Levon Helm

Levon Helm

Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American rock musician and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band. Helm was known for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, multi-instrumental ability, and creative drumming style highlighted on many of the Band's recordings, such as "The Weight" and "Up on Cripple Creek". He also had a successful career as an actor, appearing in such films as Coal Miner's Daughter and The Right Stuff.

In 1998, Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer, which caused him to lose his singing voice. After undergoing treatment for the disease, his cancer eventually went into remission, which allowed him to gradually regain use of his voice. His 2007 comeback album Dirt Farmer earned the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album in February 2008, and in November of that year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 91 in the list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. In 2010, Electric Dirt, his 2009 follow-up to Dirt Farmer, won the first ever Grammy Award for Best Americana Album, an inaugural category in 2010. In 2011, his live album Ramble at the Ryman was nominated for the Grammy in the same category and won. On April 17, 2012, his wife and daughter announced on Helm's website that he was "in the final stages of his battle with cancer" and thanked fans while requesting prayers. Two days later, Helm died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Dylans band, then referred to simply as "the band." Was contemplating a recording contract, Helm had dubbed the band as "The Crackers." However, when Robertson and their new manager Albert Grossman worked out the contracts, the group's name was cited as "The Band." Under these contracts, The Band was contracted to Grossman, who in turn contracted their services to Capitol Records. This arrangement allowed The Band to release recordings on other labels if the work was done in support of Dylan. This allowed The Band to play on Dylan's Planet Waves album and on The Last Waltz, both non-Capitol releases. The Band also recorded their own album Music from Big Pink, which catapulted them into stardom.


On Music From Big Pink, Manuel was the most prominent vocalist and Helm sang mainly backup, with the exception of "The Weight." However, as Manuel's health deteriorated and Robbie Robertson's songwriting increasingly looked to the South for influence and direction, subsequent albums relied more and more on Helm's vocals, alone or in harmony with Danko. Helm played drums for perhaps 85% of The Band's songs, including most of those for which he sang lead. On the others, Manuel switched to drums while Helm played mandolin or, on rare occasion, guitar or bass guitar. The entire group was multi-instrumental and certain songs featured Manuel on drums, Helm on mandolin (as on "Evangeline"), rhythm guitar (the 12-string guitar backdrop to "Daniel and the Sacred Harp" is by Helm), or bass (while Danko played fiddle).

Helm remained with The Band until their 1976 farewell performance, The Last Waltz, which was recorded in a documentary film by director Martin Scorsese.The documentary is widely considered the greatest rock and roll film ever made. Many music enthusiasts know Helm through his appearance in the concert film, a performance remarkable for the fact that Helm's vocal tracks appear substantially as he sang them during a grueling concert. However, Helm repudiated his involvement with The Last Waltz shortly after the completion of its final scenes. In his autobiography, Helm offers scathing criticisms of the film and of Robertson, who produced it.

Levon Helm and the RCO AllStars

Levon Helm and the RCO allstars

Levon Helm sang lead vocals, played the drums, mandolin and occasionally the harmonica for The Band from it's inception as Ronnie Hawkins' back-up band and through it's many manifestations. One would expect that just about anything the man touched would be gold.

The band includes Booker T. Jones (keyboards/percussion), Paul Butterfield (harmonica), Donald "Duck" Dunn (bass), and a large horn section that later played on John Bulushi and Dan Akroyd (as "Jake & Elwood" Blues Brothers - Briefcase Full of Blues : Lou Marini, Alan Rubin, and Tom "Bones" Malone), as well as Steve Cropper on guitar. And of course, Levon Helm (original member of Robbie Robertson's "The Band") at the helm with vocals and drums. They debuted on Saturday Night Live on March 19, 1977 as Levon Helm and the RCO All-Stars.

The music takes on an R&B tone right from the start with "Washer Woman" to the very last song, "That's My Home." Although Levon Helm is not known for his voice, the music fits him and he uses good expression. My favorite songs are: "You Got Me", "Blues So Bad," and Chuck Berry's "Havana Moon" with a calypso groove to it. The other songs are quite listenable too.

In short, this is a great CD with a fabulous band of musicians "creating an atmosphere that people can have a good time with and even dance to"as the liner notes read. It was fresh and unique and lends itself to listening over and over again!

Levon Helm-Electric Dirt

Electric dirt

Electric Dirt (Dirt Farmer Music/Vanguard Records) is the second album in the last two years from American musical treasure Levon Helm. Its predecessor, the GRAMMY-winning Dirt Farmer, his first solo LP in a quarter century, followed Levon's near miraculous recovery from throat cancer, and as such represented a new lease on life for the legendary artist, who rose to prominence as the drummer and vocalist for Levon and the Hawks, which later became The Band. Electric Dirt again finds Levon steeped in tradition in his connection to the land and those who live by it, but this record goes deeper and wider, incorporating gospel, blues and soul elements in a bracing collection of originals and carefully chosen outside songs. As with Dirt Farmer, multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell took the reigns as producer and the album was recorded at "The Barn"- Levon Helm Studios. "Our objective here was to take the honesty, innocence and purity of the Dirt Farmer record which represents a true element of what Levon is all about, but also expand on that and explore deeper the goldmine of Levon's musical artistry" states

Levon Helm- Dirt Framer

Dirt Farmer

This is real mountain music, presented in the manner it was meant to be - oral tradition through song. It's not possible for me to determine which songs are relatively new and which are old, old stories derivative of Celtic tradition, brought to the mountains generations ago from Scotland and Ireland. The yearning, sorrow, and loss of some of the songs is perfectly projected in Mr Helm's evocative country voice - False Hearted Lover Blues, typical of the mountain songs I learned as a child, with the title of the song being all you need to know; Anna Lee, about a young mother cut down heartbreakingly early. There are humorous songs as well, like Got Me a Woman, with the man in the song describing a woman perhaps not what you'd call a looker but high in character that just knocks his socks off; Single Girl, Married Girl, about the things that make these two so diametrically opposed. There's even a song about Frank and Jesse James (A Train Robbery). Some of the songs have a beat reminiscent of music from The Band; I heard shadows of "Ophelia" in one piece, and nuances of other songs, but it is clear here that this album is pure tradition, and that Mr Helm is very much enjoying himself in presenting to us the music he learned as a child.

After his successful fending off of a deadly disease that by all accounts should have robbed us of his characteristic howl, it is a wonder and a blessing that this album got to be made. The first notes of his singing literally sent shivers up my spine. I truly wish I lived anywhere close enough to Woodstock, New York; I would somehow contrive to be a regular at his Midnight Rambles, the shows he periodically puts on in a barn on his property, and at which quite a few excellent old friends of his pop in to share in the musical bounty. This is real entertainment; and I know "Dirt Farmer" is only a taste of what Levon Helm has stashed away from a lifetime devoted to music. Long may he continue his Rambles; long may he continue to bring us gems like this.