On February 13th, over 50 artists and entertainers came together for the Food For Love livestream benefit to end hunger in New Mexico. With a lineup boasting such names as Kurt Vile, David Byrne, Steve Earle, Nathaniel Rateliff, Jackson Browne, and many more, the stream has raised over $700,000 and counting for the New Mexico Association of Food Banks.
The five-hour livestream was filled with highlights from an array of artists and also saw appearances from author George R.R. Martin, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, current Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, and other notable figures. Jackson Browne served as one of the opening performances where he was joined by multi-instrumentalist Greg Leisz (who played in Bob Weir‘s Chinese New Year stream on Friday) where they performed an acoustic “Looking East” (22:03).
The show saw performances from many revered singer-songwriters including Ray Willie Hubbard who performed “The Messenger” (45:15). A little further down the line, Kurt Vile went solo with “Runner Ups” off his 2011 album, Smoke Ring For My Halo (1:57:15).
For his performance, David Byrne took things in a different direction when—rather than a song, he performed a dance routine that he also taught to the audience (3:21:50). Following Byrne’s performance came a submission from Mickey Hart & Steve Feld who delivered some original ambient soundscapes paired up with a calming video of the rainforest (3:26:15).
Things later returned to a more conventional format with the reemergence of more singer-songwriters. Nathaniel Rateliff delivered a stirring solo rendition of the title track to his 2020 solo album, And It’s Still Alright (4:24:15). Country staple Lyle Lovett performed “Church” (4:31:40) before leading into Steve Earle’s telling of his seminal hit “Copperhead Road” (4:37:00).
Of course, this is far from an exhaustive list of all the memorable performances from Food For Love. The entire livestream is available to watch on-demand on YouTube until midnight MT on Monday. Donations to the New Mexico Association of Food Banks are still open here. Scroll down to see a full list of timestamps for the performances.
Food For Love Benefit Concert – Full Video
[Video: Food for Love]