Singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant,  whom you might remember from such 90’s hits as “Wonder” and “Jealousy,” is the latest celebrity to speak out against hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Last year a group of actors including Ethan Hawke, Mark Ruffalo, and Zoe Saldana appeared in a video called “I Love My New York Water” which was made by Clean Water Not Dirty Drilling.

Merchant has chosen to work with The Finger Lakes CleanWaters Initiatives, another non-profit that is also concerned with eradicating fracking.  She will headline with her band in a benefit concert to support a ban in her home state of New York. 

“Hydrofracking poses the greatest threat to clean drinking water in New York and Pennsylvania right now. Our opposition to this threat is imperative. I hope people can come to the concert to show their concern," says Merchant.

Also at the concert will be The Horse Flies, a band and “pigeonholer’s nightmare,” whose music is said to combine: “Americana roots with indie rock, ethnic percussion, creative songwriting, and a fierce, percolating groove.”

Not playing any music, at least not that we are aware of, but making a special appearance is biologist, activist, and public speaker Sandra Steingraber. Last year her memoir Raising Elijah was published by the Perseus Book Group. The book discusses her day-to-day life as a mother trying to raise her children in a delicate world that is being destroyed instead of protected and how bad environmental policy can affect a child’s health.

Steingraber says, “Fracking is wrong. Fracking is unmitigatable. Sooner or later, steel and concrete disintegrates. Sooner or later, gas wells open portals of contamination between drinking water aquifers and the toxic materials held in the bedrock below.”

The concert will be at the Broome Forum Theatre in Binghamton, New York on Saturday, March 10th. Tickets are on sale now and proceeds will benefit The Finger Lakes CleanWaters Initiatives. According to the non-profit’s Facebook page, joining the group’s street team and posting flyers about the concert might garner free tickets.

The group hosts events, mostly musical, to raise public awareness about the importance of keeping all of New York’s waters clean and educating the public against fracking. They also advocate environmental stewardship through their events.

A letter has been drafted to New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo and can be signed online to urge that he withdraw a revised draft of Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement that pertains to fracking in the Marcellus Shale.