Levon Helm at the Beacon

A few weeks ago I attended Levon Helm at the Beacon Theatre. I wrote a review and haven't decided to post it til now. But here it is:

Levon Helm Beacon Theatre Review Thursday March 5

Levon Helm has experienced a triumphant comeback over the past five years. In the late nineties, Helm, the legendary drummer of The Band – the voice behind “The Weight” and “Ophelia” -- received the news he had throat cancer. He lost his voice after surgery and to pay medical bills he began staging “The Midnight Ramble,” a weekly jamboree at his barn-studio in Woodstock, N.Y., He invited willing admirers like Elvis Costello and Emmylou Harris to jam along.

Helm’s voice improved in 2004 and he began singing again. The Rambles still occur most Saturday’s. They aren’t college student-friendly ( $150 a ticket), but seeing Helm belting classics like “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is one of the most intimate concert experiences imaginable. In 2007 he released “Dirt Farmer,” a roots record with fantastic covers by Steve Earle and A.P. Carter. The record received a Grammy award for “Best Contemporary Folk Album.”

Helm stepped onstage at The Beacon Theatre on Thursday night for the first of two shows (the second took place Friday). He was grinning, wearing a button-up shirt and wind pants. He’s tiny and gray, looking work-worn like any man who has been on the road since the 1950s would. His band includes Larry Campbell, formerly of Bob Dylan’s band, and Jimmy Vivino of the L.A.-bound The Max Weinberg 7. There were also two keyboards for organ piano and a large R&B horn section. An early highlight was “The Same Thing,” a groovy number in which the band jammed taking solos between Helm’s funky verses.

Helm’s voice is now a rugged howl, hardly the slick Arkansan tone found on The Band classics. But it added a new authenticity to his songs. When Helm sang the refrain the rollicking “Ophelia” (“Ophelia, where have you gone?”) it sounded as though the song’s character left him not last week, but decades ago. Helm later spellbindingly covered Dylan’s 1965 number “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry.”

The first part of the set was heavy on new numbers, at times slowing down the show’s momentum. I’m all for Levon playing “Dirt Farmer” material, but the boomer-dominated crowd seemed bored with them. An exception later in the show was “Anna Lee” in which Helm sat in the middle of the stage harmonizing with his female band mates around subtle acoustic guitar. After finishing, he opened his eyes and smiled at his daughter, Amy Lee, as if surprised they pulled it off.

Helm let others onstage take the microphone regularly. The first guest was Joe Louis Walker, a San Francisco-born bluesman who performed two blissful boogie numbers full of call-and-response that earned him a standing ovation. Bandmate Teresa Williams took the microphone for a mournful “Long Black Veil.” Amy Helm sang a couple country-tinged numbers, though those were less impressive.

Veteran soul singer Phoebe Snow was invited out and received the greatest reception of the night. She belted “Save the Last Dance For Me,” popularized by Ben E. King and Tina Turner, and R&B boogie number “Workout.” Snow is a heavy and commanding presence. When Helm was bantering with a band mate between songs, she gave him grief, saying she would start when he finished his “conference.”
The crowd came alive when Helm played the classics. There was the explosive violin riff in “Rag Mama Rag.” “Across the Great Divide” soared when sung by keyboardist Brian Mitchell.

Jimmy Vivino took over vocals on a respectable take on “Makes No Difference.” Wary of being compared to Band bassist Rick Danko’s vocals, he preceded the song by saying, “I’m going to sing a song that could never belong to me.”

The end was like a scene out of The Band’s breakup film “The Last Waltz.” Helm invited everyone on stage for “The Weight,” with Snow taking one verse. They encored with a spellbinding extended take on Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released,” each horn player taking a solo. Helm stood onstage triumphant, shaking the hands of musicians and pointing to the crowd.