Remembering Levon Helm

To the Editor:

With the passing of Levon Helm, America has lost one of its greatest musical talents. On a personal level, I have lost my muse. Levon has been my definition of “cool” ever since I first saw The Last Waltz in high school. I grew a beard, adopted a Southern drawl, and bought a mandolin, trying in vain to emulate his laid-back, country preacher placidity. While my friends were buying baggy jeans and enormous subwoofers, I was assembling an army of corduroy trousers and stringed instruments. I sat at the drumkit for hours on end too, but it wasn’t as easy as Levon made it look.

While he was a solid rhythm guitarist and a strong mandolinist, he was also the greatest rock ‘n’ roll drummer this world has ever known. On many of The Band’s best songs, he took on double duty as lead singer. At two of his Midnight Ramble concerts, I was lucky enough to sit in the front row, less than six feet away from his bass drum. Let me tell you, it was a sight to behold. His ride cymbal work was pure, wild beauty, in no way constrained by the steady time his feet were keeping. I’ll never comprehend how he simultaneously played with such a free technique, sang his heart out, and managed to effortlessly stay right in-the-pocket.

The Southern grit and soul in his voice imbued the lyrics with the weight of truth. It wasn’t a stretch to picture Levon in the role of Virgil Caine (like in “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”), and it made the message all the more genuine. He was a great storyteller both through song and the spoken word, as you can see in The Last Waltz. There’s a scene where he lights a match as he’s weaving a tale of old Arkansas minstrel shows, and the flame seems to stay frozen on the stick for over 30 seconds — like it’s transfixed by his story.

If I hadn’t come across Levon Helm ten years ago, the Live at the Edmond Town Hall music series probably wouldn’t exist today. Levon felt he had a civic duty to his adopted home of Woodstock, N.Y., and through his music, he transformed that town into a mecca for great art. His is the model I follow here in Newtown. My goal had long been to bring Levon to the Edmond, and I’ll always dream of what might have been. I look forward to celebrating his memory through great live music and love of community for as long as I walk this earth.

Hayden Bates

6 Key Rock Road, Newtown                                            April 24, 2012