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 Live Covers From The Black Crowes

Chris and Rich Robinson formed the Black Crowes in 1984. There are have been a lot of highs and some lows on their records over the years, but they have always remained a hugely successful live act. One of the big reasons for this is their ability to mix in great covers into their sets. Here are some of the best that have been captured on video over the years.

A fun video (with some hilarious crowd shots) of the Crowes covering Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35" at the 1991 Monsters of Rock Festival in Moscow.



A cover of Joe Cocker's "Feelin' Alright" on the first anniversary of The Late Show with David Letterman in 1994.



The Crowes recorded the album Live at the Greek in October of 1999 (and later toured) with Jimmy Page. The album featured mostly Led Zeppelin songs and one of the better versions they did was for "What is and What Should Never Be."



After a three year hiatus, the band reunited in 2005 and recorded the live CD/DVD Freak and Roll... Into the Fog. The highlight was the closing song, a cover of The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." Here's the video and the mp3.



The Black Crowes - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

In 2006, keyboard player Eddie Harsch and guitarist Marc Ford left the band. They were eventually replaced by Adam MacDougall and Luther Dickinson (of the North Mississippi Allstars). Joining original members Chris and Rich Robinson, bassist Sven Pippen, and drummer Steve Gorman, they've made two excellent studio albums and released most of their concerts on their website www.liveblackcrowes.com. Here is a sampling of ten great live covers that they've mixed into their shows in the last few years. Listen to these tracks and you will hear why this latest Crowes lineup is one of the great live rock bands around today.

The Black Crowes - Live Covers from 2008 & 2009

Torn and Frayed (Rolling Stones cover) - from Warpaint Live

Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Rolling Stones cover) San Francisco, CA - 12/19/08

Ohio (CSN&Y cover) Cleveland, OH - 7/30/08

He Was a Friend of Mine (Bob Dylan cover) New York, NY - 11/03/08

The Mighty Quinn (Bob Dylan & The Band cover) Philadelphia, PA - 7/01/08

Don't Do It (The Band cover) Hampton Beach, NH - 6/19/09

Oh Sweet Nuthin' (Velvet Underground cover) Alantic City, NJ - 8/29/09

Boomer's Story (Ry Cooder cover) Westbury, NY - 9/04/09

Hot Burrito #2 (Gram Parsons cover) Asbury Park, NJ 9/05/09

So Many Times (Stephen Stills cover) Woodstock, NY 2009

The last track was recorded live in front of an audience, along with the rest of the double album Before the Frost... Until the Freeze, during a series of five shows at Levon Helm's barn in Woodstock, NY. Like the cover above, the whole album is phenomenal and well worth checking out. To truly get the most out of the Black Crowes experience though, you have to see them live, since they've never been better.

Thanks for checking this out everyone.

Buy the Black Crowes' Before the Frost... Until the Freeze 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

Blind Willie McTell and Bob Dylan

Blind Willie McTell was a blues singer who was born in 1901. He is well regarded by many prominent musicians and critics today as one of the great blues legends due to his haunting vocals, brilliant lyrics, and deft picking on his 12 string. He spent most of his life struggling through many hardships. Although he never recorded what would have been considered a hit song, McTell would record under a different pseudonym for each record agent he encountered, using such incredibly cool names as Georgia Bill, Barrelhouse Sammy, and Red Hot Willie Glaze. In doing so, he left behind an interesting and prolific body of work that spanned over 50 years. Late in his life, McTell became a preacher before passing away in 1959. You can read more about him in this article by Jim Powers here.

Here are four of the best recordings from Blind Willie McTell:

Blind Willie McTell - Statesboro Blues
Blind Willie McTell - Brokedown Engine
Blind Willie McTell - You've Got to Die
Blind Willie McTell - Deathroom Blues

Many musicians have named McTell as a huge influence, including such greats as the Allman Brothers, Taj Mahal, and Jack White. They've recorded many of McTell's songs and used some of their favorite lines of his in their own work. It can be argued though that no one has ever paid greater tribute to a fellow musician than what Bob Dylan achieved with his astounding song "Blind Willie McTell." Recorded in the early 1980's, Dylan chose to leave the song off of his Infidels album. Some have argued that Dylan feared writer's block and wanted to keep some of this best songs in reserve or never felt the song was fully realized, but for whatever reason it remained unreleased until a version from the Infidels sessions appeared on the 1989 box set The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3.

Bob Dylan - Blind Willie McTell (from The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3)

Another interesting take on the song from the Infidels sessions has been widely bootlegged. I prefer this version due to the looser, wilder feel that it has.

Bob Dylan - Blind Willie McTell (Infidels Outtakes)

Dylan began performing the song live in the late 1990's and it was often the highlight of the night when it made it into the set.



The best cover of the song that I've heard was recorded by The Band, who included this excellent version on their 1993 album Jericho.

The Band - Blind Willie McTell

Bob Dylan also paid tribute to Blind Willie McTell by recording two of his songs for his tremendous and often overlooked 1993 album of covers, World Gone Wrong.

Bob Dylan - Broke Down Engine
Bob Dylan - Delia

If you're new to the site, be sure to check out my post about Bob Dylan's appearance promoting Infidels on "Late Night With David Letterman" in 1984 here.

Buy Blind Willie McTell's Atlanta Twleve String, an excellent recording of a 1949 session at amazon.com

The Band - King Biscuit Flower Hour: Complete Masters - 7/17/76 - Washington D.C.

This is as good as bootlegs get. It is everything recorded for The Band's appearance on the classic syndicated radio show "The King Biscuit Flower Hour." This performance was on July 17, 1976 from the Carter Baron Ampitheater in Washington D.C. Previous bootlegs featured only the 10 songs that were on the radio show. This Japanese bootleg from 2003 gives us 15 songs, taken from the pre-broadcast reels.

This would be the final year that Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson would perform live as The Band, culminating in their last show together on New Year's Eve, filmed by Martin Scorcese for his movie The Last Waltz.

For all you audio nerds, the mp3 files here are at 320 kbps. Enjoy.

The Band - 7/17/76 - Washington D.C. -
Complete "King Biscuit Flower Hour" Masters

01 - Don't Do It
02 - The Shape I'm In
03 - It Makes No Difference
04 - The Weight
05 - King Harvest Surely Has Come
06 - Twilight
07 - Ophelia
08 - Tears of Rage
09 - Forbidden Fruit
10 - This Wheel's on Fire
11 - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
12 - The Genetic Method
13 - Chest Fever
14 - Up on Cripple Creek
15 - W.S Walcott's Medicine Show

Some videos of The Band at their very best.












Look for a post on unreleased tracks from Bob Dylan & The Band's Basement Tapes down the road. Thanks for checking this out.