4/16/2017 Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, and More Bring Refugee Benefit to New York's Town Hall - Inspirer

http://inspirer.life/home/2016/10/emmylou-harris-robert-plant-and-more-bring-refugee-benefit-to-new-yorks-town-hall/ 1/10

­ ¬ ŧ �

EMMYLOU HARRIS, ROBERT PLANT, ANDMORE BRING REFUGEE BENEFIT TO NEW

YORK’S TOWN HALL

EVENTS MUSIC

4/16/2017 Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, and More Bring Refugee Benefit to New York's Town Hall - Inspirer

http://inspirer.life/home/2016/10/emmylou-harris-robert-plant-and-more-bring-refugee-benefit-to-new-yorks-town-hall/ 2/10

SHARE ­ ¬ Ø Õ Ŭ Ɨ �

by : CARRIE COUROGEN | 6 MONTHS AGO | 351 VIEWS

Share:

28

It wasn’t lost on many during Tuesday night’s Lampedusa: Concert for

Refugees bene�t that a series of concerts to raise awareness and funds for

the current refugee crisis was in full swing just as the presidential election

drew increasingly nearer.

In an election season where refugees have become such politicized

�gures, where they’ve been distilled down to talking points and memes

and likened to a bowl of Skittles, the Emmylou Harris-helmed bene�t was

a humbling reminder that, above everything else, refugees are just people.

They’re just people. Men, women, and children, and in the current refugee

crisis, 65 million of them around the world have been displaced from their

homes. This isn’t a partisan issue; it’s a humanitarian one.

“You can start from a place of fear and suspicion, or you can start from a

place of love and compassion,” Joey Ryan, one half of indie-folk duo the

Milk Carton Kids said. “We’re all doing this to hopefully promote the latter.”

People behind the slew of Facebook comments that litter the event’s posts

might want to question their decisions to boycott the concert series for

political reasons. It wasn’t a political event. It was a momentary relief from

the negativity and ugliness that has �ooded the news cycle. There was no

mention of either candidate, save for a brief comedic song from Nancy and

Beth (actresses Megan Mullally and Stephanie Hunt’s musical alter egos).

There were no accusations of who’s right and wrong in a political war over

immigration, no damning critiques of anyone involved in either political

party. 

4/16/2017 Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, and More Bring Refugee Benefit to New York's Town Hall - Inspirer

http://inspirer.life/home/2016/10/emmylou-harris-robert-plant-and-more-bring-refugee-benefit-to-new-yorks-town-hall/ 3/10

The musicians held back from proselytizing; any remarks about the

refugee crisis were brief and told in personal anecdotes. The Milk Carton

Kids shared that their family histories are marked with immigration stories,

that there were stark di�erences between the lives of distant relatives who

made it in America and those who were turned away. Harris told a short

story about meeting a former child refugee who came to America on the

back of a train and is now a college graduate working with refugee

services to give others the same kind of help he received.

It wasn’t a night about politics. It was a night about music, and the way it

can unite people, especially when it’s for a good cause.

The evening began unassuming and intimate, with each musician sitting

and playing in-the-round style, taking turns singing lead while others

occasionally joined in, at times performing songs as an ensemble. They

referred to it as a good old-fashioned guitar pull, as if they were just friends

jamming together and not some of the most seminal names in rock and

roll. But casual as they tried to be, each musician gave performances that

4/16/2017 Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, and More Bring Refugee Benefit to New York's Town Hall - Inspirer

http://inspirer.life/home/2016/10/emmylou-harris-robert-plant-and-more-bring-refugee-benefit-to-new-yorks-town-hall/ 4/10

were met with thunderous applause, reminders of just how much they

could do with such sparse fanfare.

Harris hushed the crowd with a soft performance of “Making Believe,”

joking afterwards that she was just beginning to realize how many sad

songs �ll her library. Buddy Miller lightened the mood with �ery guitar work

and an electrifying rendition of “Gasoline and Matches” with Harris. Steve

Earle reminded the audience that everyone, especially New Yorkers, came

from somewhere else with “City of Immigrants,” and the Milk Carton Kids

stunned the crowd with a Simon and Garfunkel-esque cover of Harris’s

“Michelangelo.” Robert Plant’s take on the ancient folk song “Little

Maggie” began simply and quickly crescendoed into a lush roar of sound

from all of the musicians on stage.

While the night’s political points had existed mainly in quiet undertones, in

the subtle, yet pointed set list choices, its purpose was well made towards

the end of the evening when special guest Joan Baez took the stage. Baez

taught an entire generation of musicians that music could not just sound

good, but it could do good, Harris explained. That work was, in a way, part

4/16/2017 Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, and More Bring Refugee Benefit to New York's Town Hall - Inspirer

http://inspirer.life/home/2016/10/emmylou-harris-robert-plant-and-more-bring-refugee-benefit-to-new-yorks-town-hall/ 5/10

Share:

of the reason why they were all gathered together on stage, part of the

reason why Baez was nominated for a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of

Fame that morning.

Before a passionate, poignant performance of “Deportee (Plane Wreck at

Los Gatos),” the First Lady of activist songwriting mused that maybe

people were looking at the refugee crisis the wrong way.

“My father was an immigrant from Mexico and ended up becoming the co-

inventor of the x-ray microscope,” she explained. “We shouldn’t be thinking

about what immigrants are taking from us, but what gifts they can bring.”

 

Upcoming Tour Dates:

October 19 — Philadelphia, PA — Merriam Theater

October 21 — Washington, DC — Lisner Auditorium

To learn more about the Jesuit Refugee Service’s Global Education Initiative,

visit http://jrsusa.org.

Featured image: Ben Stas for the Boston Globe

28

Like this:

Like

Be the first to like this.

:

4/16/2017 Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, and More Bring Refugee Benefit to New York's Town Hall - Inspirer

http://inspirer.life/home/2016/10/emmylou-harris-robert-plant-and-more-bring-refugee-benefit-to-new-yorks-town-hall/ 6/10

Comments

0 comments

TAGS : BENEFIT . BUDDY MILLER . CLASSIC ROCK . CONCERT . CONCERT FOR REFUGEES .

EMMYLOU HARRIS . JESUIT REFUGEE SERVICE . JOAN BAEZ . JRSUSA . LAMPEDUSA .

LAMPEDUSA: CONCERT FOR REFUGEES . MEGAN MULLALLY . MILK CARTON KIDS . MUSIC . NANCY

AND BETH . NEW YORK . POWERFUL . REFUGEES . ROBERT PLANT . ROCK AND ROLL .

STEPHANIE HUNT . STEVE EARLE . THE MILK CARTON KIDS

Related

Shelly Colvin on Finding

Inspiration

These Women Made History

in the 2016 Election

Joy Oladokun on Making

Soul Music, Breaking

Creative Barriers, and What

She Learned From Amy

Winehouse

June 13, 2016

In "Exclusives"

November 10, 2016

In "News"

May 31, 2016

In "Exclusives"

Ą P R E V I O U S A R T I C L E

DR. LAUREN CALLAGHAN AND ‘PULLING THE TRIGGER: THE DEFINITIVE SURVIVALAND RECOVERY APPROACH FOR OCD, ANXIETY, PANIC ATTACKS AND RELATEDDEPRESSION’

N E X T A R T I C L E ą

BETH NEWELL AND SARAH PAPPALARDO TALK ‘HOW TO WIN AT FEMINISM’

0 Comments Sort by

Facebook Comments Plugin

Oldest

Add a comment...

4/16/2017 Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, and More Bring Refugee Benefit to New York's Town Hall - Inspirer

http://inspirer.life/home/2016/10/emmylou-harris-robert-plant-and-more-bring-refugee-benefit-to-new-yorks-town-hall/ 7/10

Carrie Courogen

Carrie is a writer and social media manager for Condé Nast Entertainment in

New York. Her writing has been featured in print and online for publications like

Quartz, Teen Vogue, The Hu�ngton Post, Bustle, and the New York Daily News,

among others. Additionally, she maintains a Tumblr where she muses on things

like millennial issues, music, and, most of all, lady heroes.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

4/16/2017 Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, and More Bring Refugee Benefit to New York's Town Hall - Inspirer

http://inspirer.life/home/2016/10/emmylou-harris-robert-plant-and-more-bring-refugee-benefit-to-new-yorks-town-hall/ 8/10

INSPIRER PRINT ISSUE

4/16/2017 Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, and More Bring Refugee Benefit to New York's Town Hall - Inspirer

http://inspirer.life/home/2016/10/emmylou-harris-robert-plant-and-more-bring-refugee-benefit-to-new-yorks-town-hall/ 9/10

LIKE­ 14763 Fans

You and 25 other friends like this

Inspirer14,805 likes

Liked Learn More

FIND US ON FACEBOOK

STAY CONNECTED WITH US

4/16/2017 Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, and More Bring Refugee Benefit to New York's Town Hall - Inspirer

http://inspirer.life/home/2016/10/emmylou-harris-robert-plant-and-more-bring-refugee-benefit-to-new-yorks-town-hall/ 10/10

FOLLOW

FOLLOW

¬ 5369 Followers

ŧ 13262 Followers

123456

NEWSLETTER

INDUCT THESE WOMEN SERIES