Farm Aid: Keep America Growing Vol 1
Fifteen years afterWillie Nelson,John Mellencamp, andNeil Youngjoined forces to support the beleaguered American farmer, a collection culled from all those annual benefit shows finally appears. The two-discFarm Aid Volume Onereaches as far back as the 1986 show (Los Lobos' "One Time One Night") and leaps ahead to '99. With guests ranging from Nelson's outlaw compadres (Johnny Cash,Waylon Jennings,Kris Kristofferson), to new country types (Martina McBride,Trisha Yearwood) to rockers (Dave Matthews, theBeach Boys,Bryan Adams), the stylistic kin of the three founders are well represented. The initiators also offer many of the CD's highlights, with Young's environmental ode "Mother Earth" and Nelson's duet withBeckonJimmie Rodgers's "Peach Picking Time down in Georgia" enlivening the proceedings considerably. And Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," cut in 1993, captures the great singer feeling strong and ornery. Just goes to show that Farm Aid has, at long last, reaped what it's sowed, and here's the cream of the crop.--Steven Stolder