A world away from the tsunami disaster, inside a simple white church and a small vegetarian café, the Indian Ocean tragedy remained at the forefront this weekend.

Local musicians keep tsunami victims in spotlight

By Ben Casselman
Staff writer

BEVERLY - The tsunami doesn't dominate headlines anymore. Its spot atop the nightly news has been
taken by elections in Iraq, an inauguration in Washington, Senate confirmation hearings, Holocaust remembrances,
Super Bowl preparations.

But a world away, inside a simple white church and a small vegetarian cafe, the Indian Ocean tragedy remained
at the forefront this weekend, as musicians from the North Shore and beyond gathered to help the hundreds of
thousands of tsunami victims.

Salem singer-songwriter Jon Waterman organized the music festival, marshaling an eclectic group of local musicians
over two days. Waterman donated all proceeds - hundreds of dollars, though exact figures were not available yesterday
- to the International Red Cross Tsunami Relief Fund.

"We're all independent artists," Waterman said. "This is totally grass-roots. This is coming from artists coming together."

Waterman had the idea for the festival in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, when people around the world spontaneously gave millions of dollars to the relief effort. But by the time the concert took place, delayed by a week by the more mundane but still inconvenient act of nature that was last weekend's blizzard, the world's attention had begun to shift.

That may have reduced attendance somewhat - about 20 people, including several performers, were on hand at the Organic Garden cafe early yesterday afternoon - but those who made the trip were as willing to give now as they were a month ago.

"A lot of people were very generous, with their time and their money," Waterman said.

Audience members were equally enthusiastic about the music. They sipped green tea and murmured encouragement to the performers, who played silhouetted against the shop's front windows, beneath colorful paper lanterns. The music, which ranged from Michelle Foss' soulful interpretations of songs new and old to Waterman's own country-inspired 12-string guitar music, lasted for 14 hours over two days.

"Last night was probably the best concert Beverly has had," said Barbara Papish, who attended both days of the festival.
Staff reporter Ben Casselman can be reached at (978) 338-2529 or by e-mail at bcasselman@ecnnews.com.