For Levon Helm (1940-2012)

I've never been all that big on The Band. The very real musicianship was always balanced by a kind of Southern Comfort style which I can neither relate to nor find anything but a little creepy (listen to the above song). As I commented to Le Malon, The Band was a bit like Dave Matthews Band twenty-five years earlier - good musicianship put into the service of lazy comfort listening. The result is certainly much better than easy listening, but I can't quite call it truly world class music either.