Levon Helm – Midnight rambler
Richard Manuel sang “I Shall Be Released” at Grossman’s funeral, grateful, perhaps, for how he’d looked after the troubled singer. A little over a month later, The Band played a show at the Cheek To Cheek Lounge in Winter Park, Florida. Late that night, Manuel used a leather belt to hang himself to death from the shower rod in his room at the Quality Inn. He was buried in Canada, and “I Shall Be Released” was played on the organ by Garth Hudson.
Helm had talked to Manuel just hours before his suicide, and part of the conversation was about the bummer of playing clubs after you’ve jetted around the country on a big-time 1974 tour with Bob Dylan (documented on the double-album Before The Flood). “We’re just musicians,” Helm told Manuel. “We’re just working for the crowd. It’s the best we can do.”
The Band went on with new players, and pursued other options. Helm and Danko signed on with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band, and Danko worked with Eric Andersen and Jonas Fjeld. Hudson did studio sessions and toured with Marianne Faithfull. But the years caught up with Danko, who was busted in Japan in 1996 for receiving a packet of heroin in the mail, and his weight ballooned. Danko could still charm a club, and darn near anybody in Woodstock, but on December 10, 1999, his body cried uncle, and he died in his sleep.
Helm skipped the public memorial at the Bearsville Theater because Robertson gave the eulogy. He’d also declined to attend The Band’s 1994 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Helm is both bitter and full of pride, but in any event, his plate was already full. He had survived throat cancer to sing again.
“He’s the last voice standing,” says Jimmy Vivino, who plays guitar with the Max Weinberg 7 on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien”, played with Helm in the Barn Burners and does so now at the Rambles. Vivino is a rock scholar — he’s also part of a top-tier Beatles band, the Fab Faux — and relishes the chance to play with Helm. “You lock into that snare drum,” he says, “and it’s like riding in a classic car.”
Helm loves, and maybe even lives, to play. Not long ago, Amy was booked for a gig in Woodstock with Larry Campbell and Campbell’s wife Teresa Williams (who also sings on Dirt Farmer). Dad slipped into the club unannounced and settled behind a drum kit. But Helm can also play the big towns: He and the Ramble crew have lately played sold-out shows in New York City, traveled to Nashville to play the Ryman Auditorium, and have booked an appearance at Merlefest in North Carolina for the spring of 2008.
“Playing the Ryman with Levon was almost like a Nashville Last Waltz,” says Campbell of a show that included appearances by Emmylou Harris, John Hiatt and Ricky Skaggs. “For musicians on the singer-songwriter side of Nashville, the people who are there because they’re artists, Levon holds a high level of respect.”
That’s because everybody loves a natural. “Whenever I’m onstage with Levon, I feel like I’m sitting in a comfortable chair somewhere, like on a porch, playing,” says Campbell, relaxing at a picnic table outside Helm’s studio. It’s Saturday night, and Campbell had spent the week doing television appearances in Patti Scialfa’s band and preparing for two months on the road with Phil Lesh & Friends. “That’s what it feels like. There’s no cranial thing involved. You’re just reacting to him and he’s reacting to you.”
Levon’s Midnight Ramble starts at 8 p.m. and is a discreet mile or two from the middle of town. Volunteers help get the cars parked on a grassy field, and others wear “Helmland Security” T-shirts. In a town that takes its zoning seriously, Levon has found a way to do his thing (so did Albert). A couple of years ago, his people successfully petitioned the town board to declare “Levon Helm Day.” There’s merchandise for sale in the basement space and a table for guests to share potluck snacks. On Helm’s website, you can “Sponsor a Square” by donating $500 to help get him out of debt.
The action is upstairs in a majestic studio defined by blue stone walls and a massive cathedral ceiling. The sound at the Ramble is studio sharp; the crowd sits and stands around a central area covered with oriental rugs and filled with amplifiers, microphones, a grand piano, and a drum kit. Elvis Costello and Gillian Welch are among a long list of famous musicians who have dropped in to play; other times the opening acts include a regional blues band and whomever is recording at the studio.
Helm enters to great cheers about two hours into the show. His smile is wide, and not surprisingly, he seems right at home. Over two Saturday nights, highlights included a rollicking “Rag Mama Rag” with Helm on mandolin, a stark reading of Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City”, a version of “Ophelia” featuring a New Orleans-style horn section, and a jumpy take on the new “Got Me A Woman”. Campbell and Vivino tangled on guitars and sang songs by The Band, while Little Sammy Davis blew some great blues harp. Helm ended each night with “The Weight”, which was interesting given that he’d recently filed a lawsuit claiming he was not adequately compensated for the use of the song in a cell phone commercial. Helm is unlikely to win the case, but at the Ramble, the song makes the crowd feel as if they’d been lucky enough to sneak into the basement of Big Pink.
Dirt Farmer closes with Buddy & Julie Miller’s “Wide River To Cross” (Campbell was in the Buddy Miller Band almost 30 years ago). “There’s a sorrow in the wind, blowing down the road I’ve been,” goes a verse that concludes, “I’ve come a long, long road, but still I’ve got some miles to go/I’ve got a wide, wide river to cross.”
Levon Helm always said that his stool behind the drum kit is the best seat in the house, but at the Ramble, standing mere feet from his snare drum comes in a close second. Helm has said that “the snare is where the backbeat lives,” and when he smacks the rim, you feel it in your bones. Helm is now 67, and he’s still singing “(I Don’t Want To) Hang Up My Rock And Roll Shoes”. If this isn’t exactly the life he’d planned, it’s also the culmination of all he has known. The boy who couldn’t wait to go to the Midnight Ramble has created one of his own.
John Milward is a writer and musician. His band the Comfy Chair once shared a stage with Levon Helm at the Volunteer’s Day picnic in Woodstock.