Features

Nothing But The Blues For Levon Helm (Relix Revisited)

Today we look back to the February 2000 issue of Relix for this feature on Levon Helm.

Levon Helm has had his fair share of the blues during the five decades he’s spent making music. One of the intrinsic singers of The Band, it was his voice you heard singing “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “The Weight” and “Up On Cripple Creek.” Gold albums, world tours, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; The Band has become a serious musical history lesson. Founding member, Rick Danko, passed away in December 1999.

Two years ago, Helm was diagnosed as having throat cancer. After receiving 28 radiation treatments, his health is back on track, though, attempts at singing are currently out of the question.

So Levon has formed a blues band, the Barn Burners, playing the songs he heard as a young kid in Arkansas by Sonny Boy Williamson and Muddy Waters. He has also recently been immersing himself in recording projects: Guy Davis winner of the Keeping The Blues Alive W.C. Handy Award, his album, Butt Naked Free, features Levon on drums.

As I arrived in Woodstock Levon had only just returned from a recording session in New Jersey arranged by Keith Richards and Rob Fraboni for a Hubert Sumlin album, Hubert Plays Muddy, for New York label Mystic Music. The album is designed to showcase Sumlin performing songs he’s rarely played before: those by Howlin Wolf’s rival, Muddy Waters. Eric Clapton and assorted musicians who played in Muddy Waters’ band were also present.

Days later he was to travel up to Kingston, Ontario to record with his old boss, Ronnie Hawkins, for a session of blues standards. In the late ‘50s and early ‘60s Helm was a Hawk with fellow Arkansas frontman Ronnie Hawkins, appearing on American Bandstand and gracing the Billboard charts with “Hello, Mary Lou” and other rockabilly hits.

Woodstock is a town that doesn’t wake till noon and things go at a nice easy pace. Talk between locals is, which house is it that Brad Pitt has just bought?

While sitting in a bar nursing a cold beer the barman, Ed, asks me what I’m doing in town. Well, I’m here to see Levon Helm. Some guy next to me perks up, “Oh, Levon has a great blues band in town and they play every week. I went to see him last week and sat next to a young lady who looked like she needed some company, turns out it was Levon’s daughter. I won’t make that mistake again.”

Yes sir, on a Wednesday night in a local honky tonk called the Joyous Lake, the blues is pumping loud and proud from Levon Helm & The Barn Burners. They have a residency there performing two sets a night. Levon walks in ten minutes before the first set begins at 10:00pm, warmly greeting friends and folks that have traveled to see him. Sitting down at his drums he arranges the snare drum, checks the cymbals, beams a smile at his band and, BAM! Kicks straight into Muddy Waters’ “I’m Ready.” Frontman Chris O’Leary lays strong, menacing vocals and harp. Other members include guitarist Pat O’Shea and Frank Ingrao on standup bass. Energy flows from Levon as he swings and smiles behind this young band. He’s always been one of rocks greatest drummers but will tell you that his heroes, Earl Palmer and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith are in another league. “19 Years Old,” “Wang Dang Doodle” and “I Want To Be Loved” follow, O’Leary’s harp tracing the original sound of Levon’s close friend and harmonica maestro, James Cotton. The dance floor is heaving, notable Woodstock locals twisting and jiving in joy. Amy Helm is introduced, at 28 she is following in the footsteps of her father as a strong, passionate singer. She tentatively starts the Etta James classic, “I Just Want To Make Love To You.” Second verse in she owns it. She’s very animated during her singing, really working the stage. Amy and Chris duet on Hound Dog, Frank Ingrao slapping that standup bass, Levon hasn’t stopped smiling all night. She ends her set with a great version of Shake A Hand, smoldering on each verse and blazing on the chorus.

If you’re one of the dancers, the fifteen minute break between sets is welcome relief to catch a breath and get hold of a cold drink.

The second set is another triumph of familiar and obscure favorites from the blues bible. A couple of original songs, The Grass Is Always Greener, a notable tune, are also thrown into the set.