Levon Helm

In the late 1990s, Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer, and began a rigorous series of radiation treatments that took a serious toll on his voice. Needing to raise money to pay his medical bills, Helm began hosting intimate concerts at the recording studio he'd built on his property in Woodstock, New York in the 1970s. Calling the shows the Midnight Rambles, they became very popular with roots music fans, and Helm and his band -- anchored by guitarist Larry Campbell and Levon's daughter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Amy Helm -- were soon featuring noted guest stars at the shows, running the gamut from Phil Lesh to Donald Fagan to Elvis Costello. The Midnight Ramble Sessions, Vol. 1 and The Midnight Ramble Sessions, Vol. 2, both released in 2006, included samples from some of the concerts. The following year saw the release of Dirt Farmer, Helm's first solo album in 25 years, a primarily acoustic effort informed by Appalachian folk, country, and blues, that showed Helm had gotten most of his voice back and was playing as well as ever. Later that year, the album won the Grammy award for Traditional Folk Album, though Helm didn't attend the ceremony, preferring to play a show at his studio. Electric Dirt, which as the title suggests featured an electric band and a more upbeat but still traditionalist tone, followed in 2009. A documentary about Helm, Ain't in It for My Health: A Film About Levon Helm, opened to rave reviews in 2010. Helm started taking his Midnight Ramble shows on the road, and Ramble at the Ryman, which captured highlights of Helm's 2008 concert at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, was released on both CD and DVD in 2011. In spring of the following year, Helm's family announced that he was in the end stages of cancer, and he died on April 19, 2012. The Midnight Ramble Sessions, Vol. 3 was released the following December. In May 2022, Anti- Records released Carry Me Home, an archival recording featuring Helm and his band joining gospel and R&B legend Mavis Staples and her group for a Midnight Ramble show in June 2011. ~ Richard Skelly & Mark Deming, Rovi

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