The American farmer is fighting for your life and the life of the earth, and what is killing the earth is climate change. It’s not a natural thing that’s happening.
Neil Young
Farm Aid returned to Saratoga, New York for the second time since 2013 as Willie Nelson and friends turned the upstate shed into a hootenanny of rockin’ country and shout-outs to the family farm. Casting a wide net at the 39th annual event over the organic food movement and family farms, the event took on the cause and turned it into a celebration at song and the American farmer.
Farm Aid has taken in about $80 million since its humble beginnings in 1986 and Willie still signs the checks. It was also a day of collaboration as artists meandered onstage and played on each other’s sets.
Governor Kathy Hochul opened the festival and was followed by the Kontiwennenhá:Wi singers and the Wisdom Indian Dancers. Jesse Welles took to the stage next with some snarky tunes about death. Cassandra Lewis belted out a firestorm of country blues from behind kaleidoscope glasses and purple velvet pants like Elvis, and adding from the stage she exclaimed, “If you know me, you know how important farming is to me!’
Charley Crockett worked the stage later on with the edgy swagger of a rhinestone cowboy playing some grimy honky tonk. On “$10 Cowboy,” he preened at the crowd with guitar held up high shuffling across the stage like a naughty schoolboy. Farm Aid veteran Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats played to their southern roots adding some Memphis soul and barnyard stomp to the mix.
Rateliff, who has got to be one of the hardest working men in show biz, wore a red Stop Factory Farms as he belted out “I Never Get Old” and worked the stage with some badass footwork as the horn section banged out the top end. He returned on Lukas Nelson with the Travelin’ McCourys for their set closer “Roll in my Sweet Babies Arms.”
Photos by Glyn Emmerson
Farm Aid’s board of directors, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Neil Young and Willie Nelson, closed out the night with hour long sets as the sun settled on the last day of summer. Mellencamp had the crowd on its feet for his entire set banging out the big ones from the opener “Small Town” and “Paper in Fire” to the Farm Aid anthem “Rain on the Scarecrow,” of which jumpstarted the movement at the first Farm Aid in Champaign, Illinois in 1985.
Dave Matthews’ set with guitarist Tim Reynolds went down like a jam session on a back porch between two old friends. Matthew’s homey delivery and Reynolds’ tasty licks up-and-down the fretboard were the perfect antidotes to Mellencamp and Young’s blown-out rockers. On the Bands’ “The Weight,” Nathaniel Rateliff and Nelson brothers Micah and Lucas joined in on the choruses and added some country-style picking to Reynolds sonic noodling akin to the jam gods.
Neil Young started his set off on acoustic guitar with a number of gems from his 1992 album Harvest Moon. Debuting his new band the Chrome Hearts including members of Promise of the Real and Spooner Oldham on organ, who also played on the Harvest Moon sessions. They offered up “From Hank to Hendrix,” “Harvest Moon,” and “Unknown Legend” before Young took to the piano for “Journey Through the Past” and the sing along “Love Earth.” “Powderfinger” ended the set as Young took to his Les Paul guitar, Old Black, and laced into some demonic feedback and squelch tweaking notes out it as he crunched through the coda, proving once and for all that Rust Never Sleeps.
Willie Nelson greeted the crowd with a hearty shout out of “Happy Farm Aid, 39 years!” then strummed the opening chords to “Whiskey River.” Flanked by his sons, Nelson was on fire belting out his greatest hits as he plucked his guitar Trigger into submission and barreled through his set like a human jukebox up there. Tom Waits’ “Last Leaf” was a poignant reminder that we are all temporary guardians to the planet and must handle with care.
Farm Aid artists came together onstage for the grand finale of “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die,” and “It’s Hard to be Humble” ending the night with a gracious nod and wink to the crowd on yet other glorious Farm Aid. ‘Til next year…
