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Guitarist-songwriter-singer Robbie Robertson, who led the Canadian-American group the Band to rock prominence in the 1970s and worked extensively with Bob Dylan and Martin Scorsese, has died. He was 80. According to an announcement from his management, Robertson died Wednesday in Los Angeles after a long illness. In a statement, Robertson’s manager of 34 years, Jared Levine, said “Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, including his wife, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her partner Nicholas, and his children Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphine’s partner Kenny. He is also survived by his grandchildren Angelica, Donovan, Dominic,...

Ronnie Hawkins, the big, boisterous Southern rockabilly singer who called Canada home and helped mentor the first band from this country inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has died. His wife, Wanda, confirmed to The Canadian Press that Hawkins died Sunday morning after a long illness at age 87. "He went peacefully and he looked as handsome as ever," she said in a phone interview with CP. The musician known as The Hawk didn't make his reputation in the studio. His highest charting single in the U.S. reached No. 26, and, not a natural songwriter, most of...

...one of the best-loved songs ever recorded about the Civil War: "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by The Band. The song was first recorded in 1969, and was later covered and/or performed by Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Jerry Garcia, the Black Crowes, Bruce Hornsby, and the Allman Brothers Band, among others...

Day 307 of the Dictatorship of COVID-19, Day 307 of America and the World Held Hostage... Well there you have it "Playboy's Theme" reminding me of the gretest smear being dropped these days against Patriots, Trump Supporters, Anti-Lockdown, Anti-Vaccine people... Washington DC Under Martial Law Fear Of Revolution No I'm Not Talking About Today I'm Talking About August 28, 1963. Facebook and Twitter weren't there to censor Dr. Martin Luther King but the US Justice Department was running the show. The US Park Service sound system would switch to music if anyone said the wrong thing... God Bless President Donald...

The late 60s saw a number of great artists looking back into the American past to find a new musical direction. Bob Dylan started the trend releasing John Wesley Harding, the album that produced All Along the Watchtower. The Byrds followed with Sweetheart of the Rodeo, a classic of Americana, and the Band released Music from Big Pink, the record that influenced countless musicians. For me the song that best symbolizes that chapter in music history is The Band’s The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down from their second album released in 1969, The Band.

Revisiting 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' by the Band. Any opinions? I think James Gleason nailed it in his Rolling Stone Review: Nothing I have read … has brought home the overwhelming human sense of history that this song does. The only thing I can relate it to at all is The Red Badge of Courage. It's a remarkable song, the rhythmic structure, the voice of Levon and the bass line with the drum accents and then the heavy close harmony of Levon, Richard and Rick in the theme, make it seem impossible that this isn't some traditional...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jREUrbGGrgM&list=RDjREUrbGGrgM#t=48 Virgil Caine is my name and I drove on the Danville train 'Til Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again. In the winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely alive. By May the 10th, Richmond had fell. It's a time I remember, oh so well. The night they drove old Dixie down And all the bells were ringing, The night they drove old Dixie down And all the people were singing They went, "Na,na,na.na, Na na na na na na na na na.'' Back with my wife in Tennessee, when one day she called to me,...

Levon Helm of The Band found an unlikely path back to fame after decades of disappointment. But by the end, the homespun singer from Turkey Scratch, Ark., had come full circle. In the eight years preceding his death Thursday, Levon Helm enjoyed the highest distinction that any music veteran could hope for: an audience that remembers. Two recent Grammy awards had brought a resurgence of interest in Mr. Helm’s career as the voice and drummer of The Band, one of rock’s most enduring groups. But it was only in 2004, when he began his homespun “Midnight Ramble” concerts, that he...

  April 19, 2012 Levon Helm May 26, 1940 ~ April 19, 2012 Levon Helm passed peacefully this afternoon. He was surrounded by family, friends and band mates and will be remembered by all he touched as a brilliant musician and a beautiful soul. Click here to unsubscribe from future mailings.

Dear Friends, Levon is in the final stages of his battle with cancer. Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey. Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration... he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage... We appreciate all the love and support and concern. From his daughter Amy, and wife Sandy

Robert “Bobby” Charles Guidry, the gifted, reclusive southwest Louisiana songwriter who crafted hits for Fats Domino, Frogman Henry and Bill Haley & the Comets, died early Thursday after collapsing at home in Abbeville, his manager said. He was 71.

"Legend" is a term that often gets thrown around in an alarmingly casual manner. If anyone deserves that title, though, it's Levon Helm. As a drummer, he first backed Bob Dylan and then anchored the Band through several of the musical peaks of the '60s and '70s. And as a singer, in the Band and later, he's simply one of a kind. The man's voice alone, weathered and craggy even in his youth, ought to be declared some kind of national treasure. So you can imagine how pleased the Music Mix is to be the only place where you can...

The Band Is Gone, the Waltz Plays On By ANTHONY DeCURTIS hen the Band first sauntered onto the music scene in 1968, the group's impact could not have been more profound. Playing haunting songs that explored age-old themes of guilt and redemption, of individual will and the responsibilities of community, the Band drew on the deepest currents of blues, R & B, country, gospel and the essential force of rock 'n' roll pioneers like Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. "Music From Big Pink," the Band's still-gripping debut album, helped end a baroque period of psychedelic excess. Eric Clapton...