Photo by Ahron Foster
I was lucky enough to see Levon Helm perform numerous times over the years in all sorts of settings but my mind consistently drifts to the first time I saw him play live whenever I hear his name. When I was in high school in the ‘90s, I went to see the Counting Crows play SPAC, and the Wallflowers opened the night on one of their first tours. At the end of their set and without much fanfare, Jakob Dylan brought out Levon Helm to sing and play mandolin on a few songs, one of the few times The Band’s eternal spirit played with someone with the last name Dylan in his later years. This was before Levon had been diagnosed with cancer and certainly before he launched one of the most successful comebacks in recent rock history, so I didn’t know rarely appreciate who he was—he just seemed to come down from the mountain and change the whole feel of the night, which feels like the perfect way to experience him for the first time.
Shortly after that show, I really started to dig into The Band’s music and discovered just how important Levon was not only to the group but rock history in general. He was a true witness to rock history—one of the few people who was around when folk went electric and still felt just as relevant when jam went indie. Since his passing a month ago, his final eight years have justifiably been called the most successful encore in rock and roll history, but I’m still glad I was able to see Levon at least once before my generation helped bring him back into the spotlight because, in a way, he thought of himself as a sideman up until the very end.
It was a theme he consistently returned to when I interviewed him in the spring of 2009 for a Relix feature tied to his final studio album, Electric Dirt. We sat for 40-minutes after a Midnight Ramble in his modest, surprisingly suburban looking kitchen, which was located right behind his barn performance space and functioned as something of a makeshift greenroom. Larry Campbell, one of his closest collaborators in recent years and another Bob Dylan alum, sat with him throughout our conversation. As he did with the Ramble Band onstage and the studio he was mainly there for support, adding a line here or there and polishing Helm’s thoughts from time to time.
Despite being something of a promotional interview for his then forthcoming solo record, Levon seemed just as happy to plug the members of his band and their individual projects as he did talking about his new album—which is extremely rare for a musician who has seen his career hit rock bottom and has only recently received his long overdue recognition. His voice was horse from a long night of singing—and many more years of living—but he still perked up when we mentioned his daughter Amy or any of his recent collaborations. He touched briefly on his time with Dylan, The Band’s Americana roots and his idol Ray Charles, but his he remained firmly focused on the future.
At the time it seemed strange but in retrospect the point of the entire final act of his career was to create a true musicians’ band that could function without a leader and keep his spirit alive after he was gone. “We’re rhythm section guys,” Helm casually said a one point in the interview, referring more to the stacked resumes the members of his Ramble on the Road band carry than to his own iconic Band. But then again, that’s the common denominator that brought The Band together in the first place.
In celebration of what would have been Levon’s 72nd birthday on May 26, we decided to publish an extended portion of that conversation, most of which has never appeared before. Perhaps the most fitting tribute to their namesake if not leader, the Levon Helm Band will also play their first show since his passing on Saturday night. As he once sang in “Arcadian Driftwood,” “What a way to ride, oh, what a way to go.”
Before we start talking about your new album Electric Dirt, I wanted to touch on your studio. I watched tonight’s show from the balcony and got a sense of the room’s space. At the end of the show, when [opener] The Rosedale Heights School of the Arts Band joined you, musicians were spilling out of every corner—they seemed to fill the entire area, almost as if they were huddling in a living room. It has the rustic charm of a barn but also uses the space to really wrap around the music.
Levon: Yeah, the room does lend itself to that. Henry Glover, our mentor from way back, used to say that the room was sympathetic to a B flat. It was built like a big guitar. It’s built with Hemlock timbers and a big church beam right down the middle, like a big 16 × 18 timber. And then we got 4 × 12 adjusters coming across two-feet in the center. So it’s strung out just like a big guitar.
You’ve lived here for years and recorded here with increased regularity. How has the space evolved?
Levon: We got heat in it in ‘73. It burned in ‘89 and we rebuilt it in ‘90. We’ve been working on it since then. It sounds better. We made some improvements when we had to rebuild it. We made the cupola a little bit bigger. That’s the secret to the sound. All the extra sound can go up there and bleed out into the night and not come back into somebody’s microphone. That plus we made all the end walls out of stone. I think we got the right combination of stone and wood. And there’s no nails—no wood pegs, no metal holding anything, knee-bracing or anything like that.
That’s one silver lining of the fire, you were able to rebuild the studio the way it should sound.
Levon: Right, there’s no white noise.
Larry: Some of this is new right now: the balcony and where the soundboard is. It just got put in.
Levon: A month ago, two months ago.
Larry: Yeah, some of the boards upstairs are new, as well.
Levon: We still got a couple more things to do, but it sounded pretty good. We bought some extra equipment here a little while back, got some better microphones and stuff. We don’t have to borrow so much from other people.
I just watched the Electric Dirt promo video you recorded and one thing that really struck me is when you said that “there’s a level of comfort in the studio and the Rambles” and that rubbed off on the record. Can you elaborate on that point a bit?
Larry: Yeah, and on this [album] we used the horns. We didn’t on the first one. A bunch of those tunes are more like what we’ve been doing [at the Midnight Rambles]. This has been evolving for a couple of years. When you play together for that long everything starts to gel. It’s just a natural thing. When we did the Dirt Farmer record, that was just one side of what Levon’s thing is. And at that time the full band wasn’t fully ready to be represented as something that has its own voice. I think we’ve gotten there now.
Levon: We built a band. And that’s kinda what it is [now]. Dirt Farmer and Electric Dirt are just the two that we’ve been able to come out of the group with. But [we have a lot more albums in reality] counting Larry and Theresa’s albums and Amy’s doing one…Little Sammy as soon as he gets back on his feet and Jimmy Vivino is too—his voice is sounding better than ever. So this band ought to give birth to half a dozen real good records by all the different members. And when we come together as a band, the thing is big enough that everyone can bring their side project in and there’s room for it. Everybody else is here to help—they’re not so busy, they can help each other. It’s really been a lot of fun.
I really appreciate the concept of a collective of musicians. Everyone has a chance to be the frontman and then the support musician. In a way, it is almost like The Band was back in the day: a group of musicians without one central leader. It looks like it evolved so naturally.
Larry: It did. And it’s ideal. This is why you play music.
Levon: Right, that’s it.
Larry: We’re all here because of Levon, but we make it so he doesn’t have to be under pressure all the time. Instead of pressure, when we get to do what we wanna do, we look at it as opportunity.
Levon: You get to play more kinds of music by being with everybody else. Look at someone like [keyboardist] Brian Mitchell, who comes somewhere out of left field. And it’s fun. It makes everybody keep their chops up.
When it came to making Electric Dirt, which is a sequel in a way to the more acoustic Dirt Farmer, was it a conscious decision to move toward a more electric sound and represent a different style? Or did it evolve naturally in the studio?
Levon: I think it was just more of what we sound like. If you had both of them, Electric Dirt and Dirt Farmer, they would be good bookends for the last five years of what we’ve built as a band and what we sound like on our first two records. We’ve got almost a half a record with Larry and Theresa. We’ve got a third of a record done with Amy. That’s the good thing that the band should be able to do for itself, foster those extra musical endeavors.
Larry: I always say that Levon is the guy that you can do any style of true American music with complete conviction. Levon’s the guy you can do that with. We wanted to make this record a little broader than the last one. The last one was traditional music and modern traditional. And this one rocks a little bit more. There’s a couple of gospel tunes. A couple of country things. A couple of straight ahead blues tunes too. Just trying to be broader to represent what we can do with Levon.
With the Ramble, you guys have a Grammy for traditional folk, but you guys are doing New Orleans, rock music, a lot of different stuff. American music is a great way to describe all the sound. Of all the songs, “Tennessee Jed”, why choose that song?
Levon: Larry wanted to do that one.
Larry: I’ve been working with Phil [Lesh] for a couple of years and Teresa [Williams, his wife] has been, too. She and I were doing “Tennessee Jed.” Last summer, we did a couple of shows together, Levon and Phil. They come from the same era. What the Dead did and what The Band did were two ends of a specific spectrum. It just struck me, “Wouldn’t it be great to hear Levon doing a Jerry Garcia tune?” And I was trying to think of which one and then it hit me— “Tennessee Jed.” They never did a studio version of that. Jerry did it. It sounded great. He sounded like a guy who had a lot of respect for this particular genre and this guy was doing something to honor that. Levon sounds like he is that thing. It’s really interesting to hear that tune. And I thought that it was perfect. It fits like a glove. Lyrically it’s a lot of fun and he does that stuff kind of great.
It sounds like it was written for you.
Levon: It’s great to do kind of like a tribute to the Grateful Dead. It feels great to do it.
From your perspective, was there a specific point since the first Ramble in ’04 when this assortment of musicians felt like a band ?
Levon: We tried to give it as little a direction as possible and just let it evolve—and that’s the way that it happened. We didn’t have to join anything or be initiated. We’re all rhythm section guys. So we understand the [dynamic]. We all know that together we can do what we really want to do. When we have to we take off and try to make Dylan or whoever we’re playing with sound musical.
It is as if Larry is part of the scene’s house band, backing all these different musicians.
Levon: Larry’s a workaholic anyways, so it suited him fine. He’ll just play all night. Between the sets Larry just sits down and relaxes before the other guys come on.
How did you two meet originally?
Levon: Gosh, I can’t remember.
Larry: We met at the Lone Star in New York many years ago, like 1980 something. I used to play with a bunch of different bands, with [Texas country musician] Kinky Friedman originally. Then with Doug Sahm. I was sort of a house musician then. Bands would come in that needed a steel player or fiddle player and they’d call me to do it. I was playing with Buddy Miller a bunch then, too. We would open for The Band every once in a while. I remember hanging with Rick [Danko] and Richard [Manuel] at Don Imus’ place a couple of times. That was an experience. And I seem to remember Levon being there, but he doesn’t remember being there.
Levon: Very possible I was. We could both be right.
Larry: That’s where we first met, but we didn’t really play together.
Levon: [We also seemed to be] sitting-in together at different spots. Jimmy Vivino’s birthday. Those kind of occasions.
Larry: When I left Dylan, Levon called me about a month later to say, “Come on, let’s make some music.”
Levon: Actually, I called him the minute it happened. [Laughter.]
Larry: It was pretty quick.
Levon: I told him to “come on over.” I couldn’t hardly talk for laughing.
Larry: It turned out to be a really cool thing.
Levon: Well, you know, playing with Bob is a job. Any job is a good job.
Larry: That’s true.
Levon: But, you gotta admit though, being on your own you play twice as much music.
Larry: That’s right.
Levon: That kind of a job just cuts off everything else. You don’t have time to entertain any other kind of opportunity.
Larry: When you play with Bob, I think it’s justified, but it’s all about Bob. That’s what it’s about. When he first started doing his thing he was never better than just him and his guitar. And when The Band was backing him up, they became that acoustic guitar, but it was still Bob. Playing with him, that’s what it has to be and that’s all cool. But, you don’t have the opportunity to explore what you can do musically. Here, we all get that opportunity.
Photo by David Piacitelli
With the Levom Helm Band—just like with The Band—you rotate who gets to sing and be in the spotlight.
Levon: Yeah, it’s just a lot more fun. Pass the microphone around. I don’t care who it is, you don’t want to hear ‘em all night. Ray’s gone…if it ain’t Ray Charles.
Dirt Farmer was much more steeped in traditional Americana than Electric Dirt, which feels like more of a rock or counter/folk-rock record. What led to the change?
Levon: [When we did Dirt Farmer ], I think it was mainly to see if I could. I felt comfortable. We started talking, Amy and I, when it looked like I was gonna get my voice back—I would love to try and attempt it. And we started talking about all those old songs, family songs, back porch songs, just sittin’ around. That was a comfortable place to start. Those were the first songs that I ever heard. I learned harmony parts by singing those songs. It was a good startin’ place. This time, that kinda proved that we could do it. Everybody really contributed to it to arrangement wise. Steve Bernstein…
Sex Mob’s a great band.
Larry: Fabulous, yeah. The Dirt Farmer record, when we started that, there was no goal in mind. The only goal was, let’s play some songs and see what happens
Levon: Make some music.
Larry: Yeah, because it’s fun to do it. That was the goal because we just love making music. Let’s do this. It was Amy and Levon, that concept of getting back to where he came from. I thought it was just brilliant. She asked me to co-produce and it was a total labor of love. There was no label at the time, there was no budget, there was nothing, no clock to watch. It was just, ‘let’s try this and let’s try this’. That innocence and naiveté is gone. You can only do that once, cuz now we do have a label, now there are time limits, now there are budgets that we have to think about.
Levon: That predicament, being in that particular place. I think that’s done as much as anything for us, building our band. We really built a musical outfit, not that we are money whipping each other.
Larry: It was all for the love of doing it. That first record, in many ways, turned out to be a lot more successful than we even thought about.
Levon: But, just to be able to do it…
Larry: So, now with the second record, that’s automatic pressure because you gotta try and least equal…
Levon: But, it’s easier in a way because this time we knew we could.
Larry: Yeah.
Levon: We knew we could. We didn’t have to worry about my voice going south.
It must be the confidence of being on the road…for a whole year all over the place.
Levon and Larry: Yeah.
It’s like “We know we can do it” now you just have to go out and do it.
Levon: That’s it exactly.
Electric Dirt sounds like that firm Band sound. Larry, you’re working on an album as well?
Larry: Teresa and I are working on our solo thing together. Which is basically the same musicians, Levon is on drums, Brian on bass and Amy. We’ll probably do the same configuration on Amy’s record. It’s a great place to be.
The rhythm is strong, but the singer is different. Is it going to be more soul?
Levon: It’s more country. Teresa’s a really good country singer.
She is Tennessee. That’s her world.
Larry: What’s cool about Amy and Teresa singing with Levon is Amy’s thing is more the soul side and Teresa’s more the country side and he’s right in the middle of that.
Levon: That was what happened on Dirt Farmer. We weren’t expecting it. The sound that Teresa and Amy were able to find with their voices was great. It was brand new.
I don’t know when I first saw them sing together, but it sounded like they had been singing together for years and years. It was surprising that you told me it was ’05 in that short time they were able to harmonize like that.
Levon: That’s what it’s been like with them.
Larry: They’ve got a good blend of voices.
It’s a nice image with the two female singers too.
Larry: That contrast is great.
For the new album, did you play the songs before you recorded?
Larry: Not really. Levon’s theory was ‘Let’s cut this stuff and we’ll figure it out later’.
Levon: See if it adds up. For example, “Kingfish” was one. Every now and then in the old days I would get about half tight and I’d pull out “Kingfish” just to break the pattern. And I’d forgotten all about it. And Amy said you should do “Kingfish.” We were sitting around trying to figure out what to do next. And we said, “Okay let’s try it.” And, damn, if it didn’t turn out to be a whole lotta fun and it gave us an opportunity to get with Allen Toussaint. And the horns, hallelujah. I wish we had two of ‘em.
He’s another person who’s getting his second dues.
Levon: He’s one of the best we got. What a player.
[In terms of Electric Dirt ], keep your fingers crossed. And we’ll do the old shotgun, see what sticks. Fire both barrels and see what sticks. It’s fun to play with each other anyway. This has been the best thing we’ve stumbled into. It’s a whole lot better when we don’t have to go out and crank a bus and load everything up. But that’s what you get paid for. You play for free. But, damn, traveling and arguing with the guy in the parking lot…god ol’ mighty. A lot of people to put up with.
