Country Music Monday: Farm Aid Concert

Concerts are always fun to go to, but the Farm Aid Concert was one for the books. It’s a bonus that it also helps a cause is even better. The spring of 2019 in the west and midwest has had mother natures wrath of swinging to the extremes. Nebraska being hit with an epic blizzard on one end and massive flooding on the other. Southwest Iowa also having massive amounts of flooding where the two states collide. The devastation was terrible and is still going on months later.

So KAT 103.7fm,  THE WOLF 93.3fm, and Harrah’s Casino decided to do something about it. They contacted the people at Farm Aid to put on a concert to help the farm victims of these floods. If you haven’t heard of Farm Aid, it started as a benefit concert in 1985 in Illinois to raise money for American farmers in danger of losing their farms. The original Farm Aid concert was organized by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young.

Nelson and Mellencamp then brought family farmers before Congress to testify about the state of family farming in America. Congress subsequently passed the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987 to help save family farms from foreclosure. Today, Farm Aid is an organization that works to increase awareness of the importance of family farms. It puts on concerts of country, blues, and rock music bringing in a variety of stars. This concert in Council Bluffs Iowa included three; Jimmy Weber Music,  Russell Dickerson, and LoCash as the headliner.

(photo credit facebook)

After another iffy week of weather, the clouds parted, the sun shined, and the rain held off for the day. It reached a high of 80 but the night was perfect at Harrah’s Casino in Council Bluffs, newest outdoor concert venue called Stir Cove. It was perfect for all the country concert goers to indulge in great music and flowing drinks. The radio stations worked with all the businesses that helped support and were able to get almost 100% of the profits from that night to go to farmer flood relief. From the tickets & fees to the drinks, including water purchases going towards the dollars raised.

Jimmy Weber took the stage to kick it off with a fantastic fiddle player from Russia. Followed up by Russell Dickerson who gave it his all underneath the hot lights. The crowd loved every minute of it as he interacted with them and told the story thru keyboard and upbeat songs of how he met his wife.

Then when the crowd was primed and readied the boys from LoCash took the stage. It was all up there; lights, number one hits, and “mosquitos the size of pterodactyls” Chris joked. They were extraordinarily grateful and humbled when everyone knew every word to sing back at them. They even stayed after the show to sign every album bought that night, and that line was LONG, but everyone appreciated it.

The radio stations presented checks on stage from supporting businesses totaling $20,000 and a grand total the next day announced on air of 40,000 in just that night’s purchases. A considerable notch to helping farmers in farming communities in the southwestern Iowa, eastern Nebraska area. Even tho it was a Wednesday night, being invited down, purchasing a ticket, and partaking in the drinks doesn’t seem like much, every lil bit helps. And being a farmer’s daughter, I will always support where I can, if I can, when I can.