Levon Helm's new one

[mandopete]

Speaking of Robbie Robertson and "The Last Waltz" - how about that Gibson semi-hollow body guitar/mandolin double neck he's playing on "The Weight"? The guitar even has a Bigsby. Incredible. Has anyone ever seen another like it?

I saw something like it many years ago at Guitar Center in San Francisco. It was a mandolin / 12-string guitar version made by Gibson. I think that combination would make great sense for a electric guitar when you wanted to have a higher pitched sound.

[Dan Hoover]

well,i just dig "The Band"...to me,they could do it all,a group of guy's who blended together in every way,playing,singing..one very tight unit..each one a major talent on their chosen instrument...real music...that's something most bands can't get..today or yesterday...it's pretty obvious from almost any video of them....i know there's a lot of really great band's that can do it,but i have to think pretty hard to come up with one to match these guy's...man,they were good...thanks for the heads up on letterman,i'll be tuning in...

[journeybear]

Also, most of them were multi-instrumentalists, and accomplished on everything they played. I'm not sure if that's the result of being born with a gift, spending so much time backing up Ronnie Hawkins and then Dylan, or being stuck in a big pink house in upstate New York with not much else to do and plenty of time to do it, or all of the above and more but the rest of us can look at and listen to the results.

I am no longer sure whether it was The Band's "Rag Mama Rag" from their second album or Ry Cooder's "Going To Brownsville" from his first album that first turned me on to mandolin, but I don't remember hearing mandolin before. "The Band" came out first, and "Rag Mama Rag" wigged me out for sure, but that stunning mandolin work by Ry - wow! But that could be another thread entirely ...

Looking through billboard.com, I found this really nice review of their first album, much of which echoes a lot of what has been said here:

None of the Band's previous work gave much of a clue about how they would sound when they released their first album in July 1968. As it was, Music from Big Pink came as a surprise. At first blush, the group seemed to affect the sound of a loose jam session, alternating emphasis on different instruments, while the lead and harmony vocals passed back and forth as if the singers were making up their blend on the spot. In retrospect, especially as the lyrics sank in, the arrangements seemed far more considered and crafted to support a group of songs that took family, faith, and rural life as their subjects and proceeded to imbue their values with uncertainty. Some songs took on the theme of declining institutions less clearly than others, but the points were made musically as much as lyrically. Tenor Richard Manuel's haunting, lonely voice gave the album much of its frightening aspect, while Rick Danko's and Levon Helm's rough-hewn styles reinforced the songs' rustic fervor. The dominant instrument was Garth Hudson's often icy and majestic organ, while Robbie Robertson's unusual guitar work further destabilized the sound. The result was an album that reflected the turmoil of the late '60s in a way that emphasized the tragedy inherent in the conflicts. Music from Big Pink came off as a shockingly divergent musical statement only a year after the ornate productions of Sgt. Pepper, and initially attracted attention because of the three songs Bob Dylan had either written or co-written. However, as soon as "The Weight" became a minor singles chart entry, the album and the group made their own impact, influencing a movement toward roots styles and country elements in rock. Over time, Music from Big Pink came to be regarded as a watershed work in the history of rock, one that introduced new tones and approaches to the constantly evolving genre. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

[Mike Bromley]

I am no longer sure whether it was The Band's "Rag Mama Rag" from their second album or Ry Cooder's "Going To Brownsville" from his first album that first turned me on to mandolin, but I don't remember hearing mandolin before. "The Band" came out first, and "Rag Mama Rag" wigged me out for sure, but that stunning mandolin work by Ry - wow! But that could be another thread entirely ...

"Rag Mama Rag" was a hit, for sure. Featuring Levon on his F4, and Rick Danko sawing on a low-tuned fiddle (FCGD) to get that famously scratchy droning F.

I'm going to have to get a video of one of my (infamous) performances of "Ophelia" on mandolin....one of my fave Band songs for its over the top Levon vocal timing "Please darken my DOOR"....

As for Big Pink, it even influenced the Beatles....Sir Paul and George were big fans.

[journeybear]

... I'm going to have to get a video of one of my (infamous) performances of "Ophelia" on mandolin....one of my fave Band songs for its over the top Levon vocal timing "Please darken my DOOR"....

Funny you should mention that ... "Ophelia" came up in practice today. Never played it before, but I knew it right away. Very cool progression. Those guys ...

I am really scratching my head trying to think of an earlier time for me hearing a mandolin on record. Growing up in New England I heard little country and no bluegrass till later. Since I got my first mandolin in May 1968 I wouldn't have noticed mandolin music before then. "Music From Big Pink" was released 7/1/68, "The Band" 9/22/69, and I don't think there was any mandolin on "Big Pink," so ...

The clip they ran promoting The Late Show and Levon's appearance showed him playing an A model. I thought they taped the show in the afternoon of the same day they broadcast, so I don't know what if anything that means. But I'm hoping ...

[Alex Orr]

I'm going to have to get a video of one of my (infamous) performances of "Ophelia" on mandolin....one of my fave Band songs for its over the top Levon vocal timing "Please darken my DOOR".....

I think it's the Gibson Brothers who do a fantastic bluegrass version of that song.

Oh yeah, just to add to the praise, I heard Electric Dirt yesterday and loved it. The thing sounds so close to what a full-blown Band album would sound like circa 2009 that it's a bit spooky at times. This will easily be in my top 10 albums of the year.

[AlanN]

Yep, the Gibson boys with Marc McGlashan playing that mando solo.

[SternART]

Anyone else read "This Wheels on Fire" published in '93.......Levon's book on the story of The Band. This book took some of the shine off for me.......as great as the music was.....and it "was" great, they took success hard & eventually it became a dysfunctional family, with serious hard drug problems, leading to infighting, even suicide. I saw all the Bay Area shows, from the early Fillmore/Winterland days, to tours backing Dylan, co-bills playing outside in Palo Alto with the Dead, The Last Waltz, even the Paramount Oakland show, the first post Robbie Robertson tour. I was a big fan.......still am.......what a truly great ensemble of musicians! Levon's book is a good read if you want to know the real story of The Band.

[Paul Merlo]

The book "This Wheel's on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band" is a must read for any Levon Helm fan. It is basically Levon's musical autobiography and really gave me great appreciation for him. Without this book, he would probably still be "just another drummer" to me in rock and roll history, however it opened me up to so much more of his work and Lord knows how great I think "Dirt Farmer" is.

Check out http://www.npr.org/ and search Levon Helm, you can find and listen to lots of cool interviews in the archives with him talking about Dirt Farmer and much more.

[blacksmith]

Levon Helm scheduled to be on Letterman tonight.

[MikeEdgerton]

Anyone else read "This Wheels on Fire" published in '93.......

Yup.

[Alex Orr]

they took success hard & eventually it became a dysfunctional family, with serious hard drug problems, leading to infighting, even suicide.

I think the Drive-By Truckers are one of the best rock bands out there...heck, one of the best ever. On their album The Dirty South, former Trucker Jason Isbell has a fantastic song called "Danko/Manuel" that ponders their legacy. Basically it's a rumination on whether it was worth it for those guys - the Band, the influence, the fame and success, all the great music - if in the end it led to overdoses and suicide once they no longer were The Band.

I vaguely recall an interview where he talked about a scene in The Last Waltz where Scorcese asked Danko and Robertson what they would be doing once it was all over, considering that they had been together, mostly on the road, for almost half their lives. Isbell pointed out that after the question was asked they didn't answer very quickly and there was a look on their faces that was something like total emptiness and confusion, as if it was not just a matter of what to do with the time ahead but how they would even be able to define themselves outside of the context in which they had lived for so long. The end of The Band was a complete existential crisis for those guys and they ended up filling it with drugs and booze, and it did two of them in fairly quickly.

[Mike Scott]

Check out his cameo role as a Tennessee gunsmith in "Shooter" with Mark Wahlberg. He's a good actor. He was the only non-Canadian member of The Band. The rest were all from Ontario.

Amazing now that you bring that up. I didn't even realize that was him until I read your post . You're right though-he is a good actor. That was a great part to the movie.

[Jim Ferguson]

Being Canadian....:-)........I have to throw in a little love for the Band as all of them, except for Levon Helms, were from Canada. It is interesting to note (at least from my experience) that when I hear many of my fellow Canadians talking about the best group/band/musicians to come out of Canada years back, these guys are seldom mentioned. When people ask me......they are among the FIRST I mention. As one earlier poster noted.....they were amazing and versatile musicians. I love the Band's music. So raw and rich and gritty. I have seen the Last Waltz so many times and never grow tired of watching that concert.....one of many highlights being Levon singing the Night they drove old Dixie Down........wow!!!!!!!!

[journeybear]

You know, as broadcast time approached, it occurred to me that they would be doing "Tennessee Jed," so Levon would be playing drums, not mandolin. Sho nuff. Still, it was a good version, and there was indeed someone named Helm playing mandolin - his daughter Amy. Of course, it couldn't be heard, suffering the same fate that acoustic instruments usually receive on TV, along with the rhythm guitar and standup bass. But Larry Campbell did a fine job on slide, so there was that.

[David M.]

It was good on Letterman last night, but you're right about the mix not there. I could hear the horns pretty well, though. Levon looked and seemed good. Larry played well as usual.

BY the way, he was a good "preacherman" in Segal's "Fire Down Below" movie filmed in Central Kentucky a while back.

[Alex Orr]

He was also excellent in The Three Burials of Melqiuades Estrada , which is an overlooked masterpiece of a movie.

[journeybear]

... Larry played well as usual.

By the way, he was a good "preacherman" in Segal's "Fire Down Below" movie filmed in Central Kentucky a while back.

Funny you should mention that - I accidentally happened to see part of that movie a couple of days ago. Accidentally because I didn't know I had the movie, nor what it was. What does that mean? Well, I'll tell you.

A few months ago I picked up some used VHS tapes at our library's monthly book sale - yes, I still have a VCR, and you can have it when you pry the remote from my cold, dead fingers - figuring I would just tape over whatever was on there. The other night I taped something for later viewing, and when watching, after my show was over, I noticed Marty Stuart playing guitar. I said, "What?" Turns out it was this movie, and also Randy Travis and Travis Tritt and Jerry Douglas and maybe Randy Scruggs are in it. I'm not saying this is any kind of cinematic triumph, and I must say I was a bit perturbed seeing Seagal playing and singing and his name in the music credits, and I may very well not watch it before taping over the rest of it, even if Marg Helgenberger is in it ... but there it is. And I was thinking of mentioning this movie's existence to Café denizens, but I knew that would have meant that first I'd have to watch it. And I haven't worked up the interest to do that yet!

[David M.]

Funny you should mention that - I accidentally happened to see part of that movie a couple of days ago. Accidentally because I didn't know I had the movie, nor what it was. What does that mean? Well, I'll tell you.

A few months ago I picked up some used VHS tapes at our library's monthly book sale - yes, I still have a VCR, and you can have it when you pry the remote from my cold, dead fingers - figuring I would just tape over whatever was on there. The other night I taped something for later viewing, and when watching, after my show was over, I noticed Marty Stuart playing guitar. I said, "What?" Turns out it was this movie, and also Randy Travis and Travis Tritt and Jerry Douglas and maybe Randy Scruggs are in it. I'm not saying this is any kind of cinematic triumph, and I must say I was a bit perturbed seeing Seagal playing and singing and his name in the music credits, and I may very well not watch it before taping over the rest of it, even if Marg Helgenberger is in it ... but there it is. And I was thinking of mentioning this movie's existence to Café denizens, but I knew that would have meant that first I'd have to watch it. And I haven't worked up the interest to do that yet!

We watched it because we were living in Danville, KY at the time and it was filmed about 10 miles away up in Jessamine County. One of my wife's co-workers QUIT her job to become an extra in the movie, hoping for greatness. Wonder if she met Levon?

QUESTION: What type of mando was Amy Helm playing last night? F-style, but I couldn't make the headstock.

[journeybear]

We watched it because we were living in Danville, KY at the time and it was filmed about 10 miles away up in Jessamine County. One of my wife's co-workers QUIT her job to become an extra in the movie, hoping for greatness. Wonder if she met Levon?

... What type of mando was Amy Helm playing last night? F-style, but I couldn't make the headstock.

I couldn't tell either - they never gave her a closeup. Maybe you can see in the "Making Of ..." video?

Hope your wife's friend's career change works out. Talk about a long shot ... Whew!

I always get a kick out of seeing places I recognize in a movie. The college scenes in the fourth Indiana Jones movie were filmed at Yale (which I didn't know having left there years ago), and it was a surprise and thrill to see those buildings and streets up on the big screen.

[Mike Bromley]

"Fire Down Below" was not a cinematic barnburner, but Levon was a bright spot, as was Randy Travis, both of whose dramatic skills outshone Seagal's typical Bonoistic peevish moralism (causing environmental catastrophe while fighting the bad guys).

[Mike Bunting]

He was also excellent in The Three Burials of Melqiuades Estrada , which is an overlooked masterpiece of a movie.

You got that right, it's way overlooked.

[journeybear]

Speaking of Robbie Robertson and "The Last Waltz" - how about that Gibson semi-hollow body guitar/mandolin double neck he's playing on "The Weight"?

This has come up before ... Is this it?

Yep (he said, answering his own question), that's the baby. I picked up a VHS tape of "The Last Waltz" at a yard sale today (best 50¢ I've spent in a while), which I haven't seen this century, and sho nuff, that's it. Great version of the song, our guys getting excellent backup from The Staple Singers, but why Robbie is playing the doubleneck is a mystery to me. I assume he used it on a song just before or after this that ended up on the cutting room floor, or maybe he just liked the way the guitar sounded for this song. Anyway, it's one of the unexplained mysteries of the unexplained which make rock 'n' roll history an endless source of amusement, confusion, and conversation.

[Will Patton]

Wow, not to pile on, but:
Big Pink changed my life - I so remember listening and listening, with the layers unfolding one by one - thinking - "what IS this?" And each succeeding album grew from the previous. Both Richard and Rick Danko's deaths hit me really hard - such complicated emotive power, now stilled.
I was in a group that opened for Levon and the Barnburners about 6 or 7 yrs. ago... he was undergoing treatment for throat cancer, and Amy did all the singing. I remember feeling that same feeling of loss, one of the great American voices gone. So it's a very happy occasion to hear Levon out there again. Big +1 for This Wheel's on Fire - honestly written account of an amazing musican's journey.
-Will

[Ronny Stecher]

I'm a Levon Lover, been a fan since I knew what was good about music, I've seen him a few times over the years every opportunity from '86 to present. Larry Campbell joined the Black Crowes for recording their new album at Levon's Woodstock home for 5 nights in late feb/early March.

Levon joined them on their closing night of the recording of the upcoming 9/1/09 release to be called "Before The Frost.... Until The Freeze", it's a throwback to the musical style of the Band & the Flying Burrito Brothers, but not limited to as to not put the new offering in a box. It has some rockers, but has a very deep woodsy feel. Larry played a lot of Lap Steel and Mandolin on the recordings.

Levon's been busy the last few years, he used to stay home and host his Ramble's on his Woodstock property. I highly recommend the journey, it's well worth the $150 per as it's a intimate setting as his studio only holds about 150 to 200 people. I caught a Ramble on 1/20/07 and it was a 4 hour affair. The Man is a national treasure.

Here's a few pic's I took at some other recent Levon sightings.


Levon @ BB King’s, NYC 11/26/08 w/Hubert Sumlin+