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Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer (2007)

After the break up of The Band, Levon Helm released a handful of solo albums, but this excellent disc represents his first solo disc for 25 years, and a return to his rich Southern roots. The 13 songs have a natural and organic American feel, with country blues, dirt road folk and Cajun influences sharing the playlist with a scattering of songs from more contemporary writers such as Steve Earle and Buddy & Julie Miller.Produced by master multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell and Amy Helm (Levon’s daughter and member of Ollabelle), the overall quality of the musicianship and craft is exceptional. As you’d expect the album uses traditional American instrumentation with guitar, fiddle, accordion and mandolin featuring heavily throughout in addition to Levon’s distinctive drum work.A great mixture of songs and an excellent set of musicians, but what really stands out is Levon’s delivery – these songs have roots and a sense of place, and the way he communicates this across the whole album is superb, there’s a genuine honesty throughout.The mix of traditional and contemporary songs sit together perfectly, the words, tunes and music evoke the struggles, dirt roads and open spaces of rural America, and the superb musicianship throughout all meld together to create a memorable album. Those with any interest in American music, be it traditional folk or contemporary singer/songwriters should investigate ‘Dirt Farmer’, this is a genuinely excellent disc. :~ Fish Records

Tracks:

01. False Hearted Lover Blues (Traditional) 3:29

02. Poor Old Dirt Farmer (Traditional) 3:52

03. The Mountain (Steve Earle) 3:35

04. Little Birds (Traditional) 4:41

05. The Girl Left Behind (Traditional) 3:35

06. Calvary (Byron Isaacs) 4:53

07. Anna Lee (Laurelyn Dossett) 3:42

08. Got Me a Woman (Paul Kennerley) 3:11

09. A Train Robbery (Paul Kennerley) 5:28

10. Single Girl, Married Girl (A. P. Carter) 3:18

11. Blind Child (Traditional) 3:26

12. Feelin’ Good (J. B. Lenoir) 3:31

13. Wide River To Cross (Buddy & Julie Miller) 4:52

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During the Band's original run (from 1968 to 1976), Robbie Robertson may have been the group's strongest songwriter and the idea man behind most of their best work, but Levon Helm was truly the group's heart and soul with his tough, sinewy Arkansas vocals and his indomitable, loosely tight drumming. Robertson' solo work since leaving the Band has been the product of a man whose lofty ambitions outstrip his ability to make them interesting, but Helm's music has been the greater disappointment; with the exception of 1980's American Son, most of his solo recordings have been thoroughly disposable, offering plenty of good-time boogie but none of the gravity one might hope for from the man who made "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" come to such compelling life years ago. Which is why Dirt Farmer is such a pleasant surprise; it's easily Helm's best recorded work since American Son, and an absorbing look back at his roots as the son of a farm family in the rural South. Dirt Farmer was produced by Larry Campbell, a session guitarist and member of Bob Dylan's road band, in collaboration with Amy Helm, Levon's daughter, and they've assembled a solid but clutter-free acoustic band for these sessions, and the simple but iron-strong backdrops and superb songs are just what was needed to bring out the best in Levon. Helm survived a bout with throat cancer that was diagnosed in 1998, and his voice is noticeably more weathered than it once was, but in many respects the additional nooks and crannies suit this material beautifully; his interpretations of traditional rural folk songs like "Poor Old Dirt Farmer," "Little Birds," and "False Hearted Lover Blues" sound thoroughly authentic but with a bracing sense of force and commitment in Helm's vocals, and if Steve Earle's "The Mountain" and Buddy & Julie Miller's "Wide River to Cross" aren't venerable classics, they sound like they should be once Levon's done with them. Though Helm adds a touch of boogie to "Got Me a Woman" and a jumped-up interpretation of the Carter Family's "Single Girl, Married Girl," in this context they add some welcome spice to the stew, and Helm's drumming remains superb. Dirt Farmer is a hard-edged but compassionate and full-hearted set of roots music from a master of the form, and it's a welcome, inspiring return to form for Levon Helm after a long stretch of professional and personal setbacks. :~ Mark Deming

Amazon.com

Levon Helm's early solo albums, made in the 1970s after the Band initially broke up, were hit-and-miss affairs, but his first solo studio release in 25 years represents a rich return to his Southern roots. With co-production and musical support from daughter Amy (of Ollabelle) and multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell (long a mainstay of Bob Dylan's band), Helm gives organic unity and rough-hewn vitality to a selection of Cajun fiddle waltzes, country blues, hardscrabble folk, and some more contemporary material (from the likes of Steve Earle and Buddy and Julie Miller). Following his recovery from throat cancer, Helm's voice has a slightly different timbre, but his phrasing is unmistakable as the same vocalist who sang "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Rag Mama Rag." With Amy providing harmony and duet vocals and Levon's drumming evoking his signature work with the Band, Helm takes material from a variety of sources and makes it all his own. --Don McLeese

Product Description

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Levon Helm's Dirt Farmer will be released October 30 by Vanguard Records, his first solo, studio album in 25 years. The organic feel of the sessions hark back to his work with The Band and comes on the heels of a wave of attention for his Midnight Rambles, late night concerts held at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY.

It's a major landmark on a remarkable journey for Levon Helm. "The last few years have proven to me that we truly live in an age of miracles," writes Levon in the poignant liner notes. After arduous treatments for throat cancer that took away his singing voice and a fire that consumed over eighty percent of his recording studio, Helm was amazed to find both restored.

On Dirt Farmer, Helm's pays tribute to his family, singing traditional songs that he learned growing up in rural Arkansas. He also covers songs by Steve Earle and J.B. Lenoir; full of Dobros, mandolins and acoustic guitars, the album resonates deeply, honoring Levon's roots.

Multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan, Lyle Lovett, Solomon Burke) and Levon's daughter Amy, also a member of Ollabelle, produced and shepherded the project at "The Barn," Levon Helm Studios. Levon himself plays drums, mandolin, and acoustic guitar and provides all lead vocals.

In the waning days of the previous century, Levon Helm hit a detour on the Endless Highway, and it led to 40 miles of bad road. The hard times started without warning for the legendary drummer/singer/heartbeat of The Band, solo artist, author and actor, as his beloved barn studio in Woodstock, N.Y. was ravaged by fire. They further intensified in 1998, when Helm underwent surgery for throat cancer, followed by 28 radiation treatments, which threatened to silence his one-of-a-kind voice for good. A year later, he lost his beloved bandmate Rick Danko.

Considering the heartache, pain and anxiety he went through, it’s understandable that Levon views these last few years as an “age of miracles.” Three or four years ago, he regained the use of his singing voice, and gingerly at first, he began to test it out during shows by his informal group the Barn Burners. In 2004, he launched the Midnight Ramble Sessions, which took place at the rebuilt Levon Helm Studios. The monthly concert series has featured Levon singing and playing with an ever-shifting cast of friends including the late Johnny Johnson, Hubert Sumlin, John Sebastian, Emmylou Harris, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Nick Lowe, Gillian Welch, Elvis Costello and Donald Fagen. With his confidence restored, it was only a matter of time before Levon would employ his studio for its original purpose. His vocalist/musician daughter Amy provided the initial impetus.

“Amy encouraged me to go all the way back and try to record some of the family songs from home that we always loved best,” Levon wrote in his liner notes. That simple notion led to the undertaking that now bears the name Dirt Farmer, fittingly dedicated to his parents, Nell and Diamond Helm, who taught the youngster several of the songs he revisits here. This utterly timeless, altogether mesmerizing album (Dirt Farmer Music/Vanguard Records) is Levon’s first solo studio recording in a quarter century.

The project started informally in the spring of 2005, after Amy approached multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell, a veteran of Bob Dylan’s endless tour, with the idea of recording some vocal duets with her dad. “The three of us got together,” Campbell recalls, “Levon started singing some songs that he’d learned as a kid, and it just knocked me out. At that point, the concept of doing a duets record began to evolve into something bigger. Amy and I agreed to co-produce a record with Levon playing drums and doing acoustic versions of tunes he’d learned as a kid along with tunes in a similar mode by modern songwriters. We were doing it without any goal in mind, just to record the stuff, because this was just a year after Levon had started singing again, and his voice sounded so credible and compelling—especially on this more organic, woodsy kind of stuff.”

Campbell has known Helm since the ’80s, when the young musician worked at New York’s Lone Star Caf? where The Band frequently played, sometimes joining Levon onstage. Later, while touring with Dylan, Campbell sat in with Levon’s blues band, and the musical relationship deepened after he left Dylan in 2004. The comfort level the two friends established kept the vibes laid-back and upbeat as the nascent project took shape.

Present at those early tracking sessions, which were primarily cut live off the floor, were Campbell on acoustic guitar, mandolin or fiddle; bassist Byron Isaacs of Olabelle, who formed the rhythm section with Helm; and keyboardist Brian Mitchell from Levon’s band, with Amy and Teresa Williams, Campbell’s Tennessee-born wife on harmony vocals. “I was glad it was Amy’s suggestion that Teresa sing with her, because I try to avoid nepotism,” Campbell says with a laugh. “She and Amy sing wonderfully together, and when you put their two voices with Levon’s, it’s just magical.” During overdubbing, George Receli, another member of Dylan’s road band, laid down percussion on certain tracks, and Olabelle’s Glen Patscha added some pump organ here and there.

The rustic sounds Levon and his cohorts were making melded perfectly with the material. Likewise, the traditional songs Levon had chosen—“The Girl I Left Behind,” “The Poor Old Dirt Farmer,” “Little Birds,” “Single Girl, Married Girl” and “Blind Child”—blended seamlessly with Paul Kennerley’s “A Train Robbery” and “Got Me a Woman,” Julie and Buddy Miller’s “Wide River to Cross,” Steve Earle’s “The Mountain” (with Julie and Buddy singing backing vocals), Laurelyn Dossett’s “Anna Lee” and Byron Isaacs’ “Calvary.” Naturally, the Stanley Brothers’ “False Hearted Lover” and J.B. Lenoir’s “Feelin’ Good” slid left into the pocket as well.

“We would go up to Levon’s studio sporadically, for two or three days at a time, try a bunch of songs, and if something felt good, we’d record it,” Campbell recalls. “It was just a total labor of love. It reminded me a lot of what I know of the process of how those early Band records were done—you’d just sorta hang out and have a good time playing music, and when something comes up that’s worth recording, you put it on tape. This went on for a year, and as we progressed, the stuff started sounding more and more special, like something had to be done with it. And then everything started to snowball. Steve Buckingham at Vanguard showed great interest in it, and he made us an amazing offer. That’s how we ended up there.”

To say that Levon, who has played such a major part in so many indelible records, is proud of Dirt Farmer would be a gross understatement. In his notes, he cited the key roles played by the members of the core-recording unit: “Byron Isaacs played wonderful bass parts and deserves MVP honors for rounding out the rhythm section. As an added bonus he wrote ‘Calvary’ and gave Amy and Teresa another opportunity to create a one-of-a-kind arrangement. Their choice of notes and beautiful harmonies were always perfect for these songs. Their natural blend is another gift. We tried to let the songs dictate the instrumentation and our performances.” As for Campbell and Mitchell, Levon wrote, “Their playing always set a high mark for us all to play up to, and everyone hit the mark.”

“Levon represents everything in American music that appeals to me,” says Campbell. “All genres within what is called Americana—rock ’n’ roll, blues, country, bluegrass, old-time music and soul—he can do with authority. Levon starts singing it and you believe it.”

Campbell’s assessment has been echoed in reviews of early dates on Levon’s Ramble on the Road tour. String Theory Media’s Craig Havighurst described a July performance at Nashville’s hallowed Ryman Auditorium as “one of the greatest nights of music I've ever seen… Even while singing his heart out through bright white smiling teeth, Levon simply owned the heartbeat of the songs, dragging the beat with just the perfect microsecond delay when needed, leaning over the beat when a song needed more insistence. It was simply a tour de force and no small surprise that the gangly artist I fell for watching The Last Waltz is still with us in full force at the age of 67.” iwelk.com

Related;

Ollabelle - S/T (2003)

Producer and singer on Dirt Farmer, Amy Helm is a member of folk group, Ollabelle, several members of whom feature on Dirt Farmer, and I'm posting Ollabelle simultaneously with Dirt Farmer.

Acknowledgements to Willy99 at Wild Safari Blog for the files.

Rating:
2.5 out of 5 by Book123