When Emmylou Harris brings her Concert for a Landmine Free World to the Birchmere Center outside of Washington, D.C., on November 12th, some of her best friends will join her onstage. But they won't just be singing along -- they'll be offering tributes to the latest winner of the Patrick J. Leahy Humanitarian Award.
Harris will receive the award for her formation and support of the Concerts for a Landmine Free World campaign, which she started in 1998. Many of the artists who will perform at the benefit awards ceremony/concert -- including Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Griffin, Nancy Griffith, Buddy and Julie Miller, Jamie O'Hara, and John Prine -- have joined her on previous tours for this cause, and followed her lead in visiting countries devastated by anti-personnel landmines. The award is presented by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, an international humanitarian organization that aids civilian victims of conflicts overseas. It's named for Sen. Leahy (D-Vt.), who for eleven years has spearheaded efforts for a global ban on landmine use, starting with the U.S. military.
Harris, a Washington, D.C.-area native, began her fund-raising tour after visiting Southeast Asia in 1996. "She went to Cambodia and Vietnam and saw our clinics there," foundation spokeswoman Maria Montenegro said. "The artists have been our most public voice in getting the message out. Until 9/11, landmines and terrorism, that all seemed so far away." Last year's concert tour occurred just afterward and really drove home the point, she said.
In addition to the tour, Harris frequently participates in private performances for the cause. On September 26th and 27th in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she and David Byrne were involved in a two-night event in which patrons who purchased dinner party tickets in the several-hundred-dollar range got to attend the following night's private concert. Not long ago, Harris and Elvis Costello also toured Europe with Earle and Prine to raise funds for clinics and surveying of mined areas for future removal efforts. Currently, there is no ban on landmine use or exportation by the U.S. military.
Tickets for the Birchmere gala start at $250 ($150 general admission seats are sold out) and go up to $10,000 for special seating in tables of six, with an after-show reception and photo-op with the artists. Ticket information is available at www.vvaf.org or by calling 202-557-7586.
This year's Concert for a Landmine Free World tour takes place November 6-10 in Raleigh and Asheville, North Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; and Knoxville and Birmingham, Alabama and will feature Harris, Carpenter, Griffin and Bruce Cockburn.
LYNNE MARGOLIS
(October 23, 2002)