Various Artists - Farm Aid on the Road 2020, 9-26-2020

Here's another recent live stream benefit concert with lots of big names. Farm Aid has been happening every year since 1985, funding a non-profit that benefits Americans with family farms. Of course, the 2020 concert has had to be a virtual event, with artists prerecording their songs from their homes. This is a particularly long concert, almost three hours, after the many cuts I made.

Speaking of those cuts, I didn't cut any of the music. But there was lots of talking between songs, including testimonials from farmers and even some commercials. I cut all that out. Musician Jon Batiste introduced each of the other musicians, and I cut all those intros out too. I also frequently edited down the comments from the artists themselves to the bare bones. My thinking there was I wanted this to be focused on the music, with repeat playability.

In terms of the music, this differs from some other similar benefit concerts during the pandemic in that the big name artists got to play up to four songs instead of just one or two. Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews all got to play four songs each, and most of the others played two. Willie Nelson and his two sons Lukas and Micah ended the show with eight songs, with them rotating who did the lead vocals. (Particle Kid is the name of Micah Nelson's band.)

the sound is generally excellent. The only exception to that is Neil Young's set. Neil, being weird as he often is, decided to play his songs in a chicken coop in a farm. So there's a lot of ambient noise, especially the clucking of chickens. There was nothing I could do to improve the sound there, but it still sounds okay.

As I mentioned yesterday when posting the "A Night for Austin" benefit concert, there are a lot of these sorts of concerts in 2020, but I pass on most of them. However, like the Austin one, I was impressed by the consistently high quality of music in this one. I encourage you to give it a listen.

01 Home (Jack Johnson)
02 Better Together (Jack Johnson)
03 And It's Still Alright (Nathaniel Rateliff)
04 Time Stands (Nathaniel Rateliff)
05 Where Rainbows Never Die (Chris Stapleton)
06 Starting Over (Chris Stapleton)
07 To Live (Norah Jones)
08 Sunrise (Norah Jones)
09 The Movie Song (Record Company)
10 Black Patch (Kelsey Waldon)
11 Colors (Black Pumas)
12 Confines (Black Pumas with Jack Johnson)
13 Don't Drink the Water (Dave Matthews)
14 Rye Whiskey (Dave Matthews)
15 Grey Street (Dave Matthews)
16 Shadows on the Wall (Dave Matthews)
17 Drink Up and Go Home (Valerie June)
18 Lonesome Valley (Valerie June)
19 Longest Days (John Mellencamp)
20 Jack and Diane (John Mellencamp)
21 Easy Target (John Mellencamp)
22 Rain on the Scarecrow (John Mellencamp)
23 The Eye (Brandi Carlile)
24 The Mother (Brandi Carlile)
25 Field of Opportunity (Neil Young)
26 Homegrown (Neil Young)
26 talk (Neil Young)
27 Harvest (Neil Young)
28 Old Man (Neil Young)
29 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young)
30 You Don't Know like I Know (Bonnie Raitt & Boz Scaggs)
31 All My Tears [Be Washed Away] (Jamey Johnson)
32 Every Night Is Saturday Night in New Orleans (Jamey Johnson)
33 Far Away (Edie Brickell with Charlie Sexton)
34 Jubilee (War & Treaty)
35 Little Boy Blue (War & Treaty)
36 Letting Me Down (Margo Price)
37 Prisoner of the Highway (Margo Price)
38 American Life (Particle Kid)
39 Focus on the Music (Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real)
40 King Harvest [Has Surely Come] (Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real)
41 Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die (Willie Nelson with Micah Nelson & Lukas Nelson)
42 I Thought about You, Lord (Micah Nelson with Lukas Nelson & Willie Nelson)
43 Hands on the Wheel (Lukas Nelson with Micah Nelson & Willie Nelson)
44 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson, Lukas Nelson & Micah Nelson)
45 I'll Fly Away (Jon Batiste)
46 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Willie Nelson & Jon Batiste)

https://www.imagenetz.de/m2mCX

For the album cover, I decided to use the official logo for the concert. This appeared at the very start of the concert video when it appeared on YouTube. I made some adjustments to the date at the bottom, but otherwise left it unchanged.