Steve Dollar
Tue, 02 Jun 2009
Photo: Ahron R Foster
Go figure: The Band, that most Americana and America-obsessed of bands, was four-fifths Canadian. Three decades after the quintet threw The Last Waltz and broke up, the sole Yankee in the bunch is the guy who’s still out there, not only carrying on the group’s legacy but keeping faith with his own deeply rooted roadhouse spirit.
Not to diss guitar genius Robbie Robertson, who splintered off into his own reclusive orbit, or keyboardist Garth Hudson, who’s still much in demand as a sideman, or the memories of Rick Danko and Richard Manuel—it’s just that Levon Helm has simply, doggedly, abided. Throat cancer almost killed him ten years ago, stealing away the rich, gutsy tenor behind “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” That didn’t waylay Helm for long. He’s knocked out two solo albums since 2007, the Grammy-winning Dirt Farmer and the new Electric Dirt, building on the bonhomie of his “Midnight Ramble” gatherings at his Woodstock, New York, barn.
The guest-laden, all-night jams may have been the best therapy for the drummer, who has regained much of his vocal power—even if the weathering Helm endured from the disease made him perfect for creepy hillbilly roles in films like Shooter and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.
Expect a full serving of traditional folk and more, as the 68-year-old Helm and his band tap into the elemental sources of his Arkansas heritage: gutbucket blues, Cajun waltzes, country honks and soulfulness as salty as pork belly.
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