Levon Helm, the lead singer and drummer of the group so iconic that they just went by the name “The Band,” has died. They were first known as Bob Dylan’s backup band, but they went off on their own and virtually invented the genre of Americana. Their Music from Big Pink was one of my favorite albums back in the day.
Here is a fine tribute from an excellent website (the home of, shall we say, Lutheran Anglicans): Catch a Cannonball (to Take Me on Down the Line): In Memory of Levon Helm | Mockingbird.
And here is Levon Helms singing a cut from Big Pink from 1969:
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