Know Your Band

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s feature story on The Band in the Style section of the April 25 edition was really a critique of the new expanded box set of The Last Waltz concert from 1978. Unfortunately, its attempt at reviewing The Band’s history had some inaccuracies.

Don’t take our word for it. Take the word of a member of The Band itself.

In the first paragraph, the story called Robbie Robertson the group’s leader. Nothing could be further from the truth. Robertson may have been the smartest member, claiming all of the rights to the group’s music in their final days as a group while other members just sat on their hands. But Levon Helm, the Arkansas native and only non-Canadian in the group, was considered the leader — if there was one at all. He is the lead singer on most of the group’s songs, including “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Up On Cripple Creek” and “The Weight.”

The article was not written by a staff writer, rather Gene Hyde, curator of the John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection at Lyon College in Batesville.

Among the other inaccuracies we quickly noticed was the assertion that the group assumed the moniker The Band after the release of its first album, “Music From Big Pink.” The Band was already named The Band before the first album.

Depending on which member you believe, there are two stories how they got the name. One is that’s what they were called while playing for Bob Dylan as he went from acoustic to electric guitar. The other, from Helm’s book “This Wheel’s on Fire,” is that the townspeople in Woodstock, N.Y., referred to them as “The Band.” And The Band did not join Dylan in Woodstock. It was Dylan who came to Woodstock to write and hang out with The Band in their big pink house.

Helm is from the east Arkansas community of Turkey Scratch. He got his big break years later when Fayetteville/Huntsville rocker Ronnie Hawkins made the teenager his drummer. Hawkins put together the rest of what would eventually become The Band while in Canada.

Fayetteville lawyer Jim Rose has been a longtime friend of Helm since the two attended the fifth grade together in West Helena.

Helm, who doesn’t sing anymore due to a battle with throat cancer, will be with his new band Levon Helm and the Barnburners at Chester’s in Fayetteville on May 17.