Craig Harris - The Band: Pioneers of Americana Music

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Harris, Craig, 1953 December 20-, author.

The Band : pioneers of Americana music / Craig Harris.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8108-8904-0 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-8108-8905-7 (ebook) 1. Band (Musical group) 2. Rock musicians--United States--Biography. I. Title.

ML421.B32H37 2014

782.42166092'2--dc23

2013044054

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Dedicated to my uncle, Albert Cornell, who introduced me to the music of Bob Dylan and The Band; my much-missed father, Stanley Watsky, who encouraged me; and Vicki Ruth Sterling, who helps to keep me inspired.

The members of The Band, and those whose paths intersected with theirs, have been extremely open about their experiences. Some quotes from this book came from interviews that I conducted with Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson, Ronnie Gilbert, Pete Seeger, Eric Andersen, John Hammond, and Happy Traum. Others came from Levon Helms autobiography, ThisWheelsonFire:LevonHelmandtheStoryofTheBand, cowritten with Stephen Davis (Chicago Review Press, 1993), and Ronnie Hawkinss LastoftheGoodOlBoys (Stoddardt Publishing, Toronto, 1989). Others come from more than four decades of interviews, reviews, and essays by Peter Aaron, Greg Alexander, Joshua Baer, Michael Bailey, Ron Balley, Michael Berick, Rob Bowman, Peter Stone Brown, Paul Burch, John Burke, Klas Burling, Robert Christgau, Jay Cocks, Michael Corcoran, Elvis Costello, Peter Crowley, Mark Deming, Nick De Rosa, Stephen Deusner, Bob Doerschuk, Susan Edmiston, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, John Feins, Robyn Flans, Larry Getlin, Andy Gill, Mikal Gilmore, Milton Glaser, Ralph J. Gleason, Susan Gordon, Andy Greene, Joseph Haas, Jill Henderson, Nat Hentoff, Clifton Heylin, Robert Hilburn, Barney Hoskyns, Dan Hyman, Mark Jacobson, Paul James, Scott Jordan, Hank Kalet, Greg Kot, Harvey Kupernik, Jon Landau, Martin Levy, Michael March, Justin Martell, Olivia Mather, Melinda McCracken, Larry McMahon, John Metzger, Ross W. Muir, Rory OConnor, Clive Owen, Chris Parker, John Poppy, Mike Ragogna, Seth Rogovoy, Paul J. Robbins, Kevin Ronsom, William Ruhlman, Jason Schneider, Karen Schoemer, David Schultz, Robert Shelton, Sam Shepard, Irwin Silber, John Sinclair, Ronald Sklar, Paul Smart, Ruth Alpert Spencer, Scott Spencer, Margaret Steen, Bonnie Stiernberg, Jane Stevenson, Adam Thomas, Walter Tunis, Brian Turk, Twinker Twina, Peter Viney, Richard C. Walls, Robert Wilonsky, and Peter Yarrow, appearing in (or broadcast by) AdirondackDailyEnterprise, AllaboutJazz, AllMusicGuide, AmericanSongwriter, AustinAmericanStatesman, BBC, BerkshireEagle, Billboard, Bluesmobile.com, CBS Radio, ChicagoDailyNews, ChicagoTribune, CNN, ColoradoSpringsIndependent, Crawdaddy, DailyBeacon, DirtyLinen, Echo, Esquire, Fusion, Goldmine, Gritz, GuitarPlayer, InBeat, Jamband.com, Keyboard, LexingtonHerald-Leader, Look, LosAngelesFreePress, LosAngelesTimes, MelodyMaker, MidlandFreePress, ModernDrummer, Mojo, MusicBox, Musician, NationalAcademyofSongwriters, National Public Radio (NPR), NewYork, NewYorker, NewYorkPost, NewYorkTimes, NoDepression, Offbeat, Paste, Playboy, PopEntertainment.com, PopMatters.com, Relix, RollingStone, SanFranciscoChronicle, SheffieldUniversityPress, ShowMe, SingOut, SomethingElseReviews, SputnikMusic, SunMedia, Time, TimesHeraldRecord, TorontoGlobeandMail, TorontoLife, TorontoStarWeekly, TucsonWeekly, USAWeekly, VillageVoice, WoodstockJournal, and the WoodstockTimes. Additional quotes come from the liner notes of the New World Singers eponymous debut album (Atlantic, 1963), Bob Dylans Biograph (Columbia, 1985), The Bands MusicfromBigPink (Capitol, 1969), and John Heralds self-produced, posthumously released JustAnotherBluegrassBoy (2006). Authorized video, TheBandReunion:TheBandIsBackwithItsGreatestHitsLive (1983), Martin Scorseses Dylan documentary NoDirectionHome (2005), Bob Smeatons FestivalExpress (2003), Jacob Hatleys Levon Helm biopic AintinItforMyHealth (2012), and RollingStones interviews with Robbie Robertson (2011), were additional sources. I am extremely indebted to the Band website, www.thebandhiof.com, run by Jan Hoiberg of Norways Ostofold University College.

As a musician, writer, educator, and photographer, I have been able to experience music from a variety of angles. Photographs in this books centerfold represent more than three decades of my camera work. Although I had opportunity to photograph Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, and the late Rick Danko and Richard Manuel after The Bands reunion, Robbie Robertson has so far eluded me, though he graciously consented to a telephone interview, for which I am greatly appreciative.

At the Top of the World

Triumph! As the packed-to-capacity arena erupted in approval, thirty-three-year-old Bob Dylan, alongside The Bands Levon Helm, from Arkansass side of the Mississippi Delta, and Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson, from Ontario, Canada, soaked it in. It had been less than a decade since the Hibbing, Minnesotaborn singer-songwriters shift to electric music had caused one of the great schisms in Americas musical history, but the crowd was now on its feet, holding lighters aloft, pleading for just one more. We did the exact same thing as when everybody was booing us, Robertson told the LosAngelesTimes