Robert Plant Added to Refugee Awareness Tour

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Emmylou Harris in Ethiopia (Photo: Christian Fuchs – Jesuit Refugee Service/USA)

Update: Sept 27): Robert Plant has confirmed that he will join Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, the Milk Carton Kids, and more for select dates on the Lampedusa tour. Lampedusa is an 11-stop concert tour intended to raise awareness of the unprecedented worldwide refugee crisis. Funds raised by Lampedusa will support educational programs for refugees around the world.

In the announcement, Plant said: “”I’m taking a break from recording the new Sensational Space Shifters record to be a part of this very important and worthwhile cause. When I watch the news and see people from these places being displaced by hatred and ignorance, I know that these people are just like you and me. All they want is to live in peace and have their children grow up loved, fed and educated.”

Each artist on the bill only performs a few songs each concert.

Here is our original announcement of this tour…

Emmylou Harris will embark on a North American tour this fall with special guests Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller and the Milk Carton Kids (not all artists will appear at all venues). The 11-stop tour, called Lampedusa: Concerts for Refugees, will raise awareness for the worldwide refugee crisis, according to a press release from Jesuit Refugee Service/USA (JRS) announcing the multi-artist events. JRS seeks to double the number of refugees served in its educational programs to 240,000 by 2020.

“After witnessing firsthand the work of JRS in Ethiopia this past June, I have never been more inspired to champion such a critical cause,” said Harris. “The better angels of our nature call upon us to act with compassion and not with fear in the face of so much suffering.” Harris’ collaboration with Rodney Crowell is available here.

Tour Dates (Tickets for some of the performances are available here)

Oct 06 – Boulder, CO—Boulder Theater
Oct 08 – Kansas City, MO—Helzberg Hall
Oct 09 – Lincoln, NE—Rococo Theater
Oct 11 – St. Louis, MO—Sheldon Concert Hall
Oct 12 – Milwaukee, WI—Pabst Theater (with Robert Plant)
Oct 13 – Chicago, IL—Vic Theater (with Robert Plant)
Oct 14 – Toronto, ON—Massey Hall (with Robert Plant)
Oct 16 – Boston, MA—Berklee Performance Center (with Robert Plant)
Oct 18 – New York, NY—The Town Hall (with Robert Plant)
Oct 19 – Philadelphia, PA—Merriam Theater (with Robert Plant)
Oct 21 – Washington, DC—Lisner Auditorium (with Robert Plant)

Funds raised by Lampedusa will support educational programs for refugees around the world. “Education is the one life-saving intervention given to a refugee that cannot be taken away,” noted JRS International Director Fr. Thomas H. Smolich S.J., in the press release.

Benefit concerts and tours have long been staged by promoters and favored by artists as a means to increase awareness or to raise funds for various causes. Among the most notable have been the Concert for Bangladesh, intended to bring awareness to a crisis on the Indian subcontinent in 1971, and Live Aid, an all-star 1985 show taking place both in England and the United States.

For more information about Lampedusa: Concerts for Refugees, visit here.