Levon Helm
From Wikinfo
Mark Lavon Helm, a.k.a. Levon Helm (born May 26, 1940) is an American rock musician most famous as the drummer for the Canadian rock band "The Band".
Levon Helm was born in Marvell, Arkansas and began playing the guitar at the age of eight. Helm switched to drums during his formative years and established his first band "The Jungle Beaters" while in High School. Helm was influenced by the Grand Ole Opry performers and R&B that he heard of radio station WLAC out of Nashville, Tennessee.
Helm became interested in rock & roll after attending an Elvis Presley concert. Helm moved from Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee where he was influenced by Bo Diddley and Conway Twitty. At age 17 he was invited to join The Hawks which fronted rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. Soon after Helm joined The Hawks they moved to Toronto, Canada where, in 1959, they signed with Roulette Records and achieved a couple of hit records.
In the early 1960s Helm and Hawkins recruited guitarist Robbie Robertson, bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manuel and organist Garth Hudson. This lineup soon ditched Hawkins and changed their name to "Levon and The Hawks" and later to the "Canadian Squires" before finally changing back to "The Hawks".
In the middle of the decade, Bob Dylan was seeking to switch to an electric sound and invited Helm and "The Hawks" to be his backing band. The band did not receive a favorable response from Dylan's fans and by the end of 1965 Helm had returned to Arkansas for what turned out to be a two-year layoff. During his absence "The Hawks" changed their name to "The Band".
When Helm returned in 1967 they began work on Dylan's seminal Music From Big Pink which catapulted Helm and "The Band" into super-stardom. Helm remained with "The Band" until their 1976 farewell performance, The Last Waltz which was made into one of the first rockumentarys. The documentary was produced by Martin Scorcese and, for awhile, became standard fare at midnight movies across the country.
With the demise of "The Band" Helm began working on a solo album Levon Helm and the RCO All Stars which was followed soon thereafter by Levon Helm. He recorded solo albums in 1980 and 1982 entitled American Son and (once again) Levon Helm
In 1983 "The Band" reunited without Robbie Robertson until Manuel committed suicide in 1986. Helm, Danko, and Hudson released the album Jericho in 1993 and High on the Hog in 1996. The last "The Band" album to date was the 30th anniversary album Jubilation in 1998.
Helm published an autobiography entitled This Wheel's on Fire in 1993. Helm currently performs with his blues band Levon Helm and The Barn Burners which features his daughter Amy.
