LEVON HELM

'Mark Lavon Helm' (born May 26, 1940), better known as 'Levon Helm', is an American rock musician most famous as the drummer for the rock group The Band. Helm is also known for his deeply soulful, country-style voice, and powerful drumming style highlighted on many of the The Band's recordings, such as "The Weight", "Up on Cripple Creek", "King Harvest", "Ophelia" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".

Contents

Biography

Early years

The Band

Acting, authorship

Health problems, recovery

Trivia

References

External links

Biography

Early years

Helm was born in Marvell, Arkansas and began playing the guitar at the age of eight. Helm also played drums during his formative years and established his first band The Jungle Bush Beaters while in high school. He was influenced by the Grand Ole Opry and by R&B songs that he heard on radio station WLAC out of Nashville, Tennessee.
Helm became interested in rock and roll after attending an Elvis Presley concert. He moved from Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee where he was influenced by Bo Diddley and Conway Twitty. At age 17 he was invited to join The Hawks, backing rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. Soon after Helm joined The Hawks, they moved to Toronto, Ontario where, in 1959, they signed with Roulette Records and released several singles, including a few hits.
In the early 1960s Helm and Hawkins recruited an all-Canadian lineup of musicians: guitarist Robbie Robertson, bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manuel and organist Garth Hudson. In 1963, the band parted ways with Hawkins and started touring under the name Levon and The Hawks and later to the Canadian Squires before finally changing back to The Hawks. They recorded two singles, but found little success.

The Band

By the mid 1960s, Bob Dylan was interested in performing electric rock music, and asked The Hawks to be his backing band. Disheartened by fans' negative response to Dylan's new sound, Helm returned to Arkansas for what turned out to be a two-year layoff, being replaced by Mickey Jones. During his absence, The Hawks had taken up residence in Woodstock, New York and began writing their own songs; Danko and Manuel also shared writing credits with Dylan on a few songs.
In 1967 Helm returned to the group, which by then was christened simply as The Band. They recorded ''Music From Big Pink'', which catapulted them into stardom. On ''Big Pink'', Manuel was the most prominent vocalist and Helm sang mainly backup, with the outstanding exception of "The Weight," but as Manuel's health deteriorated and Robertson's songwriting increasingly looked south for influence and direction, subsequent albums relied more and more on Helm's growling but eerily plaintive vocals (alone or in harmony with Danko). Singing lead, Helm brought out common elements in folk and blues vocal styles, often assuming the character of a kind of mythical Southern everyman, who witnesses bewildering events and reacts to them with wonder and rage. Helm played drums for perhaps 85% of The Band's songs, including most of those for which he sang lead. But the entire group was multi-instrumental, and often Helm would be found performing mandolin or 12-string rhythm guitar when Manuel played drums, and bass when Danko played fiddle.^[1]
Helm remained with The Band until their 1976 farewell performance, ''The Last Waltz'', which was recorded in a documentary film by Martin Scorsese. Although many now 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--he repudiated his involvement with the film shortly after the final scenes were shot and, in his autobiography, offers scathing criticisms of the film and of his former bandmate, Robertson, who produced the film. ^[2]
With the breakup of The Band in its original form, Helm began working on a solo album ''Levon Helm and the RCO All Stars'' which was followed soon thereafter by ''Levon Helm''. He recorded solo albums in 1980 and 1982 entitled ''American Son'' and (once again) ''Levon Helm''. Helm also participated in a concept album. ''The Legend of Jesse James''. released in 1980.
In 1983, The Band reunited without Robbie Robertson, but then Manuel committed suicide while on tour in 1986. Helm, Danko and Hudson continued in The Band, releasing the album ''Jericho'' in 1993 and ''High on the Hog'' in 1996. The last album from The Band to date was the 30th anniversary album ''Jubilation'' in 1998.

Acting, authorship

Helm has acted in several feature films, including ''Coal Miner's Daughter'', a co-starring role with Wilford Brimley in the 1988 movie ''End of the Line'', and as Jack Ridley, the narrator of 1983's ''The Right Stuff''. He also narrated the 1997 documentary ""Elvis '56 - In the Beginning. In 2005, he appeared in the film ''The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada'', directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones and also played himself in the Canadian mockumentary, ''The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico''. In 2007, he appeared in ''Shooter.'' He is currently filming another movie "In The Electric Mist" in Louisiana with Tommy Lee Jones. That is scheduled for release late 2007, early 2008.
Helm published an autobiography entitled ''This Wheel's on Fire'' in 1993.

Health problems, recovery

Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer in the 1990s. He underwent an arduous regimen of radiation treatments. Although the tumor was successfully removed, his vocal cords were damaged, and his clear, powerful tenor voice was replaced by a quiet rasp. In recent years, however, his voice has grown stronger and on November 27, 2004 he sang for the first time at one of his Ramble Sessions.
As of 2006, Helm performs with his multi-genre band called The Levon Helm Band which features his daughter, Amy Helm, Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, Jimmy Vivino, Mike Merritt, Brian Mitchell, Erik Lawrence, Steven Bernstein and blues harmonica player Little Sammy Davis. He hosts Midnight Rambles at his home in Woodstock, New York that are open to the public. Artists who have performed at the Rambles include another one of Helm's former bandmates, Garth Hudson, as well as Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Donald Fagen of Steely Dan and Jimmy Vivino of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien's" The Max Weinberg 7. Others have been The Muddy Waters Tribute Band, Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Bow Thayer, Luther "Guitar" Junior Johnson, Ricki Lee Jones, Kate Taylor, Ollabelle, The Holmes Brothers, Catherine Russell, Johnny Johnson and more...
The Midnight Ramble is an outgrowth of an idea he explained to Martin Scorsese in ''The Last Waltz'' (and turned into a song by the Band, "The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show"). Talking about rock and roll showmanship, he talked about the travelling medicine shows that would put on performances for communities.
"After the finale, they'd have the midnight ramble," Helm told Stoudemire. "The songs would get a little bit juicier. The jokes would get a little funnier and the prettiest dancer would really get down and shake it a few times. A lot of the rock and roll duck walks and moves came from that."
Helm appeared at the Beacon Theater on March 16-17, 2007, which according to Imus in the Morning, was quite a rare occurrence. Dr. John and Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers Band, Govt. Mule) and Garth Hudson played at the concerts as well along with several other guests. The Alexis P. Sutter Band was the opening act.

Trivia

★ Elton John's 1971 hit "Levon" was named after Levon Helm.

★ For drumming, Levon Helm has switched to the matched grip in recent years, making for a less-busy style of drumming as opposed to his years with The Band, when played with the traditional grip. ^[3]

References

1. http://www.geocities.jp/hideki_wtnb/bandplay.html
2. ''This Wheel's On Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band'', Levon Helm with Stephen Davis, Plexus, London (1993), p. 276
3. Interview, July 29, 2006. The Band's Levon Helm, Making Music Again, National Public Radio (retrieved August 18, 2006).

External links

★ Levon Helm's official website.

★

★ Levon Helm's biography.i

★ All Music Guide