Such a Night

From The Last Waltz, Dr. John and The Band performing "Such a Night".

Christmas Must Be Tonight

The Band's recording of "Christmas Must Be Tonight".

Up On Cripple Creek

From 45 years ago today, November 2nd 1969, here is The Band on The Ed Sullivan Show performing "Up On Cripple Creek".

Helpless

From The Last Waltz, Neil Young and The Band performing "Helpless", with none other than Joni Mitchell singing backup.

Ophelia

I think Amos Lee can cover just about anything.  Here he performs The Band's "Ophelia".



The original is great also, here is Levon Helm singing the song in the 1978 film "The Last Waltz".

The Weight

To follow up yesterday's post on the passing of Levon Helm, here are two versions of a classic, "The Weight". 

With Pops and Mavis Staples helping out, from the film The Last Waltz.

A much more recent version of the song recorded at the Ryman Auditorium with John Hiatt

Levon Helm (1940-2012)

A post to mark the passing of Levon Helm. (ABC Obituary) One of the most influential musicians in what has become known as Americana music. Starting out in the 1960's as a singer and drummer with The Band, he battled throat cancer in the 1990's, but came back to win two Grammys in the 2000's with his albums Dirt Farmer and Electric Dirt. I saw him perform at the Ramshead Live a couple years ago, and it was one of the best live shows I have ever seen.

The first video below is from his days with The Band, and the second two are from his more recent solo career.

From the 1978 film The Last Waltz, Helm playing drums and singing lead with the Band—"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"



"A Train Robbery"—A song about Jesse James from the album Dirt Farmer



The Springsteen song "Atantlic City"

Mavis Staples

Last Friday night I went to see Mavis Staples at the Kennedy Center. She started performing with her family 60 years ago, and she is still going strong. Her sister Yvonne still sings with her.

Here is a recent performance of a song originally from The Staples Singers days, "March Up Freedom's Highway".



Here is an interview with Mavis talking about Martin Luther King and Freedom Songs.



Mavis performing another hit from The Staple Singers days, in Central Park, "I'll Take You There".



Here is a scene from the 1978 film The Last Waltz. The Band and The Staples Singers performing "The Weight".javascript:void(0)