Hola,

I´d like to share with you an album have been listening, every second day, for those who like real MUSIC, and country, this is the album of the year, Dirt Farmer, Larry Campbell is in there, old partner of Bob Dylan, delicious songs and amazing sounds.

Hope ypu like it,

Carlos
Tenerife
Spain

Is this cd live or studio?

Studio.

It's a superb roots album. Larry Campbell's guitar playing is incredible (as always), and Levon's voice is 90% back, he sounds very good, and the songs are firmly rooted in the Appalachian traditions of country and blues.

I bought it two weeks ago and I have to agree, it is a very good album.Levon is great as all the Band's members are great!

JUST LISTEN THE SONG THE MOUNTAIN AND YOU´LL BE IN HEAVEN,

MUCHAS FELICIDADES A TODOS,

CARLITOS TENERIFE
SPAIN

This is a fine album and an obvious labor of love for the participants that include Levon's daughter. It reminds me of Dave Alvin's "Public Domain" recording of a few years back. Both recording are arrangements of traditional songs and both were nominated for a Grammy in...mmm?... Traditional Blues or Folk or something like that. I believe Alvin's recording won the Grammy in whatever that catagory was. It takes you back musically when songs were stories very often about the travails of the common working man. The tenor of Levon's voice is a bit different now, but that voice was made for these songs.

Again, I shook his hand once and the memory of that always brings a smile to my face. I paid my respects and he graciously thanked me. :-)

Another thumbs up from me. Great record. Levon's always been one of my favourite singers and he's still in great form.

Good call, a wonderful album, BTW if you like "The Mountain" then go check out the Steve Earle original version... another great album :-)
john h

didn´t know was the mountain by Steve Earle, whata great song amigo, Ilike a lot the original from Steve as well,

Carlitos
Tenerife

Gracias Carlitos. The album is real popular on the local public radio station here in the Appalachian Mountains. Yesterday I heard some song about a "false hearted woman."

Thanks for giving me the push to seek out Levon Helm's album. I had forgotten about it, but I was surprised to see a generous spread on him in Entertainment Weekly a while back.

Another terrific release from 2007 is Ian Hunter's Shrunken Heads. I saw Hunter perform in L.A. around the time that the CD was released, but didn't get around to picking it up until last week. What a great album.

It's great to hear Levon's voice again. He still got what it takes. He's been drumming a lot on other's records during his downtime.
In that regard, I can especially recommend two discs that might be a bit hard to find offline.

One is called "Howlin' Hill Project". It's a band project of three friends who went to Levon's studio to record their own bluesy country rock album with Levon drumming and Band mate Garth Hudson on organ. The lead vocalist is called Doug Thomas. I tried googling him, but that quite work out. So they are comparatively unknown, but it's a great record.

The other one is a blues / blues rock disc by former Blues Brothers Band lead vocalist Larry Thurston. It's called "School For Fools". It seems like this album has originally been meant just as a songwriter's showcase, because the songs on it are all by the same guy. Besides Levon, Johnnie Johnson also plays on this disc.

I'm not sure yet how these two fare in comparison with Dirt Farmer, because I'm still getting into this disc (so I still prefer the two others by now).

Here's an honorable mention of Garth Hudson's solo work "The Sea To the North", which features a Levon Helm drum solo on one of the tunes. It's not rock, it's not country, and it's not just noodling either. Garth plays all kinds of keyboards and synths and sax on it. The pieces are rather long, except for the only solo piano instrumental on it. If a tune has vocals, they are mainly by Garth's wife, Maud.
For me, it's been a difficult album on 1st listen, but if you like an adventure, feel free to check it out.

Levon's daughter Amy is a member of the New York based
Folk...Country...Blues band Ollabelle who's self titled
album carries a cover of the Rolling Stones - I Am Waiting...





ROCKMAN