By Will McGuirk
The need is great, maybe greater in 2020 than in previous years, and ironically it is to musicians we turn to help share the message and to salve the spirit; musicians who, like all those in the arts whose livelihood via live concerts has been put on pause since early 2020, and are probably among those who have turned to food banks to get by, but still we turn to them, and still they respond, and still they step up.
The annual Feed the Need benefit concert will not be onstage, people will not gather but the outreach will continue. The organisers have pivoted online and on Sunday Dec 20, from 1-5 pm. artists from across the continent but who call Durham Region home, will beam into screens to help raise funds to feed the hungry among us.
International Country music star Megan Patrick, from Bowmanville but who now resides in Nashville, will perform - there has been a plus to artists being home, it means they are available for a livestream from their own locale. This show will mark Meghan’s first hometown show so to speak in quite some time.
Also onscreen will be Juno winners Jack De Keyzer and Nicole Sinclair, country music singers Leah Daniels, Kris Barclay, and Robyn Ottolini, Indigenous folksinger Cale Crowe, traditional ceilidh band Ugly Horse, folksinger Annie Sumi, Sue Passmore of the Good Lovelies, Juno nominee Kalista Wilson, and many many more.
As the world slows to fight the global pandemic there is time to consider what the other side of this will look like, to contemplate what we have learnt, what we have lost, what we will set loose behind us and what we will bring forward with us.
Tune into the Feed The Need Concert Facebook page for the livestream here.