Have you ever spent an evening with an old friend and felt that you probably wouldn't see them again and so the time seems both precious and somehow sad-making all at once? Well that doggoned son of an Arkansas dirt farmer, Levon Helm, has pulled that act on me since 1976 and I'm getting to the point that I swear that these old house-counting eyes won't tear up-but they do. Making taut authentic records since 19freaking59 and delivering superb live musicianship with a coterie of seminal musicians including Ronnie Hawkins, Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Paul Butterfield, Allen Toussaint, Steve Earl,Donald Fagen, The Staple singers, Howard Johnson, Johnnie Johnson, Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn,Johnny Cash, Elvis' boys Scotty and Bill, Bob Dylan, his current generously talented amalgamation and many others (not to mention his cohorts in stretching so-called Rock Music both forward and, incredibly, credibly backward: The Band!) Levon Helm is beyond legend at our house.
I saw Levon five times with The Band in it's original incarnation, once with his cousins' group The Cate Brothers, once with Garth the Great and Richard and Rick with the Cates
and four times with the Jericho-era Band (the first time, interestingly, with Billy Preston filling the role vacated by the death of Stan Sylest prior to Richard Bell in Richard Manuel's rocking chair;-- r.i.p. to those IvoryPounders]. The Bride From Across the Great Divide and I made the small p pilgrimage to the house that brings a smile and a spine-tingling Ramble in May 06 with a ghostly John Sebastian playing harmonica and hiding near the horn section and doubling my visit with an old friend deja vu. Last year in Grand Rapids at the Meier Gardens and now, improbably, at the Michigan Theatre.
Sure, he was great. I had a little nervousness at the start when he didn't sing for the first few selections. Not for me, mind you , I'd pay to see him drum with No, 2 pencils on The Yellow Pages, but for those kind people worried about his health and throat troubles, but that old rascal was just setting us up. Again. God Bless Levon Helm!