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Live Report: No Nukes Benefit

on September 26, 1997 No comments

Warner Theatre, Washington, D.C., Sept. 24, 1997

by Rolling Stone

Eighteen years have passed since Bonnie Raitt joined Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, and other musical luminaries at the legendary “No Nukes” concert at Madison Square Garden. And while many of her way-back-when peers who also performed at that show have since suffered artistic or commercial setbacks — see Jackson Browne, Carly Simon, the Doobie Brothers — the red-haired roots-rock diva has demanded that Father Time treat her right.

In what was billed as the largest anti-nuclear concert since then, Raitt and the cause-obsessed Indigo Girls journeyed to the nation’s capital to protest the burial of nuclear waste on Native American land. The crowd was also treated to several surprises — a weathered-looking Browne kicked off the evening with an impromptu, three-song set and pop-folksinger Beth Nielsen Chapman hopped onstage for what seemed like every other song — but the evening’s most satisfying moments came when Raitt curled her whiskey-n-smoke-solid voice around one of her trademark slide-guitar licks.

In a daring, potentially disastrous move, Raitt opened her portion of the show with an a cappella version of Chapman’s new “Color of Roses.” “It’s gonna take a lot of ovaries for me to sing this in front of the woman who wrote it,” Raitt laughed nervously. “But Beth, I love you.” Raitt treated the dirge-like song with solemn respect, conveying more emotion at 48 than she could have at 30.

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As the crowd erupted — some even stood for a shrieking ovation — Raitt invited her three-man backing band (drums, bass, piano) onstage, strapped on a guitar, and ripped into the old Aretha Franklin standard, “Baby I Love You.” If that wasn’t steamy enough, she followed it with a slowed-down bump-and-grind version of “The Road’s My Middle Name.” “Ooh, this is getting sooo slinky,” Raitt purred during her solo, directing her power poses and double entendres at husband Michael O’Keefe. She later tore into Robert Johnson’s “Walkin’ Blues,” then slipped casually into the obligatory “Thing Called Love.” For an encore, Raitt invited the Indigo Girls, Chapman, and Native American singing group Ulali onstage to join her on “Angel From Montgomery” and the Buffy Sainte-Marie classic “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”

Source: © Copyright Rolling Stone

THE ‘NO NUKES’ CONCERT, WITH BONNIE RAITT

By Rob Pegoraro
September 27, 1997

Wednesday’s “No Nukes” concert at the Warner Theatre was the perfect thing to irk Gingrich Republicans: a bunch of unapologetic liberals having a good time being, well, liberals.

The evening went off like a thoroughly politicized version of a musical-variety show, with sets by the artists — John Trudell, Indigo Girls and Bonnie Raitt, with a surprise appearance by Jackson Browne — interspersed with activists and politicians including Sen. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.), speaking in favor of the evening’s cause, barring nuclear waste dumps on Native American lands in the West.

Trudell, an activist turned musician, was by far the most strident, mixing poetry set to the tune of Indian chants by Milton “Quilt” Sahme with somewhat woolly-minded political diatribes (“the whole concept of freedom is just heroin for your consciousness”).

After Browne’s three-song appearance, featuring slide guitar and vocal help from Bonnie Raitt on “World in Motion,” Indigo Girls turned in a hard-edged set, marked by singer Amy Ray’s hyperkinetic stage presence. The Native American vocal trio Ulali provided a passionate accompaniment to “Shed Your Skin”; the set-closing “Closer to Fine” provided a contrasting dose of good-natured musical sloppiness.

Raitt offered easily the best singing of the night; her voice is a rare combination of husky aggression (as in her cover of John Hiatt’s “Thing Called Love”) and choir-girl clarity (Richard Thompson’s “Dimming of the Day”). Much of Raitt’s set consisted of quieter, almost hushed ballads like Beth Nielsen-Chapman’s “Color of Roses,” but plenty of kick remained in numbers like her twitchy, ska-flavored take on “Come to Me” and the show-closing cover of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”

Source: © Copyright The Washington Post

Honor The Earth press conference – Washington, D.C. Sept.24, 1997

Press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

Honor The Earth

Honor the Earth was established by Winona LaDuke and Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, in 1993. In our 20+ years of operation, we have re-granted over two million dollars to over 200 Native American communities. Our mission is to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities.

In memory of John Trudell

John Trudell (February 15, 1946 – December 8, 2015) was a Native American author, poet, actor, musician, and political activist. He was the spokesperson for the United Indians of All Tribes’ takeover of Alcatraz beginning in 1969, broadcasting as Radio Free Alcatraz. During most of the 1970s, he served as the chairman of the American Indian Movement, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

en.wikipedia.org

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Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. 24 Sept. 1997

Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt at a press conference on the west terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. 24 Sept. 1997

Jackson Browne, middle, Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls, right, and Winona LaDuke of the Seventh Generation Fund after a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Nevada Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan also attended. Sept.24, 1997

NUCLEAR WASTE–Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., thanks performing artists Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt for appearing at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The Indigo Girls and Nevada Democratic Sen. Richard Bryan also attended. 9/24/1997

Performing artist Jackson Browne makes a statement at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Behind him is a mock nuclear waste cask. Performing artist Bonnie Raitt is at right. Nevada Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan also attended. Sept.24, 1997

In September of 1997, congressman Doggett joined Bonnie Raitt in Washington and in Austin to speak out against legislation that would dump nuclear waste from other states into a poor community in Texas.

Virginia Sanchez, right, of Honor the Earth, sponsor of a 21-concert tour of the Indigo Girls, and Indigo Girl Amy Ray at a press conference on the west terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Nevada Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan also attended. 24 Sept. 1997

Native American poet and performing artist John Trudell makes a statement at a press conference on the west terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Nevada Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan also attended. 24 Sept. 1997

Emily Saliers of the music group Indigo Girls and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., at a press conference on the west terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid also attended. 24 Sept. 1997

Performing artist Bonnie Raitt, right, motions toward Harvey Wasserman of Greenpeace, left, as performing artist Jackson Browne looks on at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. Also attending were Nevada Democrat Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan. Sept.24, 1997

Harvey Wasserman of Greenpeace, middle, and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Dianne D’Arrigo, of the Nuclear Information Resource Service, performing artists Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt, and Winona LaDuke, of the Seventh Generation Fund, at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. Sept.24, 1997

Left to right: Harvey Wasserman, of Greenpeace, performing artists Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt, Winona LaDuke, of the Seventh Generation Fund, Native American poet and performing artist John Trudell, Amy Ray, of the music group “Indigo Girls,” and Virginia Sanchez, of Honor the Earth, sponsor of the Indigo Girls’ fundraising tour, at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. Sept.24, 1997

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. From left are Diane D’Arrigo (partially obscured), of the Nuclear Information Resource Service, Harvey Wasserman, of Greenpeace, and performing artists Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt.Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. Sept.24, 1997

Performing artist Bonnie Raitt, right, at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. From left are Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Diane D’Arrigo, of the Nuclear Information Resource Service, Harvey Wasserman, of Greenpeace, and performing artist Jackson Browne. Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. Sept.24, 1997

Left to right: Virginia Sanchez of Honor the Earth, sponsor of the Indigo Girls 21-concert tour, performing artist Jackson Browne, Winona LaDuke of the Seventh Generation Fund, Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, Native American poet and performing artist John Trudell and performing artist Bonnie Raitt pose for pictures in front of a mock nuclear waste cask. The group appeared at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997. which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Nevada Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan also attended. Sept.24, 1997

Honor the Earth Presents No Nukes to Benefit NIRS – with Emily Saliers and Sara Lee (Indigo Girls), Bonnie Raitt, Ulali, Jerry Marotta (Indigo Girls) – Warner Theatre, Washington, D.C. – September 24, 1997

Bonnie Raitt The Warner Walk of Fame at the Warner Theatre Washington DC, USA – No Nukes Sept.24 & 25, 1997

Susan Campbell, Bonnie Raitt, Michael O’Keefe, Terence Winch; backstage at the Warner Theatre, Wash.DC. Sept.1997

White Earth Land Recovery Project

Winona LaDuke is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi band of Ashinaabeg who lives and works on the White Earth Indian Reservation and is the mother of three children. Winona founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project in 1989 and served as its executive director for 25 years. She is currently the executive director of Honor the Earth, where she works on a national level to advocate, raise public support, and create funding for frontline Native environmental groups. In 1994, Winona was nominated by Time Magazine as one of America’s fifty most promising leaders under forty years of age. She was awarded The Thomas Merton Award in 1996, The Biha Community Service Award in 1997, The Ann Bancroft Award for Women’s Leadership Fellowship, and The Reebok Human Rights Award (which she used to begin the White Earth Land Recovery Project).

Harvey Wasserman – Wikipedia

Harvey Franklin Wasserman (born December 31, 1945) is an American journalist, author, democracy activist, and advocate for renewable energy. He has been a strategist and organizer in the anti-nuclear movement in the United States for over 30 years. He has been a featured speaker on Today, Nightline, National Public Radio, CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight and other major media outlets. Wasserman is senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, an investigative reporter, and senior editor of The Columbus Free Press where his coverage, with Bob Fitrakis, has prompted Rev. Jesse Jackson to call them “the Woodward and Bernstein of the 2004 election.”

Harry Reid – Wikipedia

Harry Mason Reid born December 2, 1939) is a retired American attorney and politician who served as a United States Senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015.

Richard Bryan – Wikipedia

Richard Hudson Bryan (born July 16, 1937) is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States Senator from Nevada from 1989 to 2001. A Democrat, Bryan served as the 25th Governor of Nevada from 1983 to 1989, and before that served as the state’s attorney general and a member of the State Senate.

Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository – Wikipedia

The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, as designated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987, is a proposed deep geological repository storage facility within Yucca Mountain for spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste in the United States. The site is on federal land adjacent to the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada, about 80 mi (130 km) northwest of the Las Vegas Valley.

Help Stop the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 (H.R. 3053)! · NIRS

Contact your US Representatives and tell them to vote NO on a nuclear waste bill being rushed through Congress—one of the most dangerous we have seen. U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) bill H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017, threatens nearly every state with decades of nuclear w…

But wait, there's more!

Most ‘protesters’ really just rock fans

on July 6, 1979 No comments

by Jon Bream – Staff Writer

The times, they have a-changed.
Protest concerts used to mean a long march, standing in front of a government building, singing along with Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez as they strummed acoustic guitars and sang against racism and war.

Those were the days.
These days, however, you pay $12.50 to benefit organizations fighting against nuclear power and sit in a theater listening to pop stars like Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt sing love songs.

A sellout crowd of 2.600 persons turned out Thursday night at the first of two benefit concerts at the St. Paul Civic Center Theater (the second show was reportedly sold out, too). It wasn’t difficult to figure out why most of the people showed up.

They didn’t come to hear John Trudell, president of the American Indian Movement, rail eloquently about “nuclear madness” and the “oppressor man.” They came to hear Browne, Raitt and Jesse Colin Young play their California “mellow-music” in an intimate setting. After all, this was a rare opportunity.

The three-hour program opened with a moment of silence for “sky father, earth mother and all brothers and sisters.” The solitude was brief, however, as a few cat-callers urged “on with the show.”

It wasn’t difficult to read the mood of the audience. The smell of marijuana smoke was in the air, there were chants for “boogie” and the queue at the beer stand was considerably longer than the gathering at the no-nuke, pro-solar concession booth. Anyway, most of the souvenir buyers seemed to favor the Jackson Browne T-shirts over the ones emblazoned with “Question Authority,” “No Nukes” and “People Before Profits.”

The free literature discussing such topics as “nuclear power and your electric bill” and “how the power line affects you” was largely’ unsampled by the concertgoers. They probably had no idea their ticket monies were going to the Black Hills Alliance, General Assembly to Stop the Powerline, Badger Safe Energy Alliance and other organizations that campaign against various aspects of energy technology.

For most of these well-scrubbed, clean-cut, young people, it was, quite frankly, just another concert with a slightly different twist. Ticket prices were higher than usual, but there were four established performers and they were appearing without their usual electric guitars and full-band accompaniment.

They had waived their performance fees and usual concert accoutrements. The musicians wore faded jeans and T-shirts from the concession stands, rather than their usual flashier stage duds. They used lyric sheets on a couple of songs and one singer even botched the words on one of his own numbers.

It was a casual atmosphere that provided some refreshing music and a great showcase for the songs themselves, rather than heavily orchestrated performances. In many ways, it seemed like a throwback to the singers’ first appearances here years ago when they were struggling soloists.

Danny O’Keefe, the singer-songwriter from Washington state who attended high school in St. Paul, opened with a thoughtful albeit largely apolitical set. For his last number, Raitt joined in on electric slide guitar.

“I want to thank you,” O’Keefe told the crowd before he paused for a brief Raitt solo, “Stop the nukes.” Then Raitt revved up again. “And help the Indians.”

Young, California’s answer to John Denver, followed with his mellow-music visions of Indian life before the white men. Without the customary jazzy accompaniment, Young’s songs seemed self-consciously meaningful; the lyrics often came off as trite and the selections as inartistic.

However, Young redeemed his performance with the inevitable ’’Come Together,” his anthem of the late 1960s, for which Browne made his first appearance. The teen-aged girls in the audience screamed when the popular singer joined in, yet the outbursts seemed more for adoration than the sentiment of the song.

Raitt returned for her own set with her bass player, Freebo, but she somehow forgot that it was supposed to be an acoustic performance. With all due disrespect to nuclear power, Raitt plugged in her guitar and offered an uplifting reworking of Chris Smithers’ “Love Me Like a Man.” “The music is for men and women,” she explained in her introduction, “and the words are for the bastards at the power companies.”

Musical excerpts from the “No More Nukes” documentary featuring Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Norton Buffalo, Joan Baez, Mimi Farina. This was an anti-nuclear protest rally at the San Francisco Civic Center on April 7, 1979 after the Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident in Pennsylvania.
Produced and directed by David Ludwig. For the complete documentary, see here.

Raitt, who has been a local favorite for the past seven years, played some blues songs and then Browne joined her for “Under the Falling Sky,” which she dedicated to the “American government who sent up Skylab.” It was a moving performance, marked by the rare spontaneity of a late night jam at a funky coffeehouse.

Then, it was time for the singer over whom the young girls were swooning. Browne, accompanied by guitarist-violinist David Lindley, sang his elliptical visions of the apocalypse and “The Crow on the Cradle,” an anti-nuke song from the 1960s. Yet, he did not perform his breakthrough hit, “Running on Empty,” which is about cruising, not conservation.

All the performers then returned for “Willin’,” a tribute to the redoubtable guitarist Lowell George, who died last week, and John Hall’s “Power,” which has become the theme song of this ad hoc no-nuke troupe that has scheduled several benefits this summer.

“Power,” a bland pop ditty, does not seem destined to become the 1980s’ answer to “We Shall Overcome” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.” The concertgoers did not sing along with the kind of fervor that might indicate many of them would follow the anti-nuke troupe to Rapid City, S.D., this weekend for a major demonstration against uranium mining in the Black Hills.

Anyway, who ever heard of a protest concert going on the road? Do caravans of sympathizers follow the troupe hoping to score tickets? Are there actually no-nuke groupies?

The times have a-changed, indeed.