May 26: The late great Levon Helm was born 1940
Mark Lavon “Levon” Helm , was an American rock multi-instrumentalist 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, and creative drumming style highlighted on many of The Band’s recordings, such as “The Weight”, “Up on Cripple Creek”, “Ophelia” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”.
The Band – Atlantic City (written by Bruce Springsteen), from “The Road” TV series (1995), shot 8/5/94 in Rockford, IL:
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 #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. (wikipedia)
Levon was a Mountain, a Rock, an American institution, we miss him deeply!
Blind Willie McTell (written by Bob Dylan):
Album of the day, Dirt Farmer:
– Hallgeir
Willie Nile has a great song called ‘When Levon Sings’ on his new CD ‘World War Willie’ if you care to check it out. Levon has played drums behind Willie on occasion.
Thanks for the tip, will check it out.
Sad to know that Levon’s gone. Glad that he was here so long.