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Levon Helm

He saw the birth of rock and roll and though he's too much of a gentleman to say it, his role in helping to keep that rebellious child healthy is more than just instrumental. On May 26, 1940, Mark Lavon Helm was the second of four children born to Nell and Diamond Helm in Elaine, Arkansas. Diamond was a cotton farmer who entertained occasionally as a musician. The Helm's loved music and often sang together. They listened to The Grand Ole Opry and Sonny Boy Williamson and his King Biscuit Entertainers regularly on the radio. A favorite family pastime was attending traveling music shows in the area. According to his 1993 autobiography, This Wheel's On Fire, Levon recalls seeing his first live show, Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, at six years old. His description: "This really tattooed my brain. I've never forgotten it."

Hearing performers like Monroe and Williamson on the radio was one thing, seeing them live made a huge impression. Levon's father bought him his first guitar at age nine. At ten and eleven, whenever he wasn't in school or at work on the farm, the boy could be found at KFFA's broadcasting studio in Helena, Arkansas, watching Sonny Boy Williamson do his radio show, King Biscuit Time. Helm made his younger sister Linda a string bass out of a washtub when he was twelve years old. She would play the bass while her brother slapped his thighs and played harmonica and guitar. They would sing songs learned at home and popular hits of the day, and billed themselves as "Lavon and Linda." Because of their fresh faced good looks, obvious musical talent and Levon's natural ability to win an audience with sheer personality and infectious rhythms, the pair consistently won talent contests along the Arkansas 4-H Club circuit. In 1954, Levon was fourteen years old when he saw Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins do a show at Helena. Also performing was a young Elvis Presley with Scotty Moore on guitar, and Bill Black on stand-up bass. They did not have a drummer. The music was early jazz-fueled rockabilly, and the audience went wild. In '55 he saw Elvis once more, before Presley's star exploded. This time Presley had D.J. Fontana with him on drums and Bill Black was playing electric bass. Helm couldn't get over the difference and thought it was the best band he'd seen. The added instruments gave the music solidity and depth. People jumped out of their seats dancing to the thunderous, heart-pumping, rhythms. The melting pot that was the Mississippi Delta had boiled over and evolved. It's magnificently rich blues was uniting with all the powerful, new, spicy-hot sounds and textures that became rock and roll.

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Album Review

The Band: Stage Fright 50th Anniversary Edition 2CD

Read "Stage Fright 50th Anniversary Edition 2CD" reviewed by Doug Collette


In order to more fully appreciate the 50th anniversary edition of the Band's third studio album, Stage Fright (Capitol, 1970), it is best to resist the temptation to go off on tangents regarding the revisionism visited upon the release. The supervision administered by the group's guitarist/songwriter Robbie Robertson may be as questionable as that visited upon other such packages in recent years, but rampant skepticism and suspicion about his motives ultimately precludes deeper enjoyment of the work both past and ...

418
Album Review

Levon Helm: Ramble at the Ryman

Read "Ramble at the Ryman" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


The Arkansas delta grit is gone from his voice, replaced by age and disease with the well-sanded twang of an American Southern Isaiah, if Johnny Cash were a stern Elijah. Levon Helm was the first voice among equals in The Band, sharing vocal duties with the equally distinctive vocals of bassist Rick Danko and pianist Richard Manuel. The only American (necessarily Southern) in a band of Canadians, it was Helm's dusty tenor that lent an American authenticity to the Band's ...

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Recording

JC Hopkins' New Release, "It's A Sad And Beautiful World," Which Features Garth Hudson And Levon Helm, Will Finally See The Light Of Day Ten Years After It Was Recorded

JC Hopkins' New Release, "It's A Sad And Beautiful World," Which Features Garth Hudson And Levon Helm, Will Finally See The Light Of Day Ten Years After It Was Recorded

Source: GoMedia PR

The album, which will be released on July 12, also features an impressive array of jazz greats and notable singer-songwriters There are some musicians who defy genre limitations, whose work spans a such wide spectrum that it simply does not allow them to be labelled or categorized. Multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer JC Hopkins is just such an artist. He’s produced albums for Victoria Williams, Ben Fields and John Lithgow (whose Sunny Side of the Street earned a Grammy as Best ...

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Obituary

Levon Helm: 1940-2012

Levon Helm: 1940-2012

Source: C. Michael Bailey

By C. Michael Bailey The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. —William Faulkner It might be a hard sell to claim that Levon Helm was the voice of The Band, considering he was part of a trio of the most distinctive voices in rock music during what some call ...

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Performance / Tour

Steely Dan's Donald Fagen to Sit in for Levon Helm at Midnight Rambles in February

Steely Dan's Donald Fagen to Sit in for Levon Helm at Midnight Rambles in February

Source: Something Else!

With Levon Helm sidelined by an undisclosed medical procedure, his web site has announced that Donald Fagen of Steely Dan will be a special guest at previously scheduled Midnight Rambles on February 11, 18 and 25. Helm, the Grammy-winning co-founding member of the Band, is expected to be out at least a month. He suffered through a bout with throat cancer in the late 1990s, though it remains unclear if this new procedure is because of a related issue. Helm ...

100

Performance / Tour

Levon Helm to Ramble for Richard Manuel and Rick Danko

Levon Helm to Ramble for Richard Manuel and Rick Danko

Source: JamBase

A MUSICAL NOD TO RICHARD AND RICKY Levon Helm has confirmed a new set of Midnight Rambles in 2012. Special Guests on these dates include Dar Williams, Spirit Family Reunion, and on January 21, a special tribute to fallen bandmates Richard Manuel and Rick Danko. The night is being billed as “"A Musical Nod to Richard and Ricky," and Levon will be joined by band mate Garth Hudson, along with Jimmy Vivino for that performance. Levon will also strike out ...

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Interview

Levon Helm Does Well by Doing Good

Levon Helm Does Well by Doing Good

Source: HypeBot

Supporting good causes is one way for musicians to show that they are making a positive contribution to society while making it clear that their success is about being part of a community rather than simply profiting from a community's interest. Though one may understandably feel that one's music is the main contribution an artist can make, leveraging one's own success to help others at whatever level of achievement has been attained is key to being a good community member. ...

103

Recording

Levon Helm - Ramble at the Ryman (2011)

Levon Helm - Ramble at the Ryman (2011)

Source: Something Else!

We're reminded again on Ramble at the Ryman, a record both timeless and new, that Levon Helm was the loamy voiced, rail-jumping rhythmic center point of the Band, the yearning storyteller and gritty soul. Their records were drawn from continuity, bringing in dizzyingly diverse, age-old influences and performed in a chorus as if by brothers. That has always made a treasure hunt out of selecting any individual triumph. Not here. Recorded in the period just after Helm's acclaimed 2007 return ...

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Recording

David Bromberg's 'Use Me' Taps Friends Dr. John, Levon Helm, Linda Ronstadt, John Hiatt, Los Lobos and More

David Bromberg's 'Use Me' Taps Friends Dr. John, Levon Helm, Linda Ronstadt, John Hiatt, Los Lobos and More

Source: conqueroo

The masterful solo artist, bandleader, and former session man assembles dream team of Americana artists to “use him" as frontman on new and handpicked songs. Album due on Appleseed Records on July 12 LOS ANGELES, Calif.—When David Bromberg, one of America's finest roots musicians, emerged from a recording hiatus of 17 years with the solo, acoustic, traditional folk-blues album Try Me One More Time (Appleseed, 2007), fans and critics were thrilled, and the CD was rewarded with a Grammy nomination. ...

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Event

Moe. to Ramble with Levon Helm

Moe. to Ramble with Levon Helm

Source: JamBase


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Music Industry

Levon Helm Hospitalized; Full Recovery Expected

Levon Helm Hospitalized; Full Recovery Expected

Source: JamBase

GET WELL LEVON Levon Helm was hospitalized in New York City on Saturday with a cold, but is expected to make a full recovery and be released within the next few days. Speaking to the Poughkeepsie Journal, Helm's manager Barbara O'Brien said “Levon came down with a little bit of a cold this week and because he's got COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease], a little bit of a cold to you and me is a lot more serious for him." ...

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Performance / Tour

Levon Helm: NYE Ramble

Levon Helm: NYE Ramble

Source: JamBase


The Band
band / ensemble / orchestra

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Stage Fright 50th...

Universal Music Group
2021

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Ramble at the Ryman

Vanguard Records
2011

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Dirt Farmer

Dirt Farmer Music
2008

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