Levon Helm | Electric Dirt

Dirt Farmer Music/Vanguard
By TED DROZDOWSKI  |  June 23, 2009
3.5 3.5 Stars

090626_levon_main

Helm's 2007 Dirt Farmer won the Best Traditional Folk Album Grammy for its acoustic arrangements of songs plucked from the Delta soil of the Band drummer and singer's rural Arkansas youth. This time Helm and producer Larry Campbell (who also plays in Dylan's band) have gone electric.

They've also tapped New Orleans giant Allen Toussaint to arrange horns for versions of Randy Newman's "Kingfish" and Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free," the latter made famous by Nina Simone. The songbooks of Muddy Waters and the Staple Singers are also visited in this ramble through gospel, blues, and soul, anchored by the grace and gravity of Helm's ever-recovering cancer-scarred voice.

The organic, timeless quality of that voice — especially haunting on Helm's own tale of a farmer's struggle, "Growing Trade" — is offset by the sweetness of his daughter Amy's harmony singing, as well as by bright eddies of slide guitar and mandolin, all of it creating an appealing balance.

Related: Photos: Newport Folk Festival, part one, Levon Helm brings 'Rambles' to Solid Sound, Future of the Left | Travels With Myself and Another, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Levon Helm,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY TED DROZDOWSKI
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   TOM HAMBRIDGE | BOOM!  |  August 23, 2011
    Roots rock is the new country and ex-Bostonian Tom Hambridge is the style's current MPV.
  •   COUNTRY STRONG | SOUNDTRACK  |  January 11, 2011
    This steaming pile of songs is emblematic of the state of mainstream country music — all artifice, no heart, calculated anthems written to formula and meant, like the film itself, to do no more than capitalize on the genre's current success and rob its undiscriminating fans.
  •   MARC RIBOT | SILENT MOVIES  |  November 02, 2010
    This exceptional, eccentric guitarist has traced a slow evolution from screamer to dreamer.
  •   IN MEMORIAM: SOLOMON BURKE, 1940 — 2010  |  October 11, 2010
  •   REVIEW: RONNIE EARL AND THE BROADCASTERS | SPREAD THE LOVE  |  September 07, 2010
    Boston-based blues-guitar virtuoso Ronnie Earl seems to be considering his past on his 23rd album as a leader.

 See all articles by: TED DROZDOWSKI