A dazzling, epic biography of Levon Helm--the beloved, legendary drummer and singer of the Band.
Levon is a penetrating, skillfully told tale of a music legend From Southern cotton fields to global limelight..
Cancer finally claimed his life in 2012.
Regaining his singing voice, he made his last decade a triumph, opening his barn to the Midnight Rambles and earning three Grammys.
Yet Helm found success in an acting career that included roles in Coal Miner\'s Daughter and The Right Stuff .
Tooze digs deep into what Helm saw as a devastating betrayal by his closest friend, Band guitarist Robbie Robertson--and Levon\'s career collapse, his near bankruptcy, and the loss of his voice due to throat cancer in 1997.
Author Sandra B.
Levon traces a rebellious life on the road, From being booed with Bob Dylan to the creative cauldron of Big Pink, the Woodstock Festival, world tours, The Last Waltz , and Beyond with the man Dylan called one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation.
Helm not only provided perfect in the pocket rhythm and unforgettable vocals, he was the Band\'s soul.
As a teenager, he joined the raucous Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, then helped merge a hard-driving electric sound with Bob Dylan\'s folk roots, and revolutionized American rock with the Band.
The result was rock \'n\' roll.
In the Arkansas Delta, a young Levon witnessed blues, country, and gospel hit in a head-on collision, as he put it.
Levon Helm\'s story--told here through sweeping research and interviews with close friends and fellow musicians--is the rollicking story of American popular music itself.
He sang the anthems of a generation: The Weight, Up on Cripple Creek, and Life Is a Carnival.
A dazzling, epic biography of Levon Helm--the beloved, legendary drummer and singer of the Band
