Dec. 5, 1999
By JOHN BECK
Press Democrat Staff Writer
It could have been a Concert for the Eradication of Beanie Babies and the hordes of fans that flocked to the Burbank Center Thursday night would have still turned out in droves.
Cause or no cause, the all-star cast of Emmylou Harris, Bruce Cockburn, John Prine, Nanci Griffith, Nina Gerber, Steve Earle, Patty Griffin and an unannounced Bonnie Raitt, dazzled the sold-out crowd with a moody, intimate round of songs that embodied all that is folk music -- the genre that invented "unplugged" concerts long before MTV coined the marketing term.
But, much more than just music was at stake. With their activist roots shining, the rag-tag band used their voices to raise over $100,000, more than any other stop on this latest leg of the seemingly endless Concert for a Landmine Free World tour.
It may have been yet another musical benefit in a long line of freedom fund-raisers, but it never devolved into the familiar Live-Aid/We-Are-The-World, "Let's get this over and go home" urgency.
Instead, like old bluesmen swapping songs on a Delta front porch, Harris and the gang laughed and swayed, trading licks and harmonizing on originals and classics like "If I Had a Hammer" -- as Griffith pointed out, pick your generational singer: Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, Trini Lopez or Luscious Jackson.
Every musician played their part to perfection: Harris, the sweet-soprano hostess in a satin dress and knee-high black leather boots; Prine, the gravelly funnyman; Griffith, the folkabilly cheerleader quick to rally with sing-alongs and free-for-alls; Earle, the gruff, country activist eager to tell of his past drug abuse; Bruce Cockburn, the worldly lyricist, often collaborating on lead guitar, and Patty Griffin, the sultry, youthful spark.
They even managed to keep it lighthearted amid unabashed Home Shopping Network moments of hawking scarves made by Cambodian women maimed by land mines and talk of the second anniversary of the Ottawa Treaty, which bears the signatures of 89 countries (not including the United States), to ban antipersonnel landmines.
"This one goes out to what's her name, wherever the hell she is," said Earle before diving into a raw version of "Now She's Gone."
After the underrated and underexposed Griffin mesmerized the crowd with a passionate "Sweet Lorraine," Cockburn could only grin and say, "I'm supposed to follow that?"
It was that kind of night -- a barroom songwriter-in-the-round or guitar pool that slowly escalated into a friendly game of one-upmanship made only too obvious by Griffin's closing remark: "This seat is getting hotter and hotter."
Griffith's echoing rendition of Kate Wolf's "Across the Great Divide" kept the crowd of mostly Baby Boomers swaying and singing along.
With steady picking and heavy, driving bass notes, Cockburn navigated a haunting "Mines of Mozambique" -- a song he wrote while touring mine-infested regions of the country.
Earle's ode to Townes Van Zandt, "Fort Worth Blues," left more than just Griffith and Harris choked up.
With spiky hair and sleepy eyes, Prine sang both the male and female parts to "In Spite of Ourselves," deadpanning his way through lines like "she takes a licking and keeps on ticking, swears like a sailor when she shaves her legs ..." along with "Sins of Memphisto," rhyming "Quasimodo" with "exactly-oto." He later teamed up with Raitt, who strutted out on stage to a surprised audience for a soulful "Angel from Montgomery."
Looking every bit the former beauty pageant queen, Harris breathed a weathered, ethereal "Never Get Out of Love Alive," the new "Michelangelo" and "Lost Highway" by the McGarrigle sisters.
And, like a preacher singing the praise of her own congregation, Harris finally thanked the crowd: "As James Taylor would say, "Without you, it would only be a sound check."'
Three hours later, there was no doubt the audience wished it had been -- and another round of songs still lay ahead.
© 1998 The Press Democrat
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