Stephen Davis

Levon Helm

Biography of the pioneer rock drummer and the band who helped shape the course of rock and roll from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Levon Helm and the Story of the Band

This Wheel's on Fire

Paul LaRaia

The Band

(Book). Levon Helm's Rambles have quickly become the stuff of legend. Helm, of course, is the charismatic drummer, singer, and sometimes mandolin picker for The Band, a group whose songs and stature have made them a pillar of classic rock and rootsy Americana. Beyond their work with Bob Dylan, their own hits ("Up on Cripple Creek," "The Weight," "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down," to name just a few) have landed them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the consciousness of music fans everywhere. The Ramble was Levon's down-home jam session for friends and fans, held on Saturday nights in his studio "Barn" in Woodstock. Levon based his Ramble Sessions on the Southern medicine shows of his youth, and has invited some of the most notable blues entertainers and musicians of our time to perform with him including Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, Rickie Lee Jones, Clarence Clemons, Allison Krauss and others. This book is the official record of these incredibly intimate sessions: the next best thing to being there. Accompanying the spectacular photos are testimonials and remembrances from the superstars who have joined the Ramble.

The Levon Helm Midnight Ramble

“Helm lays it all bare in vivid, impassioned prose, adding an earthly, backwoods tone that makes the book read like a Southern novel, like Thomas Wolfe writing about rock ’n’ roll.” —Boston Globe “One of the most insightful and intelligent rock bios in recent memory.” —Entertainment Weekly The Band, who backed Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965 and then turned out a half-dozen albums of beautifully crafted, image-rich songs, is now regarded as one of the most influential rock groups of the '60s. But while their music evoked a Southern mythology, only their Arkansawyer drummer, Levon Helm, was the genuine article. From the cotton fields to Woodstock, from seeing Sonny Boy Williamson and Elvis Presley to playing for President Clinton, This Wheel’s on Fire replays the tumultuous history of our times in Levon’s own unforgettable folksy drawl. This edition is expanded with a new epilogue covering the last dozen years of Levon's life. Levon Helm (1940-2012) met Ronnie Hawkins at the age of 17 and formed what would soon become The Band. He maintained a successful career as a singer and actor until his death. Stephen Davis is the author of Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga; More Room in a Broken Heart: The True Adventures of Carly Simon; Old Gods Almost Dead: The 40-Year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones; Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend; Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith; and others.

Levon Helm

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