The Levon Helm Band's "Electric Dirt"

(Note: due to someone who works for Levon Helm not wanting me to share mp3s, the two Levon Helm tracks are no longer available. Sorry about that.)

By singing many of their greatest songs, while also being a fantastic drummer, Levon Helm was an important part of what made The Band one of the greatest rock groups of all time. Here he is at his best, singing the classic "Up On Cripple Creek" on stage at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh in 1970, followed by the original studio track.



The Band - Up On Cripple Creek

In the late 1990's, Levon lost his voice and was diagnosed with throat cancer. In this interview here, Levon recounts what it was like to survive this and eventually sing again at the Midnight Ramble shows at his home in Woodstock, NY. The continued strength of these shows and Levon's improving health and voice led to the release of his solo album Dirt Farmer in 2007.

The album was recorded with his Levon Helm Band which featured his daughter Amy Helm, along with Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, Jimmy Vivino, Mike Merritt, Brian Mitchell, Erik Lawrence, Steven Bernstein and blues harmonica player Little Sammy Davis.

The highlight of this record for me was his cover of Steve Earle's "The Mountain." Levon's world weary voice added something special to this version. Here's a fan made video made up of some great old photographs.



The Levon Helm band engaged in successful touring along with continuing a run of Midnight Ramble shows in Woodstock that were more popular than ever and featured many great musicians joining in from night to night. This led to the recording of the excellent follow up Electric Dirt, which opened with a fun cover of Jerry Garcia's "Tennessee Jed." Here's the band's recent performance on The Late Show with David Letterman.



I got to see The Levon Helm Band open up for the Black Crowes in Atlantic City on July 29, 2009. While Levon had to rest his voice and could not sing, the rest of the band filled in admirably, taking some excellent turns on lead vocals for many new songs and classics from The Band. We also got a couple of fun surprise guests too.

Here's the Black Crowes lead singer Chris Robinson singing lead on "Tennesse Jed."



Chris and Rich Robinson joined in for the last song of The Levon Helm Band's opening set, "The Weight."



Look for plenty more on The Band, Levon Helm, and The Black Crowes here in the future. Thanks for checking this out.

Buy Levon Helm's Electric Dirt on amazon.com

Ten More Covers of Bruce Springsteen's Songs

Bruce Springsteen is turning 60 this week. In honor of him, let's put up ten more covers of his songs from some other great artists. If you missed it, there are ten more favorite Bruce covers from an earlier post on this blog here.

Ten more excellent covers of Bruce Springsteen's songs:

The Hollies - Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

David Bowie - It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City

The Band - Atlantic City

Steve Earle - State Trooper (Live)

Johnny Cash - Highway Patrolman

Elvis Costello - Brilliant Disguise

Crooked Fingers - Mansion on the Hill

Damian Jurado & Rosie Thomas - Wages of Sin

Marah - Streets of Philadelphia

John Train Band (featuring Mike Brenner) - Independence Day

The last track was recorded to promote a concert celebrating Springsteen's birthday from Philadelphia's great public radio station WXPN at World Cafe Live on September 23rd. Many tracks were recorded at the XPN studios by local Philly artists who will all be performing these songs live on Wednesday night. The live show will be broadcast on www.xpn.org from 7-10, but in the meantime, check out a playlist of the recorded tracks here or below.



Buy the best Springsteen tribute album, Badlands: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska at amazon.com

Steve Earle's new record "Townes"

On his new record Townes, Steve Earle pays tribute to his mentor Townes Van Zandt's legacy by covering 15 of his classic songs. Their relationship was a complicated and difficult one, as detailed in this interesting New York Times article here.

While some songs work much better than others, the album mantains a level of quality thoughout that does justice to all of these songs. Overall, what had to have seemed like a daunting task became quite an interesting and entertaining record in the end. Here are my two favorites that have really stood out on Townes.

He chose to give the song "White Freightliner Blues" a nice bluegrass feel, which worked out really well.

Steve Earle - White Freightliner Blues (from Townes)

Steve's gritty vocals really added something special to "Marie," one of Townes' most harrowing songs.

Steve Earle - Marie (from Townes)

Steve Earle has two other notable Townes Van Zandt covers that appeared previously on cd.

The first is a cover of "Two Girls" which appeared on the soon to be reissued compilation Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt.

Steve Earle - Two Girls

Also, a medley of a cover of "Rex's Blues" followed by "Fort Worth Blues" a song Steve Earle wrote shortly after learning of Townes' passing appeared on the soundtrack to the 2003 documentary Just An American Boy.

Steve Earle - Rex's Blues/Fort Worth Blues

I've always loved this video of Steve singing "Fort Worth Blues" on Austin City Limits during an in the round tribute to Townes Van Zandt.



If you'd like to read more about Townes, Steve Earle gave his thoughts on each of the songs he chose to record in this post on the blog An Aquarium Drunkard here.

Buy Townes by Steve Earle at amazon.com