Levon Helm Rambling on the Roots

Levon Helm did not release a solo album for twenty years after the Band disbands and reforms went through their various iterations. The gap ended with Dirt Farmer in 2007.

The record was made in his barn in Woodstock, New York, with musicians from the Hudson Valley and beyond. The format was the Midnight Ramble: a gathering of musicians in a large room, playing music in the traditional sense, which means playing together and listening to each other.

Dirt Farmer

Dirt Farmer is a record of American roots music made by someone who grew up inside it. Helm was born in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, in 1940. He grew up hearing the music that The Band would later distill and export. When he made Dirt Farmer at sixty-seven, he was not revisiting a tradition he had studied. He was returning to one he had never fully left.

The record includes traditional material and new songs, played with the ensemble that had been developing through the Midnight Ramble concerts. The production is warm and direct. Nothing is overcleaned.

Electric Dirt

Electric Dirt followed in 2009. The second album is slightly more expansive in its material but consistent in its approach: American roots music played by people who understand where it comes from.

Both records won the Grammy for Best Americana Album — a new category that had been established to give a home to music like this, which did not fit neatly into country or folk or rock.

The Midnight Ramble

The Midnight Ramble concerts at Helm's barn are the live context for both records. The barn held a few hundred people. The musicians changed from show to show. The guests over the years included a range of significant names from country, rock, Americana, and soul.

The format was informal by design. It was music playing in a room, which is what music is when it is working correctly.

Helm died in April 2012. The Midnight Ramble concerts continued for a time after his death with other musicians and the organization he had built around them.

For more on The Band: The Band Goes Twang and Snapshot: The Band no. 4.