The Ledge - Soundstage Info-Not an Air Date

This is an article from the Chicago Sun Times. It mentions the Fleetwood Mac Special will kick off the new season. Farm Aid just closed this season as a 2 hour special.
I would imagine any DVD will not come out until after it has premiered on PBS, however it is possible it may be offered during the show as the Farm Aid version was. No mention of Lindsey's show, but I would imagine it would premire in 2nd season as well.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/enter...farmaid27.html

Still a bumper crop

November 27, 2003

BY DAVE HOEKSTRA Staff Reporter

!--deck The Farm Aid concert broadcast may have made the move from CMT to PBS, but, with a bevy of stars, it remains an organically grown treat -->

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The popular music series "Soundstage" has planted seeds for what could be a Thanksgiving tradition.

WTTW-Channel 11's popular music series taped the 2003 Farm Aid concert on Sept. 7 at the Germain Amphitheater in suburban Columbus. A two-hour special, featuring Willie Nelson, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow and others airs tonight on PBS stations nationwide (on Channel 11, at 8 and 10 p.m.).

"I hope this is the start of a long tradition of Farm Aid on PBS on Thanksgiving," said Randy King, WTTW's executive vice president of television. "It is a natural fit. Thanksgiving is an American holiday, end of the harvest and giving thanks for the bounty that we have.

"At the same time it is a good fit with the PBS audience. They are active, engaged and socially aware. If you can tap into that and make it a killer entertainment show, there's great possibilities for it. This is a better fit from an audience standpoint than the audience they [Farm Aid] have been getting from CMT [cable's Country Music Television]."

Unlike past Farm Aid telecasts, Farm Aid 2003 is presented without peppy hosts like Martina McBride or Siegfried and Roy Clark talking between sets. Farm Aid executive producer Willie Nelson merely introduces the special and bids viewers goodbye.

Out of the gate, the show still looks like a CMT broadcast with 16 minutes of overblown Brooks & Dunn shtick before Hootie and the Blowfish take over with "Only Wanna Be With You." The concert is edited down from an eight-hour affair, and the result is appropriately organic in nature. The special really only ignites into rock 'n' roll fury at a few turns: Crow's ambitious reading of "Steve McQueen," Young's "Hey, Hey, My My (Into the Black)" and Los Lonely Boys' hard-driving Texas doo-wop in "Heaven."

Mellencamp is tempered in his current Piedmont blues terrain, even redoing Farm Aid staple "Pink Houses" with minimalist backbeat and gypsy accordion. Emmylou Harris covers the Townes Van Zandt chestnut "Pancho & Lefty" with stark drums, bass and Buddy Miller on mandolin and vocals. Billy Bob Thornton continues to reveal how he is influenced by Lee Hazelwood in a new ballad called "The Desperate One." (The front panel of Thornton's tour bus reads "Janis Joplin.")

Nelson's standards such as "Good Hearted Woman" and "If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time" contain predominate fills from pianist Bobbie Nelson. Young and Crazy Horse close out the special with a ferocious version of "Be the Rain," from Young's latest album, "Greendale." Under cool autumn evening skies, "Be the Rain" comes off as a perfect continuation of Young's 1990 "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)."

Before the concert Young wandered around backstage wearing an organic farm T-shirt. The shirt was a tribute to his bus driver Joe McKenna, who died earlier this year of complications from cancer. "He started an organic farm in Florida," Young said. "He wanted to make a difference. Other people can make a difference, too. There is a choice. You don't have to go to big supermarkets and buy food that has GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) and other things that aren't healthy. We don't want the name 'organic.' We want orrrrr-ganic."

Under the guidance of "Soundstage" director Joe Thomas, the special is presented in a deeply personal manner. Thanks to high-definition video equipment and digital recording and mixing in 5.1 surround sound, viewers can hear every chord change in Matthews' solo acoustic performance ("Gravedigger," "Save Me" and "Too Much") and catch every line that Nelson has lived in his 70-year-old face.

"The family farmer needs help," Nelson said backstage. "And the country needs help. There is a direct link between helping the farmer and helping our country at the same time. The farmer is the backbone of this country. He lives on the land, he drinks the water out of the well, he eats the food that he produces. We need to keep him on the land to make sure that what we eat is good, organic farming."

Unlike other Farm Aid telecasts, there is no soliciting for money.

"Its tricky," King said. "As a nonprofit, we can't fund-raise for other nonprofits. Joe [Thomas] crafted a good show with good message points with the help of Carolyn Mugar [executive director of Farm Aid] and the Farm Aid people. And we take the audience beyond the television show to learn more through the PBS and Farm Aid Web sites."

And unlike any other PBS telecasts, viewers will hear about Titty Bingo.

Titty Bingo is a country-rock band that didn't make the cut for the two-hour special, but they can be heard on an expanded DVD and VHS Farm Aid 2003 special that is offered during the telecast. Nelson and his band covered an extended version of "Whiskey River," which also appears on the expanded version.

Farm Aid 2003 is the first "Soundstage" event outside the studio. King said it cost over $350,000 to send his crew to Columbus. "Soundstage" has since traveled to the Fleet Center in Boston to tape Fleetwood Mac, which will open the next "Soundstage" season.

"Some larger acts like Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles or Farm Aid are not going to fit into the 'Soundstage' studio," Thomas said. "It's not a show they're technically ready to do. We have a portable television studio we assembled in Columbus. We have the same ['Soundstage'] crew, the same 12 camera guys and technical director. The two times we've taken it on the road, it's worked well." Thomas said the thought process is rolling about a live extravaganza that would take place in 2005 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Farm Aid.

Canadian musician-producer Daniel Lanois didn't make tonight's special, but he offered some of the most eloquent backstage comments. "We've been touring recently and I've noticed there's a lot of food stops that maybe aren't really food stops," he said. "As beautiful as this country is, as we pull over to eat, I think, 'Why has it come to this?' We live in a local way. We support musicians that come from small places and think of them as heroes. But why don't we celebrate the local and regional food growers as heroes, too?"