The Midnight Ramble Music Sessions, Vol. 1 (CD/DVD)
The Levon Helm Band is making more than music in Woodstock, NY nestled in the heart of the Catskill Mountains, they are orchestrating a musical carnival known as The Midnight Ramble. The idea is to recreate, inside Levon Helm Studios, the traveling shows (like F.S. WalcottOs Rabbit Foot Minstrel show) that played in the South where Levon grew up as a boy, embracing the merging musical traditions of the time; blues, gospel, country, rock and roll, bluegrass, rockabilly, soul and jazz. Levon Helm (The Band, R.C.O All-Stars) made a career on stage and screen as a singer, drummer, band leader, writer and actor. He has assembled some of the premiere musicians on the East Coast to take part in the carnival. The room is a unique studio, all wooden (no nails only wooden pegs holding the barnOs towering hemlock beams together) with locally quarried bluestone and the ambiance of a church hall. Guests include: Jonnie Johnson (Chuck Berry), Dr. John, Little Sammy Davis (Earl Hooker, Ike Turner), Jon Smith (The White Trash Horn Section, Edgar and Jonnie Winters), Jimmy Vivino (Max Weinberg Seven, Al Kooper), Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan), Mike Merritt (Max Weinberg Seven), Eric Lawrence, Steven Bernstein, Amy Helm, Glen Patscha, Fiona McBain, Byron Isaacs, Tony Leone, Sean Costello, Andrew Shober, Fred Scribner. The music is soulful and bluesy, layered with rich vocal accompaniment and slick musical arrangements, and grounded by the roots this music grew from. Volume one features the harmonica legend and blues singer Little Sammy Davis at the top of his game. Levon makes his first vocal debut in over ten years on Volume Two after successfully overcoming throat cancer, so it is a real treat for all of the fans who have missed that sweet southern voice. Digipak - OSP. Levon Helm. 2006.