Fire evacuees to get concert proceeds

HAMILTON — James Taylor is leaning on his music to help Fort McMurray wildfire evacuees.

The Carolina in My Mind singer has turned two Alberta concerts next month into benefits that will raise money for the wildfire rescue efforts. He says proceeds from tickets to his shows in Calgary on June 7 and Edmonton on June 8 will go to the Canadian Red Cross.

“To turn those couple of shows into benefits is just too good an opportunity to pass up,” Taylor said in a phone interview from his tour bus. “It’s a major national catastrophe and it’s just impossible to ignore it.”

Taylor says the idea came from conversations with his Canadian manager, Sam Feldman, on Friday, as he rolled into Ottawa for the first of a 15-concert tour of Canadian cities over the next month.

More than 80,000 residents of Fort McMurray have been displaced by the fires that began last week. Forest fire officials say it could be months before they’ve fully extinguished the massive blaze, which has already spread across 2,000 square kilometres of northern Alberta.

Taylor has frequently participated in fundraising events for social and political causes. “It’s a feeling … of community that happens at a concert that is so compelling,” he says. “It’s kind of a spiritual thing. It’s the closest I get to church.”