All Levon Helm has done is sing anthems, become an actor, get cancer, lose his voice, ignore doctors and start singing again. He also won, among his other awards, a Grammy for 2011’s Ramble at the Ryman — and you’re missing out if you don’t at least know this performance a little bit:
The rambler, his family announced today, is in the final stage of his battle with cancer.
He released Dirt Farmer in 2007, some quarter of a century after his last studio album — remember, he was diagnosed with throat cancer in the 1990s. Dirt Farmer gives you the impression that everything was on his terms, because Levon Helm, that’s why:
There’s also some sort of Steinbeckian quality to it. And I don’t mean to overwrite this here, but he’s one of the last few balladeers of the South. It doesn’t matter that The Weight is set in Pennsylvania, that’s a boy from Arkansas sharing his pain and joy. The Band, at perhaps their peak:
And now I’d encourage you to listen to a man approaching 70 singing his absolute soul out:
More from Ramble at the Ryman:
Back To Memphis
Baby Scratch My Back (w/ Little Sammy Davis)
No Depression in Heaven
The Weight (w/ John Hiatt!)
