201d based on alliances, economic stewardship and well being of community and public health (see farmaid.org for more information on this)<\/p>\n

They still proselytize for the ongoing plight of America\u2019s family farmers in the face of corporate farming\u2019s razing of the small farm business model. In the pre-concert press conference, Neil Young, Farm Aids\u2019 resident corporate gadfly, asserted that big-business farms \u201ccreate and spread disease and are inhumane to animals\u201d and ravage the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Yet, as perennial good guy Nelson says, \u201cWe started out trying to save the family farmer and now it looks like the family farmer is going to save us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Farm<\/p>\n

Farm Aid co-founder Willie Nelson at Farm Aid 25 in Milwaukee OnMilwaukee.com<\/em><\/p>\n

With a majority of this huge throng appearing to be under 30, the message seemed to connect with the generation that must take up the mantle of leadership.<\/p>\n

Many of them sang along from memory to lyrics of musicians old enough to be pa or grandpa. While Mellencamp did his harrowing farm tragedy saga, \u201cRain on the Scarecrow,\u201d even a young stadium security guard sang along, with his back to the stage and eyes diligently scanning the crowd.<\/p>\n

Yes, there\u2019d been plenty of tailgating beforehand, which kept attendance at a slow trickle-in though the early afternoon acts like Randy Rogers, Robert Francis, Jamey Johnson and the Blackwood Quartet. Among those, the act too many missed was Johnson, whose Moses beard and hair hang as long as his foghorn voice resounds deep, seeping into the darkest caverns of the heart, with deftly self-deprecating storytelling. His Depression-survivor song “In Color” deserves to be a widely-covered classic, though I doubt anyone could deliver such craggy authenticity as does Johnson.<\/p>\n

Though now middle-aged thick and lovable-attire slob, Mellencamp can still ignite and work a crowd \u2013 into what Quakers call (not so) gentle persuasion: At one point he asked all of the cell-phone toting fans to immediately call a friend to \u201cthank them for supporting Farm Aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

He even grabbed one fan\u2019s phone and thanked a doubtlessly startled \u201cSteve,\u201d on the call\u2019s receiving end.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Farm Aid co-founder John Mellencamp at Farm Aid 25. Courtesy milwaukeejournal-sentinel.com<\/em><\/p>\n

By then, the crowd seemed primed to attack the back forty, after a bracing but short set from Milwaukee\u2019s own seminal roots rockers The Bo Deans, and a beguiling one from Philadelphia folk-soul troubadour Amos Lee, and another by the appealingly high-energy alt-roots rock Band of Horses, who are galloping up record charts these days.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Milwaukee’s own, The Bodeans, at Farm Aid 25. milwaukeejournal-sentinel.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet the crowd perked up for the almost effortless charm of two young pop music phenoms, Norah Jones and Jason Mraz. The line-up\u2019s only female act, Texas-raised singer-songwriter-pianist-guitarist Jones recently relocated to New York. She captivated with her sophisticated new look \u2013 punky page boy and fishnet stockings — and fluent eclectic flair, shifting from her sultry sweetheart mega hit \u201cCome Away With Me\u201d to Johnny Cash\u2019s honk-tony beer lament \u201cCry, Cry, Cry\u201d to her own increasingly dark and thoughtful originals.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Norah Jones at Farm Aid 25. milwaukeejournal-sentinel<\/em><\/p>\n

By contrast, Mraz seems like his own brand of endless sunshine with a voice as boyish as Paul Simon\u2019s but stadium-impact strong and with songs carrying a high melodic calorie count. He woos the listener like the boy Romeo next door, or the strapping young farmer down the road. He actually runs an avocado farm in California when not doing music or surfing. Too cool.<\/p>\n

Between the Jones and Mraz sets, Jeff Tweedy — leader of the immensely popular and arty roots-rock band Wilco \u2013 delivered a curiously tepid solo set that suggested his true gifts are as a musical conceptualist\/bandleader\/songwriter.<\/p>\n

You get the stylistic gist here — Farm Aid welcomes virtually all American music genres under its big farmer\u2019s market tent. And to wit, many fans also partook of the outdoor Homegrown Market and chatted with farmers about their issues and tasty wares even through cold wind and some rain. That interaction is part of the important underlying purposes of this musical harvest.<\/p>\n

Back inside, time-conscious bandleaders too infrequently introduced their faithful band members. But the show rarely dragged with Willie Nelson stepping in to add his \u201cTexas herb\u201d aroma to the sets of Jones and Lee, and with contemporary country star Kenny Chesney showing gleaming vocal pipes and sporting a New Orleans Saints cap instead of the expected ten-gallon hat.<\/p>\n

And few complained about nepotism when Willie\u2019s son Lukas Nelson scored a set, because he\u2019s inherited the old man\u2019s showmanship. No knockoff though, the younger Nelson\u2019s style strives to virtually channel the ghost of short-lived blues rock guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan. His guitar-string biting impressed some, but made you wonder if Willie feeds the kid enough.<\/p>\n

Dave Matthews, the Gen-X rock star who joined the Farm Aid board of directors in 2001 and is the fourth perennial headliner, started his duo set with guitar ace Tim Reynolds by unleashing Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cAll Along the Watchtower,” which felt like a man reliving the song’s wild tale as a primal-scream dream. His intensity cranked the crowd up to a level that Mellencamp rode masterfully.<\/p>\n

Yet, for this baby boomer, and surely many others, this all climaxed with Young\u2019s set. He remains an uncanny blend of wizardly yet unpretentious song-storyteller\/melody-spinner prone to deft feedback theatrics and spontaneous speeches. Few seem to care about farmers as much as he does. But an eloquent riff on being an aware consumer for small farm support \u2013\u201cread the label\u201d is his mantra \u2013 immediately lost any hint of browbeating when Young launched into \u201cLong May Young Run.\u201d This is a gloriously warm-hearted salutation to a friend he last saw alive \u201cin Blind River in 1962.\u201d The winsome melody and sentiment seem to suggest \u2013 with a new line crucially added to the original lyrics \u2013 that the never-forgotten\u00a0friend was a farmer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Farm Aid co-founder Neil Young at Farm Aid 25. milwaukeejournal-sentinel\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Young\u2019s always had a quirky a genius for balancing his fiery social consciousness with mournful, humane soul. Accompanied only by his own scruffy-scarecrow presence and solitary electric guitar, Young\u2019s \u201cOhio\u201d still seared into memories of the Vietnam war-era killing of four Kent State University student protesters by National Guard members.<\/p>\n

Of course, Farm Aid always provides the salve of Willie Nelson to top off even reopened psychic wounds, and to send everyone home buzzed on musical vibe. That’s from toking up on ol’ Willie, twirling his smoky, behind-the-beat phrasing around another blessedly-crafted song. His concert-closing set ranged from tough blues-rock led by son Lukas, to reggae rhythms, to \u201cone for Waylon.\u201d On cue, all the headliners joined onstage to sing \u201cGood-Hearted Woman,\u201d a comfortable-as-worn-blue-jeans song by Nelson\u2019s fellow progressive-country \u201coutlaw,\u201d the late, great Waylon Jennings.<\/p>\n

Concert epics like this don’t get much more golden.<\/p>\n

It was well after 11 p.m. and co-sponsor Direct TV had been telecasting the concert since Mraz\u2019s set at 5, so one hoped the ideals and passion of this extraordinarily well-conceived and executed effort may spread like the winds of change, rather than like locusts or chemical farming-borne disease.<\/p>\n

Time will tell. Meanwhile, long may Farm Aid run.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/p>\n

This review was originally published in YourNews.com, Madison edition<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

For videos about the Milwaukee event, go to www.farmaid.org.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s one day removed from the date but I am honoring the anniversary of a great concert in Milwaukee history by posting my review of Farm Aim 25,\u00a0 at Miller Park on October 2, 2010. October 2, 2010\u00a0 Farm Aid … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[1636,1645,1647,187,1634,1642,1627,1641,1630,1643,1644,1628,843,1639,1637,1632,1650,341,1640,475,1648,1638,1651,1629,1633,1631,1646,1635,260,1649,1272],"class_list":["post-13562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com","tag-all-along-the-watchtower","tag-amos-lee","tag-band-of-horses","tag-bob-dylan","tag-dave-matthews","tag-directv","tag-farm-aid-25","tag-good-hearted-woman","tag-jamey-johnson","tag-jason-mraz","tag-jeff-tweedy","tag-john-mellencamp","tag-johnny-cash","tag-kent-state-university","tag-long-may-you-run","tag-lukas-nelson","tag-miller-park","tag-milwaukee","tag-national-guard","tag-neil-young","tag-norah-jones","tag-ohio","tag-quakers","tag-robert-francis","tag-stevie-ray-vaughan","tag-the-blackwood-quartet","tag-the-bo-deans","tag-tim-reynolds","tag-waylon-jennings","tag-wilco","tag-willie-nelson"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-3wK","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13562"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14990,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13562\/revisions\/14990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}