NP - A Tribute to Levon Helm

[Joseph Tracy]

Woodstock Music and Art Festival. I was young, higher than the clouds, warm as a patch of sun, sitting out on the hill at Yasgur's farm with my arms around a gentle young woman I met that day. It was late Sunday night and the Band took the stage and you know how it is when that melancholy sweetness just draws out the sorrow and washes it away. The whole hill of people seemed to hush and huddle closer. I could feel the back porch, honky tonk, radio blasting, do wop, hot lick, crazy ass roots of american music coming through my own generation and the gap between audience and performer narrowed somehow sitting on that muddy hill. It didn't seem so far away, so separate.  Not long after that I took up the flute and began to feel more myself. 


On Apr 19, 2012, at 3:13 PM, Joe Allonby wrote:

> Got to meet him backstage at Northeastern about 18 years ago. He was a
> gracious gentleman.
> 
> 
> On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 5:43 PM,  <malignd at aol.com> wrote:
>> What a man what a singer and what a drummer.  I have a house in West
>> Saugerties and I'm picturing the entire Catskill preserve draped in black
>> bunting.
>> 
>> I was at a Ramble most recently about a year ago.  He looked frail, but he
>> played for about three hours, did most of the singing and, amidst the great
>> band he had put together, still the kicker and the focus.
>> 
>> He's like Mingus, in that, with that band, he put in place something that
>> will carry his music, his approach to music, forward.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>> To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Sent: Wed, Apr 18, 2012 11:23 am
>> Subject: NP - A Tribute to Levon Helm
>> 
>> http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/levon-helm-america-8173059