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FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE for music and food lovers!
FARM AID: A
Song for America
By Holly George-Warren, Dave Hoekstra and the Founders of Farm
Aid
Foreword by Willie Nelson
“We’re fighting
for the small family farmer,
which means that we’re fighting for every living American.”
—Willie Nelson, President and Founder of Farm Aid
 (November
2005) FARM AID: A Song for America (Rodale; 2005),
chronicles the 20-year, enduring movement for the independent
family farm. The early 1980s saw the emergence of a “charity
rock” phenomenon. Band Aid, Live Aid, “We Are the World,” and
Farm Aid paved the way for dozens of other all-star
fund-raising concerts representing a wide range of social
issues. This book highlights Farm Aid as the only event to
gather momentum and become a viable national forum.
 This
volume traces Farm Aid from the first landmark concert
organized in 1985 by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil
Young, through two decades of concerts and press conferences,
to the recent involvement of the organization’s newest and
youngest board member, Dave Matthews. A vibrant commemoration
of the 20th anniversary, FARM AID: A Song for America,
highlights the emergence of the “good food movement” which
offers hope and economic opportunity to family farmers—and
local, fresh, and organic food to consumers. The combined
voices of performers, farmers, activists, and the original
Farm Aid founders raise together in a heartfelt chorus to call
attention to the importance of where, how, and by whom our
food is produced, urging Americans to seek out food from
family farms. As the demand for family farm-identified
food has grown, unfortunately, our country continues to lose
an average of 330 family farms every week, underscoring the
urgency of Farm Aid’s work.
 FARM
AID: A Song for America takes us on a memorable road trip
across our country where we see for ourselves the precious
legacy and hopeful future of family farms and meet the farmers
themselves. Essays by such diverse writers as Barbara
Kingsolver, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Eric Schlosser, and
Ruth Reichl, as well as interviews, song lyrics, and poems
are interwoven with hundreds of photographs to create a
tapestry chronicling the mission, achievements, and ongoing
challenges of Farm Aid. Readers are given a front row seat at
the performances of the vast and varied roster of Farm Aid
performers—from Arlo Guthrie and Bob Dylan to
Eddie Van Halen, Phish, and Sheryl Crow. Their
never-before-seen pictures, as well as photographs of the late
Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Stevie Ray Vaughn
and many more beloved artists convey the energy and passion
each performer has brought to the Farm Aid stage.
Farm Aid has
raised more than $27 million to promote a strong and resilient
family farm system of agriculture and continues to develop its
grassroots network and to launch important new initiatives.
As Neil Young is quoted in FARM AID: A Song for America,
“We’ll be back next year. And the year after that. We’re not
giving up.”
 ABOUT
THE AUTHORS
Holly George-Warren is an award-winning writer and editor
whose work includes The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats,
American Roots Music, and Martin Scorcese Presents the Blues.
She lives in upstate New York.
Chicago Sun Times
columnist Dave Hoekstra co-produced the Emmy-nominated
PBS documentary “The Civil Rights Movement and the Staple
Singers.” He lives in Chicago.
FARM AID: A
Song for America
By Holly George-Warren, Dave Hoekstra, and the Founders of
Farm Aid
Foreword by Willie Nelson
256 pages, 150 full-color illustrations, 50 black-and-white
illustrations, $35.00 hardcover
ISBN
1-59486-285-0
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