VARIOUS ARTISTS
Concerts For A Landmine Free World (Vanguard)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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VARIOUS ARTISTS: Concerts For A Landmine Free World (Vanguard) Under the auspices of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, a series of concerts were produced in December of 1999 as the Concerts For A Landmine Free World. The artists who were assembled for those shows definitely walked their talk, traveling to places like Vietnam and Cambodia to get a firsthand view of the issue and bring their relief directly. Of course, today their efforts are given new currency by the situation in Afghanistan, where the minefields of wars past deter relief efforts during the recent conflict there.

What's under consideration here, though, is the music that was performed at those first Concerts For A Landmine Free World, and if you're a fan of the music that inhabits the terrain where folk meets country, you'll want to own this one. This is a cream of the crop collection, as a glance at the track list will tell you, and the importance they attached to the issue seems to have infused their performances, bringing out the very best from the very best.

That you'll be supporting something truly worthy (the anti-landmine campaign that has been spearheaded by VVAF won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize) might be the main reason you pick this one up, or it might be a bonus. What you'll get is a great set of songs. What you'll do is support a great cause. What are you waiting for?

Track List:

The Pearl/Emmylou Harris * Big Ol' Goofy World/John Prine * Cold Dog Soup/Guy Clark * This Shirt/ Mary Chapin Carpenter * The Mines Of Mozambique/Bruce Cockburn * It's A Hard Life/Nanci Griffith * Morphine/Gillian Welch & David Rawlings * Mary/Patty Griffin * Shipwrecked In The Eighties/Kris Kristofferson * Wilderness Of This World/Terry Allen * Christmas In Washington/Steve Earle

© 2001 - Shaun Dale