Farm Aid 2002

BURGETTSTOWN, Pa., Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Earnest encouragement for family farmers and fighting words for the U.S. government and corporate concerns -- and plenty of music -- were the focus of Farm Aid 2002, the 9-hour rock and country music benefit concert that took place Saturday at the Post-Gazette Pavilion in this town near Pittsburgh.

Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young -- who co-founded Farm Aid during 1985 following comments by Bob Dylan during that year's Live Aid concert -- were joined by new board member Dave Matthews and an array of other artists, including Kid Rock, Toby Keith, Keith Urban and Lee Ann Womack. MC'd by actor Matthew McConaughey, the concert was broadcast as a telethon by Country Music Television , though Farm Aid doesn't expect to have donation figures until later this week.

During the past 17 years, the organization has raised an estimated $24 million via its 15 previous concerts and other activities. It has delivered grants of more than $15 million to more than 100 farm organizations, service agencies and churches in 44 states.

But the need is still there, as the artists and Farm Aid officials pointed out both on stage and off. Tens of thousands of North American family farmers continue to go under each year, and this summer's drought has put even more of them at risk. The enemy: corporate-controlled farms and a U.S. government whose recent farm bills continues to provide more subsidies for them than for independent operators, according to Farm Aid.

"Now we know it's just us against them again," Nelson said of the government during a pre-show news conference.

"There's no disillusions we have any help on the other (government) side." Young added that "We don't need the government ... They haven't done a damn thing for us."

Matthews, meanwhile, championed producers of organic foods, complaining that the government money is "going into the hands of people who couldn't give a crap about the environment. They're getting money hand over fist to feed us crap."

Their messages mixed with the music on stage throughout the day. Matthews chanted "Good food!" as a kind of mantra during his solo acoustic set; for his rendition of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," he also changed part of the lyric to "no factory farmer rule my life." Mellencamp let his music do the talking during his charged performance, with songs such as "Rain on the Scarecrow," "Peaceful World" and "Small Town" underscoring the purpose of the day.

Young's set, meanwhile, was the most overtly political; sporting a red Stop Factory Farms T-shirt, dotted his 30-minute performance with mini-speeches about Farm Aid's mission and twice intoned "Attention shoppers! Buy with a conscience and save the family farm!" He noted that Farm Aid is "fighting to save a traditional way of life" and urged the audience to avoid chain supermarkets -- singling out the Safeway organization -- and instead patronize organic food stores and independent grocers.

Young also provided the day's musical high points. After hits such as "Old Man," "Heart of Gold," "Harvest Moon" and "After the Goldrush," he was joined by Nelson and dancers from the Native American Otoe-Missouria tribe -- which inducted Young as an honorary brother during the day -- for passionate renditions of "Comes a Time" and "Sugar Mountain."

The 25,000 at the Post-Gazette Pavilion responded enthusiastically to the eclectic array of sounds it heard, though the rock artists -- which dominated the prime-time portions of the show -- were clearly favored. And even artists such as Keith Urban, Anthony Smith and Lee Ann Womack played sets that straddled the line between country and rock influences. Rap-rocker Kid Rock and his Twisted Brown Trucker band offered a pounding performance that paused for some twang when country singer Allison Moorer joined him for the song "Picture." Guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd performed with the late Stevie Ray Vaughan's Double Trouble rhythm section, playing Vaughan's "Texas Flood" and Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)."

Matthews included an unrecorded song, "Gravedigger," while Mellencamp surprised fans with a rootsy cover of blues legend Robert Johnson's "Stones in My Passway;" the Indiana rocker also brought singer-songwriter Gillian Welch -- who performed earlier in the day -- on stage for his set-closing anthem "Pink Houses."

Nelson was Farm Aid's busiest performer, making cameos with Womack, Young and Keith -- who nodded cheerfully to the country legend's proclivities with an improvised ditty called "I'll Never Smoke Weed with Willie Again." Nelson also closed the show with a 65-minute set of his own, joined by most of the other performers for a TV finale of "America the Beautiful," "Move it On Over" and a medley of "On the Road Again" and "I Saw the Light."

There's no word yet about Farm Aid 2003, except for a resolve to do it again next year -- and for as long as is necessary. We've been here a long time," Young noted. "We're not going anywhere."