Levon Helm died Thursday at the age of 71, and a piece of the rich roots music now called Americana should be buried with him.
Helm, who was best known as the drummer for the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame group The Band, had been suffering from a recurrence of the cancer
that cost him his singing voice a decade earlier.
Larry Campbell,
music director for the Levon Helm Band, said he died peacefully at
Memorial Sloan-Kettering, "surrounded by friends and bandmates and
family."
Helm won three solo Grammys over a 65-year career in which he blended
all the music he heard as a youth in Turkey Scratch, Ark.: country,
blues, bluegrass, gospel, R&B, pop and rock 'n' roll.
"He was just a great rock 'n' roll drummer," said his long-time friend and admirer, radio host Don Imus. "He was also a genuinely sweet person - a true angel. There was no one like him."
Helm and The Band played for 600,000 fans at the 1973 Watkins Glen
music festival, but his focus the last decade was the intimate weekly
jam sessions he called Midnight Rambles at his studio/ barn in
Woodstock, N.Y.
Artists like Emmylou Harris and Elvis Costello
often dropped in for the sessions, which were open to the public. Helm
said he modeled them after late-night performances by the traveling
medicine shows he knew as a child.
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