“The Farmer is the backbone of our economy. If the bottom rung of the economic ladder is agriculture, and it falls in, everything else falls down. And that’s where we are. Thank you for helping us put the steps back together.”
In a couple of hours the crowds will arrive. Then, after we are all wonderfully full from 10 hours of music, celebration, and great food, I expect Willie will do what he has done before — call all of the musicians back on stage as we all sing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?”
Everything is connected.
Willie has been doing Farm Aid for 23 years. This year the concert falls in the shadow of the great Wall Street upheaval of this week. This is the week of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and AIG — the week we saw the Dow plummet 500 points in a day. With this in mind, Willie welcomed a small group of farmers, Farm Aid supporters, and press before the event began.
