by Julian Spivey
Over the last month in this world and in our country, we’ve seen a renewed respect and appreciation for medical workers worldwide who are risking their lives to save our lives and keep us safe amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Music superstar Lady Gaga helped curate a music special, not to raise money for anything, but merely to say thank you to those medical heroes that aired on major networks ABC, CBS, NBC and others, as well as streamed online on Saturday, April 18.
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I’ve seen a handful of these music specials in my lifetime for various causes and I have to say this was perhaps the most star-studded I’ve seen in quite some time, so I tip my cap to Lady Gaga for getting all these musical superstars and legends together. The special had everything from Rock royalty like Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones to some of pop music’s newest bright stars in Billie Eilish and Lizzo. There wasn’t a single dud in the bunch.

The special was hosted by late night talk show hosts Stephen Colbert (‘Late Show’), Jimmy Fallon (‘The Tonight Show’) and Jimmy Kimmel (‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’) and the trio did an admirable job of throwing to musicians performing from the safety and comfort of their homes, while also giving us a laugh or two along the way.

Lady Gaga rightfully kicked her shindig off with a performance of “Smile,” which she said was her way of hopefully giving us at home something to smile about during these hard times.

One of the most touching moments of the telecast came next when living legend Stevie Wonder paid tribute to friend Bill Withers, who died on March 30 from heart complications, by mixing Withers’ classic “Lean On Me” with “Love’s In Need of Love Today.”

Rock legend Paul McCartney paid tribute to the hard working women of the medical field by performing his Beatles No. 1 classic “Lady Madonna.” One of the true highlights of the evening came a little later when fellow British music royalty the Rolling Stones meshed together their hit “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” from their respective houses. The song sounded great, but if you noticed drummer Charlie Watts was air-drumming – does one of the all-time great drummers seriously not have a drum set at his home? In proof there is no shortage of all-time great British rockers Elton John performed an energetic “I’m Still Standing,” which will no doubt serve as a great theme for all of us who survive this time.

Being a global event, it was nice to see some worldly music on the program with performances from Latin star Maluma performing “Carnaval” and African star Burna Boy meshing together “African Giant” and “Hallelujah.”

Among the younger pop set featured on the telecast were perhaps 2019’s biggest pop star finds in Lizzo and Billie Eilish. Both performed classic covers with Lizzo dropping jaws with Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” which I felt was the best performance of the two-hour special. Eilish performed Bobby Hebb’s 1966 hit “Sunny,” with her brother/producer Finneas accompanying on organ. It was terrific, but also the hardest to hear performance of the evening due to a lack of a microphone involved.

Speaking of organ performances, I thought Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder was about to launch into something from “The Phantom of the Opera” during his performance of “River Cross,” with the way his organ sounded.

Some of the evening’s truly touching performances were of songs that almost find a second meaning in these hard times like Kacey Musgraves’ “Rainbow,” Taylor Swift’s “Soon You’ll Get Better” and Green Day’s frontman Billie Joe Armstrong doing “Wake Me Up When September Ends.” Good luck having gotten through any of those stellar performances with dry eyes.

And, if you ever thought to yourself, “I wonder what Jennifer Lopez would sound like performing a Barbra Streisand number?” I don’t think you would’ve been disappointed by her version of “People.”

The evening ended with a special, previously unannounced, all-star collaboration of “The Prayer” by Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Lady Gaga, John Legend and Lang Lang accompanying them on piano.

The entire special was interspersed with clips and interviews with medical professionals doing their best to make this world a safer and better place and I hope many throughout the country got the chance to enjoy the program tonight in the comfort of their homes.

by Julian Spivey
With much of the country in quarantine over the last month due to Covid-19 there has been lot of talk about “essential workers” and one group of essential workers who have been struggling during the terrible time in our country is the family farmer.
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Farm Aid committee members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews got together to help out the family farmers and ranchers struggling at this time with a special “at home” version of the Farm Aid music festival that aired on AXS TV on Saturday, April 11, as well as streamed live on the network’s social media pages.

Nelson, one of the founders of Farm Aid with Young and Mellencamp in 1985, released a statement before the broadcast that said: “One of [Covid 19’s] many impacts is that it has helped us to better see the value of essential people like heath care workers, grocery store clerks, delivery truck drivers, and farmers and ranchers. Farm Aid has worked for 35 years to build a family farm centered agriculture system, and we are here now to support farmers and ranchers in this crisis, without whom we could not eat.”

The AXS TV telecast was hosted by Nelson and his sons, Lukas and Micah, from their home with most of the talking being done by Lukas and Micah. Nelson, who will turn 87 later this month, has dealt with health issues over the last few years and generally didn’t seem able to speak or sing well on Saturday.

Matthews was the first of the four performers on the evening, as the youngest of the board members of Farm Aid. He seemed to have the longest set of the four starting things off with a beautiful cover of Nelson’s classic “Funny How Time Slips Away.” He would then perform a couple of his own notable songs back-to-back in “Satellite,” from his 1994 debut album Under the Table and Dreaming, and “Bartender,” off 2002’s Busted Stuff.

The final performance of Matthews set was the most important in my opinion as he debuted a new song (that he didn’t share the title of) that he said he wrote a couple of weeks ago during this quarantine. It was a beautiful piece of hopefulness that really brings a tear to your eye.

Of the four performers on Saturday night’s event the most philosophical was certainly John Mellencamp, who spoke of all the good things this moment in our life has brought to us – people making art and spending more time with loved ones.

He performed a couple of tunes really applicable to our current world situation in “Save Some Time to Dream,” from his 2010 album No Better Than This,” and “Longest Days,” off 2008’s Life, Death, Love and Freedom.

Mellencamp’s acoustics in his place were the worst of all four performances, but that didn’t really bug me too much on Saturday night, I was just happy to hear him perform classics like “Jack & Diane” and “Rain on the Scarecrow,” which ended his set and has somewhat become the anthem for Farm Aid and the plight of the American family farmer.

During the quarantine Neil Young has been recording what he’s called Fireside Sessions from his home in Telluride, Colo. and sent some of these performances into the At Home with Farm Aid special. His cobbled together set from these Fireside performances began with “Vampire Blues,” from his 2016 album Earth. I had never heard this song before, but immediately enjoyed it.

Young would break out some of his older numbers with “Love and Only Love,” off 1990’s Ragged Glory, and “Helpless,” which appeared on the legendary Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 1970 album Déjà vu.

Sometimes legendary artists like these playing songs that aren’t exactly considered among their “greatest hits,” but rather deep cuts would be controversial, but these performances truly seemed to be perfect for such a moment in our time.

As mentioned earlier Nelson didn’t quite seem to be at his usual self vocally and this led to two of his three performances being led vocally by his sons. This wasn’t a disappointment though as it gave his kids the chance to show off some of Nelson’s deep cuts, as well, that you never hear at a Nelson concert. Micah kicked things off with “I Thought About You, Lord,” from 1996’s Spirit, and Lukas performed an excellent version of “Hands on the Wheel,” from his pop’s iconic 1975 album Red Headed Stranger.

The trio of Nelson’s ended the hour-plus of spectacular music with Willie’s classic “On the Road Again” with Willie taking his turn on vocals. It was a fitting way to end the special and I’m sure Willie and his boys, like all touring musicians in today’s world, truly can’t wait to get back on the road again.

If you would like to donate to Farm Aid and help our nation’s hard-working and absolutely essential family farmers and ranchers you can do so at its website.