Levon Helm - Ramble At The Ryman (2011)

Posted By : popsakov | Date : 21 Dec 2011 12:00:32 | Comments : 3 |

Levon Helm - Ramble At The Ryman (2011)
DVD-5 | Video: MPEG 2, NTSC 16:9 (720x480), VBR 7000 Kbps
Audio: DD 2.0, 192 kbps / DD 5.1, 448kbps | ~ 3,23 Gb | FSonic/FServe/Uploaded | 5% Recovery
Blues, Country Rock, Folk, World, Rock & Roll | Label: Dirt Farmer Music / Vanguard Records

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On September 17, 2008, the legendary Levon Helm took his beloved Midnight Ramble on the road to one of America’s treasured venues, Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. Accompanied by such luminaries as Buddy Miller, John Hiatt, Sheryl Crow, George Receli, Sam Bush and Billy Bob Thornton, the Levon Helm Band created an unforgettable night of stage magic.

Ramble At The Ryman – Live CD & DVD (each sold separately) captures the joy, essence and reverence of Helm’s live shows. This collection features the Levon Helm Band in a veritable tour through the American songbook, performing classics from Helm’s tenure with The Band, as well as song’s from his Grammy winning release Dirt Farmer and selections from artists such as Chuck Berry, the Carter Family and more.

Ramble at the Ryman came on the heels of Dirt Farmer’s stunning debut which won a Grammy in 2008 for Best Traditional Folk Album and landed Helm a spot in Rolling Stone’s The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. That same year Helm was also recognized by the Recording Academy with a lifetime achievement award as an original member of The Band and was given the “Artist of the Year” Award by the Americana Music Association. In 2009, Helm released Electric Dirt which marked his highest debut in Soundscan era at #36 and spent six consecutive weeks at #1 on the Americana Radio Chart. Helm won his second consecutive Grammy for Electric Dirt in the inaugural category of Best Americana Album in 2010.

The May 3rd release of Ramble at the Ryman coincides with the commemoration of Levon Helm Day on May 20th. Established in the House of Representatives by the Honorable Maurice D. Hinchey in May 2006, Mr. Hinchey declared “It is because of this great man, and the great music he produces that the Village of Woodstock, New York, has declared May 20th as Levon Helm Day. It continues to be an honor and a great pleasure for so many of us in New York and across America to bear witness to the incredible career and life of this very strong, extremely talented and generous man. I look forward to many more Midnight Rambles.”

The Levon Helm Band continues to play to sold out crowds at his weekly ‘Midnight Ramble’ concerts in his hometown of Woodstock, NY. Since 2004, a who’s who of artists and fans from around the world gather to share the stage and join in a celebration of this musical icon.

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Official Website

Wiki

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Levon Helm Biography

The longtime drummer for the Band, Levon Helm wore many musical hats throughout his long career, including multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, singer, impresario, studio owner, studio engineer, and producer. He grew up working on a farm in Arkansas; his first instrument was guitar, which he began playing at age eight, but after seeing the F.S. Walcott Rabbits Foot Minstrels, he decided to switch to drums. As a youth, Helm listened to the music of the area, including radio broadcasts of The Grand Ole Opry and the blues and R&B shows on WLAC, a clear-channel station out of Nashville that became legendary in the development of rhythm & blues and early rock & roll. Accompanied by his sister Linda on washboard bass, he played various fairs and civic club shows until forming his first group, the Jungle Bush Beaters, while in high school.

After seeing an Elvis Presley concert, Helm became keenly interested in rock & roll and musicians like Bo Diddley. Eventually, he moved to Memphis, where he began sitting in with Conway Twitty. Later, he was discovered by a fellow Arkansan, rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins, who asked the 17-year-old Helm to join the Hawks, his backing band. The group soon relocated to Toronto, where they'd heard there was a burgeoning scene for their kind of music. In 1959, Hawkins signed to Roulette Records, where he and the Hawks cut a pair of hit records right out of the gate with "Forty Days" and "Mary Lou," which went on to sell in excess of 700,000 copies.

In the early '60s in Toronto, Helm and Hawkins recruited the rest of the members of the group that would become the Band, adding guitarist Robbie Robertson, pianist Richard Manuel, organist Garth Hudson, and bassist Rick Danko to the lineup. After numerous road trips with Hawkins, the group grew tired of the singer's abrasive manner, and they re-formed as Levon & the Hawks, later changing their name to the Canadian Squires for the purpose of recording two singles. Shortly after, they changed their name back to the Hawks. In the mid-'60s, Bob Dylan decided to electrify his sound and wanted the Hawks to be his backing band. After putting up with too many boos at Dylan's newly electrified shows in 1965, Helm decided he'd had enough, and went back to Arkansas, thinking he would leave the music business behind him forever.

But Helm returned to action in mid-1967, when the Hawks (since renamed simply the Band) began working on Music from Big Pink, the first in a string of classic records that made them one of rock's most legendary acts. After the Band's famed 1976 farewell performance, dubbed The Last Waltz, he cut his 1977 debut solo album, Levon Helm & the RCO All Stars, followed a year later by his self-titled sophomore effort. In 1980 he recorded American Son, while another eponymously titled effort was released in 1982. The Band re-formed in 1983 without Robertson; following Manuel's 1986 suicide, the remaining trio released 1993's Jericho, recorded at Helm's home studio in Woodstock, New York. That same year, Helm published his autobiography, This Wheel's on Fire, co-authored with Stephen Davis. The Band's bluesy High on the Hog followed in 1995. The late '90s (and into the next decade) found Helm still making music in a new blues band called Levon Helm & the Barn Burners, with his daughter Amy on keyboards and vocals, guitarist Pat O'Shea, lead vocalist and harmonica player Chris O'Leary, and upright bassist Frankie Ingrao, and with a similar outfit called Crowmatrix. An album of tracks from this era called Souvenir, Vol. 1 appeared in 2000 from Breeze Hill.

Cancer of the vocal cords silenced Helm's unique voice as the 21st century opened, although he kept up his drumming duties, and in time was able to sing again, emerging with a slightly raspier version of his old vocal style. He began holding intimate concerts with various musical friends at his studio in Woodstock, calling them Midnight Rambles, samples of which were released as Midnight Ramble Music Session, Vol. 1 and Midnight Ramble Music Session, Vol. 2 in 2006. The following year saw the release of Dirt Farmer, Helm's first solo album in 25 years. The similar but looser Electric Dirt followed in 2009. Ramble at the Ryman, which captures highlights of Helm's 2008 Midnight Ramble concert at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, was released on both CD and DVD in 2011. ~ Richard Skelly

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Track List:

01. Ophelia
02. Back To Memphis
03. Fannie Mae
04. Baby Scratch My Back
05. Evangeline
06. No Depression In Heaven
07. Wide River to Cross
08. Deep Elem Blues
09. Anna Lee
10. Rag Mama Rag
11. Time Out For The Blues
12. A Train Robbery
13. The Shape I m In
14. Chest Fever
15. The Weight