Musical idea may help out lakes

Aid concerts could generate millions for conservation efforts

February 8, 2005

http://www.freep.com/news/mich/lakeaid8e_20050208.htm

Protecting the Great Lakes can feel like homework: Care to explain the Great Lakes Charter Annex to the class? Or summarize research on benthic macroinvertebrates?

FREEP SONG PICKS FOR GREAT LAKES AID

As for potential music, Great Lakes Aid organizer Tom Fuhrman says Marty Robbins' "Cool Water" comes to mind. A few others might also make the grade, we figure: George Frideric Handel's classic "Water Music" (Maybe Michigan rocker Ted Nugent can cover it?). "Come Sail Away" by Styx (Chicago-to-Mackinac anyone?). "Under the Boardwalk" by the Drifters (memories of Grand Haven hijinks). "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel (the U.P. is not a separate state). "Lake Superior" by Wisconsin singer Jenny Mahan, with lyrics including: "I've strolled 'long the ocean, and hiked alpine fields, and still never found a place I'd rather be, than this freshwater sea." Anything by folk singer Lee Murdock, who bases his songwriting on stories and history of the Great Lakes.

Didn't think so.

So let's make it fun: Annual Great Lakes Aid music concerts, patterned after the hugely successful Live Aid and Farm Aid events, are in the works, organizers announced this weekend.

If they can pull it off (no sure thing) the shows will feature big-name headliners, donate millions of dollars in proceeds to Great Lakes environmental efforts and rotate among port cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo.

"We want our first one to be in Chicago in 2006," said Tom Fuhrman, president of the Lake Erie Region Conservancy and the driving force behind Great Lakes Aid.

And before you diss Fuhrman for shooting his mouth off without having even a single singer or venue lined up, know this: He's got Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame committed as a partner, a steering committee of people from national and regional conservation groups, and $10,000 in seed money donated last month by the Cleveland-based Gund Foundation.

"It's a high-risk, high-yield donation," said Jon Jensen, senior program officer with the foundation. "A lot of these projects are pulled off by people who didn't know it couldn't be done, so they did it. We think it's very exciting."

Tom Fuhrman's steering committee includes folks from organizations like the Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation and a host of regional and local groups committed to the environment.

Many of them are itching for a way to make activism ... well ... sexy. A hot star -- rock, rap, R&B, whatever -- is the ticket.

"We want to get national and international groups committed to the event," he said. "And when you look at all the musical talent that comes out of Detroit, and from Michigan, we would hope to tap into some of that, certainly," Fuhrman said.

Drawing on a career in sales and marketing, Fuhrman says he can sell the idea to enough sponsors to turn the $10,000 seed money into a $100,000 starter fund. Then, lining up a national marketing expert to lead the charge and perhaps one marquee entertainer to draw attention should be enough to generate a buzz, he said.

The previous aid concerts had national and international themes. Fuhrman said he believes the lakes -- with 20 percent of the world's supply of fresh surface water -- also have a broad enough appeal to generate national interest.

Especially, he says, if one Big Name with Great Lakes roots adopts the idea.

Em? Aretha? Madonna? Kid? Hello?

Contact HUGH McDIARMID JR. at 248-351-3295 or mcdiarmid@freepress.com.