Fans of The Band (and Martin Scorsese's spectacular document of their final performance, The Last Waltz) know that they drew much of their inspiration from American roots music. This was in no small part due to the southern heritage of singer/drummer extraordinaire Levon Helm, who grew up on an Arkansas farm. Having already had what some might consider the equivalent of about three of the most colorful careers in rock, today Helm has gone back to his roots in earnest. A throat cancer survivor whose famous voice was lost and then found again in a somewhat raspier state, he has made folk and blues his focus, releasing the wonderful, Grammy-winning Dirt Farmer in '07and following it up with this year's Electric Dirt, just out. It's a marvelous thing, just as authentic sounding as you could wish for, and Helm's ingratiating, southern-inflected vocals and impossibly good-feeling drumming are spot-on throughout. Opener "Tennessee Jed" is the winner of the whole thing, but "Move Along Train" is a close second. Actually, the entire album's a joy, with horns and organ filling out the sound and daughter Amy singing ably with her old man. Yeah, national treasure sounds about right.
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Why are 4 out of the 11 songs 30 second snippets? A nappy screw up or were the songs written by someone else. It would be a huge plus, if Napster also printed the linear notes from the album.
Posted by: DashboardDJ | July 08, 2009 at 07:43 AM