Levon Helm Band to open 2009-2010 Stanley Season 8pm Saturday September 26
Date Posted: September 17th, 2009
Utica, NY (September 17, 2009) The legendary Levon Helm Band opens the 2009 Stanley Season at 8pm Saturday September 26.
This concert supports his new album, Electric Dirt, where Levon Helm reinvents himself again. Known for his work with Bob Dylan and The Band, The Levon Helm Band has found new audiences at moe.downs and other festivals with such bands as the Black Crowes. He is also well known for his midnight rambles at his barn in Woodstock, NY.
"We've had many requests from our patrons to bring in The Levon Helm Band," says John Faust, Stanley Theatre Manager. "We are very pleased that this will be our season opener as it sets the stage for the many diversified acts that follow."
In his career, Levon Helm was always in the right place at the right time. He saw the birth of rock and roll and, though he's too much of a gentleman to say it, his role in helping to keep that rebellious child healthy is more than just instrumental.
He calls his drummer's stool "the best seat in the house," because he can see his fellow musicians and his audience simultaneously. What pleases him most, then and now, is that his audience is having a good time.
For years, he played with Bob Dylan out at Woodstock. The residents called Levon and the group "the band," so they kept the moniker because it fit. The sound was no frills rock and roll but far from simplistic. They fused every musical influence they were exposed to over the years as individuals and as a unit. The result was brilliant. Their development as musicians was perfected by years of playing.
The Band performed together until Thanksgiving, 1976 when they gave their last concert (the subject of Scorcese's film, The Last Waltz).
In the years since the demise of "The Band", Levon Helm cut his own records, appeared in The Coal Miner's Daughteras the father of Loretta Lynn, made several more movies, and reunited with Rick Danko for more "Band" albums.
Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1996, he has miraculously recovered and has released several more albums, including Volumes I and II of the Midnight Ramble, and in February 2008 the album Dirt Farmerwon a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album. He has just released Electric Dirt, several cuts of which will be featured in this concert on September 26.
Levon Helm is renown for his performances at his Woodstock studio, and has a great following because of his work in so many different genres.
He is always an enthusiastic and passionate performer, radiating sheer joy and gratitude as he effortlessly captivates his audience young and old with a rhythmic power all his own.
During a career that has spanned almost five decades, Levon Helm has nurtured a tradition of professionalism with a deep respect for his craft and remains refreshingly genuine in a world that often compromises integrity. He is a master storyteller who weaves his tales with the magic thread of universality that ties us all. He beckons us to come in, sit awhile and enjoy. We see ourselves in his stories and we are home.
The Levon Helm Band concert is sponsored by Saranac.
For more information and tickets, contact the Stanley Ticket Office, call 315 / 724 - 4000, or visit www.StanleyTIX.com. Tickets are also available through Ticketmaster, and at 1- 800 - 745 - 3000.
The Levon Helm Band Concert is a presentation of the Stanley Center for the Arts: LIVE ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT!
