Well into a North Carolina night in late April, the Steep Canyon Rangers are gathered around in the back of their tour bus, no more than an hour after their headlining performance at MerleFest, the famed traditional-plus music festival in Wilkesboro. Still in their trademark suits, the Rangers settle as best as they’re able into [...]

Various Artists Love for Levon CD/DVD (StarVista/Time-Life) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars “You can’t spell Levon without ‘l-o-v-e’ reads the blurb on this nearly three hour DVD’s back cover, and there sure was a lot of it in the air on October  3, 2012 at the IZOD Center in New Jersey. Dozens of musicians [...]

For those who never saw The Band take the stage in their heyday, some rare footage from a 1970 concert at Pittsburgh’s Syria Mosque has surfaced on YouTube. Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, and Richard Manuel perform songs from Music From The Big Pink, The Band, and Stage Fright. Watch them play “Time [...]

In a different era, Bow Thayer and Perfect Trainwreck would have some well-deserved gold records on their walls. This onetime Levon Helm compatriot is the best artist to come from New England in recent years, and Eden, co-produced and engineered by Grammy-winner Justin Guip (Helm, Black Crowes) and mastered in Nashville, is just excellent all [...]

“Long Black Veil” (Written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkins) “The scaffold is high and eternity near.” Those words, perhaps the most chilling from “Long Black Veil,” one of the most haunting murder ballads you’ll ever hear, have been sung by a whole lot of folks over the years, including iconic voices like Burl Ives, Jerry [...]

In October, an impressive group of musicians, including everyone from Gregg Allman and Jakob Dylan to John Mayer and Eric Church, gathered to pay tribute to Levon Helm. The concert was a way to say goodbye to The Band’s late drummer, who died last year at 71 after battling throat cancer, and to raise funds [...]

Last night’s all-star performance at The Grammys caps off what has been the year of “The Weight.” The beloved track about Fanny and Miss Annie has taken on a new life since the passing of Band drummer/vocalist Levon Helm in April. In fact, the song, which first appeared on the 1968 album Music From Big [...]

If you pass through the state of New Jersey and you’re a musical artist of any stature, chances are that Bruce Springsteen has joined you onstage, especially if you visit his unofficial home court, The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ. Yet there have been very few pairings as momentous as the one took place [...]

Puss n’ Boots (Norah Jones, Sasha Dobson, and Catherine Popper of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals ) Suzanna Choffel, Bug & Bru from the Defibulators and Fredro Perry with The Cheating Hearts unite to celebrate Levon Helm and raise money to save Levon’s legendary Woodstock barn at New York City’s Hill Country on 11/19/12.

PBS will air a new episode of Austin City Limits this Saturday. Filmed in Nashville, it focuses on the eleventh annual Americana Honors and Awards ceremony, held this past September at the Ryman Auditorium. Alabama Shakes, Booker T. Jones, Richard Thompson, Hayes Carll, The Mavericks, and Jason Isbell are among the eighteen artists who perform [...]

We talk to Ed Sheeran about collaborating with Taylor Swift, his songwriting and performing with Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason at the Olympics. More Bruce Springsteen got into the Halloween spirit by breaking out a rendition of “Monster Mash” at a recent concert. More Reviews: Neil Young, Andrew Bird, Cody ChesnuTT, Andrew Combs, Richard Barone More A [...]

Ain’t In It For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm will hit theaters early next year, to be followed by a DVD release later that summer. Directed by Jacob Hartley, the film shows Helm, who died in April 2012, working on the followup to his comeback album Dirt Farmer at his home in Woodstock, [...]