BBC Radio 2 Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Nanci Griffith, John Prine, Steve Earle
Concert For A Landmine Free World
Hammersmith Apollo, 17th January

"I feel like a member of the audience who got promoted", beamed Elvis Costello, who spent a lot of last night's concert just looking really excited to be there. Truth be told so was I. This morning I looked back through the usual mess of notes scribbled in the dark to discover that at one point I had been, "very excited indeed". Such eloquent prose. But it summed up how awestruck I felt the sight of Nanci Griffith, Elvis Costello, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and John Prine all sat on stage together.

Emmylou Harris played an elegant and gracious hostess. Sat there draped in her silk scarf woven by a Vietnamese women's collective, she introduced her colleagues with great pride, lent her tender backing vocals to their songs and when she took the spotlight herself to play recent material like Michelangelo, Red Dirt Girl and Hour Of Gold, I got a tingle right down to my toes which still hasn't gone.

Nanci Griffith treated us to some old favourites, like Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness and It's A Hard Life, which Emmylou introduced by saying, "This song melts my butter". From her newer material she chose Travelling Through This Part of You, which she wrote after her visit to Vietnam, and dedicated it to the head of the anti-landmine campaign, Vietnam veteran Bobby Muller.

Muller came onstage to explain the issues behind the campaign and talk about the support he had received from the artists. The audience were right behind him. When Emmylou said that her silk scarf would be auctioned off in the interval to raise money for the women that wove it, I thought her suggested starting bid of £200 was a bit presumptuous. But later she announced that it had raised a massive £8000, so I was wrong to underestimate how important the cause was in the minds of the audience.

However, the artists wisely chose performing over preaching and the evening was anything but sombre. Indeed it was John Prine who received some of the biggest cheers of the night, for his more humorous songs like In Spite Of Ourselves. But the most support went to the only Britisher in the line-up, Elvis Costello. Although this is not the first time he has dipped his toe in country waters (check out his Billy Sherrill produced album Almost Blue) he is not from the same country mould as his stage companions. For me this gave the evening a deliciously unpredictable dimension and as such his inclusion was a masterstroke. Costello was the most emotive of them all, really attacking his instrument; at times shouting, at times quiet, and you could see the respect in the eyes of his stage companions. The crowd called for Alison, but instead got Shipbuilding, Indoor Fireworks, and a newer song, Alibi, and wasn't disappointed.

Steve Earle, who said he wanted to do something about his audience becoming older and more hirsute as the years wore on, played "chick songs" like Valentine's Day and the haunting Goodbye. He occasionally accompanied his friends on mandolin, but was the only one who didn't join in on backing vocals, preferring to sit in the middle with his arms folded like a big stubborn schoolboy…or was it that he was just taking it all in? And, well, you would, wouldn't you?

Sue Keogh - January 2002

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