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More from Sunday’s Help Austin Help Haiti concert
(Kelly West AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
The marathon “Help Austin Help Haiti” benefit on Sunday at the Austin Music Hall began with Asleep At the Wheel’s lilting version of Townes Van Zandt’s “If I Needed You” and drew toward a close almost 10 hours later with Charlie Sexton romping through a muscular version of the Beatles’ “Help.”
In between, the cream of Austin’s Americana/singer-songwriter community came together, as it has so often in the past, for those in need. Although no exact figures were available Monday morning, the concert and accompanying silent auction seemed certain to have raised many tens of thousands of dollars for Haitian earthquake relief.
The event came together with breathtaking rapidity. Visiting with Tim O’Connor and Doug Moyes of Direct Events, who manage the Music Hall, on an unrelated matter a week and a half ago, Joe Ely asked offhandedly if anyone was planning a local effort to aid Haitian earthquake victims. “You are,” the pair told Ely in essence, and basically tossed him the keys to the building.
With lots of behind-the-scenes sweat and tenacity, Ely and his cohorts assembled a cast of musicians that also included Shawn Colvin, Bob Schneider, the Gourds, Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis, the Flatlanders, Robert Earl Keen, Marcia Ball (filling in for an ailing Billy Joe Shaver), Band of Heathens, Patricia Vonne, Reckless Kelly, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Guy Forsyth, Band of Heathens and Paula Nelson.
Many of the participants were parents themselves and the televised images of children wandering lost through the wreckage of Port Au Prince weighed on them.
“The big thing was being a dad,” said Bob Schneider, discussing his participation as his son, Luc hovered nearby. “All those people will have a hard time looking after the kids in all the devastation.”
“No matter how big this town gets or how much it changes, it’s still a music town and this is how we grieve and celebrate,” said Kelly Willis as her own kids romped around her dressing room.
Husband Bruce Robison added, “I’m proud to be part of this. It’s wonderful to try to help, and to find people that give you a way to help.” “Musicians are like family,” said Shawn Colvin, “and when someone like Joe makes this happen, how can you say no?”
Inevitably, with such a cast, musical highlights were plentiful. The Flatlanders (Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock), augmented by guitarist David Holt and steel maestro Lloyd Maines, lit up the room with a scorching version of Gilmore’s “Midnight Train.”
Colvin did a meltingly lovely solo take on the Lefty Frizzell/Merle Haggard hit “That’s the Way Love Goes.” Marcia Ball, sitting in with Ely and band, rocked the 88s on Ely’s keyboard anthem “Fingernails.” The Gourds mashed up an epic rendition of “Gin and Juice” with samples of Sam Cooke’s “Cupid” and Cheap Trick’s “Surrender.” Ely dug deep into his song bag for a moving acoustic version of “Dig All Night.” Robert Earl Keen put an anthemic spin on Townes Van Zandt’s “Flying Shoes.” Robison and Willis sat in on one another’s sets between backstage babysitting duties.
“You feel helpless looking at the TV,” said Ely during the course of the evening. “But then I thought about Willie Nelson doing the benefit for the tsunami victims and Clifford Antone putting together a fundraiser after Hurricane Katrina … And I thought, it’s my turn.”
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By Burt Friedman
January 27, 2010 8:49 AM | Link to this
I just wish i would have went to the benefit and contributed something (INSTEAD OF WATCHING FOOTBALL), because i know the music was GREAT111