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Popular music doesn't get more meaningful than this, five legendary artists sharing a stage and the goal and vision of creating relief for victims of war, maimed by landmines. "Concert For A Landmine Free World" is not the kind of charity concerts that there's been so many of since September 11th last year. Three of the artists tonight, Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffith and Steve Earle have been doing similar concerts in the US for over three years and they have also gone to war-torn countries to visit victims of landmine maiming. They have all shown great social conscience, and adding their collective integrity as artists, this turns out to be an unbeatable combination.
The concert is entirely acoustic. The only backing is provided by Nanci Griffiths piano-player, James Hooker. The tone between the artists is good, but they seem a bit nervous and tense at the beginning. Elvis Costello is the "newcomer" to these shows. The first part of the show, in which Elvis does a brilliant version of U2's "Please," is a subdued affair. The artists sit in a line onstage, doing one song each, but somehow failing to entice the audience. The sound leaves a lot to be desired and the whole first set actually seems a bit tame and uninspired. This is reimbursed when winner of the Nobel Peace Prize of 1997 and leader of the anti-landmine organization, Bobby Fuller enters the stage to make an appeal just prior to the interval.
After the interval it's as if there's five entirely new artists up there on the stage, and at last we get some truly magical moments. Nanci Griffith gives us all the goosebumps with her rendition of Julie Gold's "From A Distance," Emmylou Harris pays homage to her mentor and boyfriend Gram Parsons in "Sleepless Nights," which she does as a duet with Elvis Costello. Then Costello takes the mike and spits out a fierce and intense "Alibi," a perfect appetizer for his forthcoming solo album, due out in April.
Suddenly the atmosphere loosens up. The audience is cheering, the artists are helping each other and edging each other on by singing backing vocals on each other's songs, and the audience are treated to witty remarks and hilarious stories from the stage, something that instigate even more laughs and cheers. In some of the intros to the songs, the artists dwell on the cause that has brought us all here tonight, but they never let it overpower the musical performances. And as a concert with a cause, there are surely no other artists who could've done this with greater integrity. They are all songwriters with their hearts in their American roots, both musically, politically and socially, just like their idol, Woody Guthrie.
In fact, I'm certain that if Guthrie had been alive today, they would've saved him a chair onstage. His spirit has never been more alive than in Belfast last night.
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