Concert for Asia

In an effort to be involved in the music scene here in Nashville, I volunteered to work at the Concert for Asia tonight. I was excited about it because it was for a good cause (tsunami relief), there was potential for networking and I'd get to see Ben Folds again.

The concert was very different than I expected though. I thought that all of the performers would each play a few of their songs but it was quite a different concept. The artists (with the help of a great backing band) each took turns performing songs from the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh that George Harrison organized as relief for a similar crisis.

The performances were all so great and featured some very talented people doing very good covers of Beatles, Bob Dylan and other great songs of the '60's. The setlist was as follows:

Wah-Wah
My Sweet Lord
Awaiting On You All
That's The Way God Planned It
It Don't Come Easy
Beware of Darkness
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Here Comes The Sun
A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
Blowin' In The Wind
Mr. Tambourine Man
Just Like A Woman
Something
Oh Darling
Come Together

I had only heard of Ben Folds and David Mead out of all the artists, but was very impressed with most of them. Ben played "My Sweet Lord" and "Something" which were both good but the highlights of the night for me were Phil Keaggy, David Mead and Jason White. Phil did amazing and energetic renditions of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Oh Darling" while David did a beautiful cover of "Just Like A Woman." They both teamed up for a great duet of "Here Comes The Sun." Jason did a spot on Dylan impression in his cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man." These guys are some great singers.

It was a night that I really didn't know what to expect of it, but was very glad that I took part in the event.