“Every now and then I feel like my voice is as good as it’s ever been,” Levon said, in a 2008 interview with Woodstock Times. “Every now and then it’ll go south on me, but most of the time it serves a purpose and I’m happy about that.”
It was suggested to him that maybe it was better than ever, even with its limitations.
“I wish it was that way,” he said. “I know that with Ray Charles and Ralph Stanley and B.B. King, singers I admire, they seem to get better every time I hear them.”
After the Band years, Levon built his RCO studio and brought in some all-stars.
“Fred Carter [one of his earliest influences] came up to play with us in Woodstock, [Memphis bassist] Duck Dunn came up…Howard Johnson, Lou Marini, Alan Rubin, the Saturday Night Live horn guys. And Butterfield was playing in the days. I remember…he brought a lot of the great players to town for the first time, [saxophonist] Gene Dinwiddie, [guitarist] Buzzy Feiten, those guys came in and made the town a more musical place. What a great band he had…
“We’re trying the same kind of thing…music really needs a place to play. We’ve got our best equipment here and can sound better here than anywhere…”
At the darkest time, circa late 1990s, struggling to recover from the throat cancer, no more movie roles (he’d been in The Right Stuff, Coal Miner’s Daughter and a few others) he would bring his band, the Barnburners, with daughter Amy doing the singing because he couldn’t, to one of the late incarnations of Joyous Lake on Wednesday nights, playing to almost no one. The music world had discovered hip hop and perennial pop divas sold lots of CDs, and it seemed no one wanted a good tough R&B rock n’ roll band, and no one remembered Levon Helm.
At its most desperate, a dedicated cadre of friends, including Barbara O’Brien who began as a volunteer and progressed to manage the Levon Helm Band, hit on the rent party idea and called it the Midnight Ramble after shows he remembered from his Arkansas childhood.
And it gave him a near decade of renaissance, a climb back to the top.
He never took it for granted.
“I do enjoy it more. We’re just trying to make music now,” he said in that 2008 interview. “Having it taken away from me has made it more so. This many years later, that’s the most peaceful time in my day, when I’m playing. There’s nothing to worry about, I don’t owe anybody anything, just play the songs and try to make them good. As musicians, we’re just not ourselves unless we’re doing that. The way we feel is just not as good. After the show’s over the other things can come back.”
Well, the ‘other things’ aren’t coming back for him. But the music won’t stop. It will live on.
Levon is survived by his wife Sandy; daughter Amy, her husband Jay Collins and their two sons; a world of musicians he inspired, millions of fans, and a small town he called home, that will never forget him. ++
Very well put Brian. An era has ended. So pleased to have been back to Woodstock to see lots of Rambles at the Barn last year. My two sons went last summer. I knew it would end and I wanted them to surround themselves in it. They did they loved it. So did my grandchildren. It was great. He will always be remembered with love.
For many of us Levon Helm’s music goes back to when were very young growing up listing to AOR FM radio. I did get to see The Band open for the Grateful Dead in 1983 in Syracuse and it was one of my all time favorite night’s of music. The Band was recharged and playing some of their best music. The last time I saw Levon was at Gill’s Farm in ’09, it was a great show on a brisk fall day. I sadly never made it to a Ramble, but many of us followed the music online on ThePhilzone where we would see the set lists and read the reviews of those in attendance. The world has lost one of it’s great souls. My condolesences go out to the Helms and their extended musical family.
I hope we can all again meet at Gill’s Farm this October to celebrate Levon’s legacy.
We were two of those people traveling over the atlantic Ocean just to see great Levon on a Ramble, for the first time for birthday Ramble on 27th May 2006. Can´t tell you our impressions, too huge because we met a nice couple in Woodstock Motel on Millstream who turned out being Levon´s best friends from Little Rock, AR. We had a little birthday present for Levon with us (a real bavarian beer mug)and they managed it for us to hand it out to Levon on our parking lot at the Motel. I had very weak knees in this moment I can tell you. In the evening we were invited an hour earlier to the barn for making photographs and looking around. For me as an old Band-Fan it was like being in heaven. And the music was way beyond everything I´d ever heard. After concert we were invited to Levon´s famous kitchen table and I asked my wife to tell me if this all is true.
By the way on Thursday when we had been arriving in Woodstock we visited the Colony Cafe in the evening and saw you, Brian, with your Bluegrass Band. This actually was the beginning of our dream in Woodstock because it was the perfect Intro for what came in the barn later. You played an unrehearsed “Man of constant sorrow” for us, perfect! The next day we had Poppa Chubby from NYC at the Colony, Hard Rock Blues, different but also kind of Americana.
We really became very close friends with the couple from AR and they even visited us here in our hometown Bayreuth/Germany in 2007. In 2008 we met together again at Levon´s for NYEve and 2 further concerts on that week and we were really blown away again. Levon took care of us in a way that was so touching… he was such a soul with a huge heart. Believe me we will never ever forget these days in your wonderful little town and Levon has a very special place in our hearts.
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