Levon Helm

Drummer and singer Levon Helm made an indelible contribution to American music as a pioneering folk-rock artist. Mark Lavon Helm was born in 1940 and raised on a farm in Arkansas, where he started playing guitar at eight before switching to drums. He was scouted by rock ‘n’ roller Ronnie Hawkins while still a teenager, and put together a backing band—The Hawks—who would become The Band. As spiritual and rhythmic backbone for The Band, Helm brought a lived-in groove to songwriter Robbie Robertson’s gothic narratives like 1969’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”. After a handful of under-the-radar ‘70s and early-’80s solo records, and off-and-on work with a Robertson-free version of The Band, Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer in the late ‘90s. He raised money for medical bills with his eventually famous Midnight Rambles at his property in Woodstock, NY, where he collaborated with friends like Mavis Staples. He returned to major critical acclaim with 2007’s Dirt Farmer and 2009’s Electric Dirt, both steeped in traditional folk with songs about the American South. Helm died of cancer in 2012, but his hearty voice and in-the-pocket swing built a stirring body of work that helped define Americana music.