24 December 2025
Early December, the soundtrack to Xmas comedy movie OH. WHAT. FUN.
came out with artists covering other artists’ Xmas songs.
Among them, songsmith JEFF TWEEDY with his take on
The Band‘s 1977 carol, called Christmas Must Be Tonight.
Beautiful, just beautiful.
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Original
9 January 2024
50 years on – 26 June 1975 – from the release of the Basement Tapes LP by Bob Dylan and The Band, Uncut invites compatriots, aficionados and heads, including Jason Isbell, Richard Thompson, Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison and more to celebrate
the 30 greatest songs of The Band.
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Also features with Sharon Van Etten, Aswad, Blue Öyster Cult, The Moody
Blues, Macca, Keith Richards, etc, and reviews of a heap of new albums.
You can buy a copy and let it be sent to your home address. Info HERE.
This month’s free CD, named Take A Load Off contains 15 tracks of new
music by The Weather Station, The Delines, Richard Dawson, Sunny War
and more.
Back in time
25 November 2022
The final concert of legendary Americana/rock/country group THE BAND
25 November 1976 (Thanksgiving Day) in Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco
was filmed by legendary moviemaker Martin Scorsese and hit the cinemas
2 years later.
The Band invited a start-studded cast of friends including Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield,
Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Ringo Starr, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Muddy
Waters, Van Morrison, Ronnie Wood, Neil Diamond, Bobby Charles, The Staple Singers,
and Eric Clapton. The swirling show was actually a celebration of a remarkable career.
Movie Trailer…
3 top moments…
BABY LET ME FOLLOW YOU DOWN by BOB DYLAN
THE SHAPE I’M IN by THE BAND
SUCH A NIGHT by DR. JOHN
THE (Triple) ALBUM
THE MUSIC
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THE BAND: Bio – Discography
22 September 2022
This epic tour captures the excitement of THE BAND’s historic 1976
Thanksgiving concert at the famed Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.
It was a farewell concert with original members Rick Danko, Levon Helm,
Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson. Later they reunited.
(1967–1977, 1983–1999).
Unfortunately, the surviving band members Robbie Robertson and Garth Hudson
can’t participate along with Warren Haynes, Don Was, Jamey Johnson, Kathleen Edwards, Anders Osborne, Dave Malone, John Medeski, Cyril Neville, Terence Higgins, Bob Margolin,
Mark Mulins & The Levee Horns.
Three sublime moments from the original 1977 concert.
– THE BAND –
– BOB DYLAN –
– THE LAST WALTZ –
Theme song
THE LAST WALTZ TOUR: Website
Soulful reveries for the laziest day of the week
22 May 2022
Iconic singer MAVIS STAPLES is an alchemist of American music. During her 70+ year career, one of her favorite musical moments was her performance in Martin Scorsese’s
film The Last Waltz about the final concert of Americana heroes The Band. With The Staple Singers, she sang along with The Band to their classic diamond The Weight.
Since then Staples and the late great drummer/vocalist LEVON HELM became close friends and worked/played together many times. Like in the summer of 2011 when Helm invited her to his Woodstock studio for one of his Midnight Rambles Live Shows that he produced and broadcasted. Recordings of the duo’s performance are now cleaned up and cemented in a new live album, baptized CARRY ME HOME with their versions of great songs by Bob Dylan, Curtis Mayfield, The Band, and more.
Enjoy here…
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MAVIS STAPLES: Facebook
LEVON HELM: Facebook
12 September 2020
Band: THE BAND
Album: THE BAND – second LP
Released: 22 September 1969
ROLLING STONE wrote: “The Band were four-fifths Canadian – drummer Levon Helm was from Arkansas – but their second album is all American. Guitarist Robbie Robertson’s songs vividly evoke the country’s pioneer age (“Across the Great Divide”) and the Civil War (“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”), while reflecting the fractured state of the nation in the 1960s. The Band’s long life on the road resonates in the brawn of Garth Hudson’s keyboards and Helm’s juke-joint attack. But Robertson’s stories truly live in Helm’s growl, Rick Danko’s high tenor and Richard Manuel’s spectral croon. “Somebody once said he had a tear in his voice,” Helm said
of Manuel: “Richard had one of the richest-textured voices I’d ever heard.”
“It’s easy to be a genius in your twenties. In your forties, it’s difficult.” – Robbie Robertson
Two of the many highlights (live versions taken from their famous final The Last Waltz concert – with the original line-up – in 1976 in San Francisco filmed by top director Martin Scorsese)…
– THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN –
– UP ON CRIPPLE CREEK –
Album – expanded version
(Original tracklist #1 – #12)
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THE BAND: Biography
Back sleeve
17 August 2020
Band: THE BAND (4 Canadians /1 American)
Beginning: From 1958 to 1963 as The Hawks
Members: Rick Danko (RIP), Richard Manuel (RIP),
Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm (RIP)
Active: 1968–1977, 1983–1999
Album: STAGE FRIGHT – third LP
Released: 17 August 1970 – 50 years ago today
Score: Peaked at #5 in the US
AllMusic wrote: “‘Stage Fright’, The Band’s third album, sounded on its surface like the group’s first two releases… Several of the album’s later songs seemed to be metaphors for trouble the group was encountering, with “The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show” commenting on the falseness
of show business… ‘Stage Fright’ seemed to be the group’s alarmed response, which made it their most nakedly confessional. It was certainly different from their previous work, which had tended toward story-songs set in earlier times, but it was hardly less compelling for that.
Score: 4.5/5
“One of the things I feel very strong about is the achievement
of The Band really being a complete band” – Robbie Robertson
Top tracks: The Shape I’m In / Stage Fright / Time To Kill
– THE SHAPE I’M IN –
– STAGE FRIGHT –
– TIME TO KILL –
Full album…
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THE BAND: Facebook
25 June 2020
Artists: Bob Dylan and The Band
Album: The Basement Tapes – a double longplayer
Released: 26 June 1975 – 45 years ago – Dylan’s 16th LP
Artwork: the cover picture was taken by Reid Miles
in the basement of a Los Angeles YMCA
Score: #7 in the USA AND #8 in the UK
Rolling Stone said at the time: “The songs are home music, barroom music played for pleasure and for the hell of it by and for musicians with a shared experience outsiders
may not fully understand… the music and lyrics snarled and spit out of the corners of one’s mouth… these were inspired times, and Dylan and the Band could as well have been singing and playing the telephone book.” Full review here.
Key phrase: this is what happens when icon Bob Dylan and
his phenomenal backing band make Americana great again
Key tracks: too many to name
Full album…
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BOB DYLAN: Facebook
22 September 2019
50 years ago today, on 22 September 1969, legendary Canadian-American roots rock
and country artists THE BAND released their self-titled second LP, also known as the
‘Brown Album‘. Although guitarist Robbie Roberston wrote or co-wrote all 12 songs
the grand final result was certainly a group achievement. Great musicians, several great singers, great composers performing great Americana songs about the past. The critics lauded the multifaceted longplayer and it peaked at #9 on the Billboard’s Pop Albums Chart.
ROLLING STONE wrote: “The Band were four-fifths Canadian – drummer Levon Helm was from Arkansas – but their second album is all American. Guitarist Robbie Robertson’s songs vividly evoke the country’s pioneer age (“Across the Great Divide”) and the Civil War (“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”), while reflecting the fractured state of the nation in the 1960s. The Band’s long life on the road resonates in the brawn of Garth Hudson’s keyboards and Helm’s juke-joint attack. But Robertson’s stories truly live in Helm’s growl, Rick Danko’s high tenor and Richard Manuel’s spectral croon. “Somebody once said he had a tear in his voice,” Helm said
of Manuel: “Richard had one of the richest-textured voices I’d ever heard.”
Here are two all time highlights (live versions taken from their famous final The Last Waltz concert – with the original line-up – in 1976 in San Francisco filmed by top director Martin Scorsese) …
– THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN –
– UP ON CRIPPLE CREEK –
Album – expanded version – in full here…
(Original tracklist #1 – #12)
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THE BAND: Biography
Back sleeve
Weekly series of five rolling ripsnorters to go bananas to this summer…
A new week! Here are five legendary singer/songwriters turning up the temperature…
1. ‘I Don’t Wanna To Grow Up’ by TOM WAITS
(Album: Bone Machine – 1992)
2. ‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!’ by NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS
(Album: Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! – 2008)
3. ‘Downtown’ by NEIL YOUNG
(Album: Mirror Ball – 1995)
4. ‘Baby Let Me Follow You Down’ by BOB DYLAN and THE BAND
(Album: The Last Waltz – original soundtrack 1978)
5. ‘Seventeen’ by SHARON VAN ETTEN
(Album: Remind Me Tomorrow – 2019)
All 60 Summer Bangers so far
collected here on Spotify…
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See/hear you next week, music junkies…