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Live review: Levon Helm at the Ryman
NASHVILLE. What a way to kick off a music conference that one attendee called “South By Southwest without the emo.” The ninth annual Americana Music Association conference and festival hosted the Levon Helm Band’s infamous “Midnight Ramble” blowout Wednesday night at the Mother Church of country music and such surprise guests as Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Sheryl Crow, John Hiatt, Steve Earle and Delbert McClinton showed up to vocalize with the legendary singer drummer. The great band, lead by guitarist Larry Campbell (ex-Dylan) and elevated by sensational keyboardist Brian Williams, was augmented by Buddy Miller and Sam Bush, two of Nashville’s highest regarded players, for much of the night.
It was “The Last Waltz” without Canadians.
The 68-year-old Helm is in the midst of an incredible comeback from throat cancer: “Dirt Farmer,” his first solo album in 25 years just won a Grammy and is up for “Album of the Year” at tonight’s AMA Awards show. The audience was clearly in love with Helm, whose voice was strong early on with “Ophelia” from the Band days and new song “Got Me a Woman.” Every number received a standing ovation, and not just because the Ryman pews flattened fannies that begged to stretch back out. But about 2/3 into the two and a half hour show, Helm’s vocals started getting raspier, which actually made “Anna Lee,” with beautiful harmonies from daughter Amy Helm and Teresa Williams, more poignant. But the raggedness was uncomfortable on “Rag Mama Rag.”
Luckily, the show had all those guests. Plant and Krauss were the biggest surprise, doing Leadbelly’s “In the Pines” early in the show. Where that superstar duo seemed to have a limo with the motor running at the stage door, Sheryl Crow was there to soak in the fun, even staying onstage for perfunctory backup singing after duetting with Helm on “Evangeline” and doing a terrific “No Depression,” by the Carter Family. She stuck around for the stage-filled audience singalongs of “The Weight” and “Forever Young.” Another crowd fave was 80-year-old bluesman Little Sammy Davis, who’s a regular at the Midnight Ramble, which Helm holds occasionally in his barn near Woodstock, N.Y.
On leaving the show, everyone seemed to be talking about what they’d just witnessed, but one gentleman put it best when he said, “That’s the closest I’m ever gonna get to seeing the Band.”
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